blown engine oil cap

[tealindy]

86 toyota tercel 4wd wagon
We just changed the oil and filter, everything seemed fine but on the way home from work my hubby said he thought he noticed an oil smell and oil seemed to be going everywhere. (If I had been in the car we would have stopped immediatly but he is the "well, its still running" type so he drove on home). Oil WAS everywhere and we are supposed to take an 800 mile trip in this car in 6 days!!. How bad can this be and what is the best course of action to take? We dont know why the cap came off, maybe it just wasnt put on tight enough?
One question I have is when I opened the airfilter there was oil in it too and a rubber ring was just laying in the bottom of the pan under the filter. Is that ring supposed to be there? I have another one of these cars and it doesnt have this rubber ring under the air-filter.
Any information is appreciated, now I am even more nervous about taking this car on our trip.

[rer233]

How low was the engine oil level when you checked it after it puked the oil out?

[Petros]

how many miles is on the engine? how was the oil conumption?

the ring in the airfilter is normal, it is a rubber gasket that helps seal the airfilter to the the housing (some older brands of airfilters had a metal rather than rubber rim, so the rubber gasket would make sure a good seal is made).

First replace the PVC valve, it goes in the top of the valve cover and has a hose that goes to the air filter assembly. these sometimes get gummed up and will cause a pressure to build up in the crank case, blowing oil out the inlet into the airfilter through the other hose that goes from the valve cover to the airfilter assembly. It is a standard part and all auto parts stores sells them.

You might also replace the large o-ring in the oil filler cap, and make sure it is installed tight. If for some reason the filler cap will not tighten properly you might consider putting some non-hardening Permatex form-a-gasket on it to seal it well (also aviable at an auto parts store).

That should solve the problem of oil in the airfilter. However I recently had a major internal problem where the rings on the piston failed and caused a lot of compression to bleed into the crank case and blow oil into the airfilter though the vent hose. This is a rare occurrence, but my engine was really beat. The test to verify this is to do a compression test, if one or more of the cylinders has below about 100 psi compression, it means the engine needs a major overhaul and there will be no stopping the oil from blowing into airfilter with out a rebuild and rering of the pistons.

Hopefully you just have plugged up PVC valve (that stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation, if it does not ventilate properly, it will blow oil mist out any way it can). And changing the valve will fix the problem.

[tealindy]

It lost between 1 & 2 qts oil.

[tealindy]

Thank you Petros, I will make sure my hubby reads your info. This little car has 250K + miles and has been a daily driver (70 to 80 miles per day) lately.
I hope we can get it cleaned up and ready for our trip soon.

[rer233]

It lost between 1 & 2 qts oil.

1-2 qts low should not have done any engine damage- just make a hell of a mess. Can't believe the filler cap "blew off"-my guess is it was not properly tightened down (if it was installed at all-i've seen 'em left laying on the valve cover after adding oil.)

Good luck!

[marlinh]

I agree, the style of oil caps on our cars would never blow off. Too many threads.

[dlb]

ditto, the oil cap was probably not screwed all the way on. sounds like you didn't lose enough oil to damage anything.

PCV valves are easy to test. pull yours out and blow through it. air should go through easily from the engine side to the carb side, and with difficulty the other direction. that's it. if it fails, replace it.

if you are getting that much blow by (aka oil in the air filter), you might try adding 1/3 of a can of seafoam to the oil, running it for a tank of gas, and then changing the oil again. repeat as necessary. it breaks down carbon deposits on the rings that cause blow by and burning. my wife's car burned oil like nobody's business when we got it. i did a seafoam treatment and the consumption went way down, and no more blue clouds behind the car. still not satisfied with the consumption, i did it again a month ago. the consumption improved even further.

of course, if the rings are shot, seafoam won't help. a compression test would help tell you their condition.

[tealindy]

Hubby said he thinks our son either forgot to put the cap on or just did not tighten it and we have to drive over lots of rough back roads daily.
The airfilter was clean a few days ago so i guess when the oil started flying out it got sucked up in the airfilter too. I guess we will get a new one.
He is going to drive it tomorrow and see how it goes.

[xirdneh]

i have messed with these tercels since 1988
i have forgotton to put the oil cap on at least twice
my tercel friend did it last month

[old blue jeans]

I just did this last night. I made it from Nashville to Louisville before a hesitation in the engine caused me to pull over. Oil was everywhere. Mostly in the air filter. I jammed a big hunk of cork in the hole and I'm in Ohio with it today. I'm guessing I've probably gummed up a sensor or few. It looks like there is a sensor inside the air filter housing that I need to look at (not sure what it is), as well as the PCV. I'll change the oil, oil filter, spark plugs, and the air filter, in addition to the sensors/valves. A good sea foam treatment in the carb, and back on the road. It seems like I just made a mess, and although I probably lost 2 quarts of oil the engine never overheated or failed. I did have some trouble getting up hills, but otherwise, I'm happy I didn't get stuck last night because of my mistake. I know that if I had done this in my Astro van, I would have been stranded for sure. I'm cautiously optimistic for both of our cars.