DIY Solution to M54-M52TU CCV problems

[Blackjetvette97]

Nope, engine didn't lock up while driving. After first noticing smoke, prob 30 seconds before it was parked and shut down. Addition of oil after checking level, 2nd start-up/drive to shady spot was about 20 seconds and it was still running ok, other than smoking sumthin fierce! That's all that it's been run. I don't see liquid in cylinders(other than on plugs a bit), just oily kind of goo. Should I disable the fuel before cranking engine? Could a CCV failure cause this by sucking oil into cylinders? That's what I'm ascertaining from all the CCV reading I've done. Thanks for your help!


Steve

[puddinboo]

The ccv would cause this issue. Do you change the ccv every 2 yrs? Do you live in a cold climate? You can leave the fuel hooked up, I did and no issues.

[Overboost]

The CCV failures are almost always when the car sits out for a night in sub freezing temperatures and the mayo collected in the CCV freezes. How cold was it in Vegas that night and how long had your daughter been driving. If more than 1/2 hour, I doubt the CCV froze.

[Blackjetvette97]

I live in a burb of Vegas(Henderson-kinda up in hills), so don't know if we're considered a "cold climate" or not. My X DOES have the CC package on it, although most of foam sleeves have LONG rotted and broke away(finished off the sliver left on the rigid 3/8"(?) connector tube on distribution when I disassembled that). The foam on oil drain line was still in good shape, from the little I dealt with when under the car, removing it/fitting cap/fitting it back over cap. The other CCV lines have what seems to be a neoprene-type sleeving over the plastic hoses down through top to sep(what do we do with those cut lines on this mod, just leave them be, open??). It does get below freezing at my house(I park X outside/no room in 2-car garage), but not very far below or for extended periods of time in winter. LOL on the 2 year replace schedule(see my orig comment!) Oil sep "Might" have been replaced since I've owned(Dec '03) the vehicle(would have to go through my paperwork and check though, but don't remember it and I've never done it MYSELF). Can I put a towel lightly over ALL the cylinders to try to "catch" the flying out oil(and maybe some cardboard under that side(in engine bay) to catch too? How much should I crank engine? Like off and on or leaving it cranking for a minute or.....??? Lastly, is there anything I can run through engine to clean all the oil gunk out that's infiltrated the cylinders before I put in new plugs?

Thanks
Steve

[Blackjetvette97]

Originally Posted by Overboost

The CCV failures are almost always when the car sits out for a night in sub freezing temperatures and the mayo collected in the CCV freezes. How cold was it in Vegas that night and how long had your daughter been driving. If more than 1/2 hour, I doubt the CCV froze.

Thanks for reply, Overboost. It was about 95F chilly outside last week when we took it out for drive
It was prob 70F-ish for the overnight low that car was in that previous night, so there was ZERO chance of freezing. We were prob driving it for about 30-45 mins by the time it triggered the smoking at turn signal into mall. If CCV fails mid-drive, can this situation still occur with oil getting sucked up? I'm guessing that as we slowed down to come to full stop at turn, that's the exact moment that something went wrong and smoke began. We were waiting for 2 bike riders to see if they were gonna cross street(on red) or wait for us(our right-of-way). I saw their reaction of looking at back of our car and looked back to see smoke. Puled in and parked quickly.

Steve

[Blackjetvette97]

Originally Posted by puddinboo

take the 6th spark plug out, crank the engine with no spark plugs. And let the oil fly out of the cylinders ,the oil will go everywhere ,but you need the oil out of there. Your engine can hydro lock with just a teaspoon of oil and can do catastrophic damage to your engine.
( did your engine lock up while driving?)

Took last plug out, covered spark plug wells with paper towel, cranked it for a few secs twice, and only got very few specks of oil thrown out. Looks like there's a bunch of semi-dried oil gunk in there, maybe from X sitting idle for a week or so. Is there anything I can spray in there to dissolve that gunk out a bit before putting it back together to test?? Or should I even try to clean that gunk in wells at all? Will engine running(if it can and does) purge that junk as it goes?
I've cleaned all plugs really well, so I'm gonna reinstall those for the test run....They're all in good shape still(only about 25K miles on 'em).

Thanks for any help!

Steve

[Fifty150hs]

Just did this mod on M54. I added a catch can just to be sure. I'm confused now. The people doing this mod report no oil consumption. I put about 100 miles on after doing the mod and I've already got about a teaspoon of oil in the catch can. If this mod stops oil usage, why am I seeing oil in the catch can?

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by Fifty150hs

Just did this mod on M54. I added a catch can just to be sure. I'm confused now. The people doing this mod report no oil consumption. I put about 100 miles on after doing the mod and I've already got about a teaspoon of oil in the catch can. If this mod stops oil usage, why am I seeing oil in the catch can?

200+ miles on this mod and I continue to use oil. I'm going to keep evaluating this mod through my next oil change in about 2000 miles. We'll see what happens. So far, it doesn't look like this mod does anything but increase crankcase vacuum.

[80stech]

There is a ton of misinformation and misunderstanding in this thread. How do you have the catch can plumbed in? If you have stuck rings then increasing crankcase vacuum isn't going to help as much as it should with the oil burning. Maybe starting a new thread would be a good idea as this one is getting really bogged down and hard to follow.

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by 80stech

There is a ton of misinformation and misunderstanding in this thread. How do you have the catch can plumbed in? If you have stuck rings then increasing crankcase vacuum isn't going to help as much as it should with the oil burning. Maybe starting a new thread would be a good idea as this one is getting really bogged down and hard to follow.

Catch can is plumbed in between the PVC valve and the rear vacuum line that feeds into the intake manifold. It essentially routes the line that the originator of this mod ran directly to the rear vacuum port through a catch can rather than directly into the rear vacuum port on the intake.

I have considered stuck rings. Not sure there's a way to unstick them if they are other than pulling the pistons and installing new rings and I'm NOT going to do that to prevent the loss of 1 quart of oil every 1500 miles (average) or so.