Steam from Oil breather?

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Anyone know any reasons there would be a decent amount of steam coming out of the oil breather hose? I already know blown head gasket, but any other reasons?

Sorry if this is a newb question

[Diablo_niterider]

we once ran our exhaust primaries too close to the onboard engine oil filter and cooler assembly on the F4i ,which lead to vapourization of oil and hence steam from the oil breather.

[moose]

if everything is "right" then no, you shouldn't see too much of anything... still wouldn't recommend capping them though. (We did one year, and well, it didn't turn out well - although possibly unrelated)

[JamesWolak]

Is it steam or oil? Are you running NA or turbo?

Any reason that you would have excessive blowby?

If its steam you coulda blown a head gasket.

If its oil it could be a number of things. We blow a little oil but thats because we get some positive crankcase pressure because of blowby from the turbo.



If i am wrong someone feel free to correct me.

[Wesley]

When we fried our clutch due to a cable misalignment keeping it half engaged, the oil was smoking considerably. As soon as we let it sit and idle for 5 minutes it was back to normal.

Really high oil temperatures can start to char the oil and smoke comes out. It looked like steam though.

[fixitmattman]

How much vapour we talking about here? A little vapour out the oil breather hose is normal. Now if you're engine is pretending to be a kettle there's obviously some issues which the normal battary of compression and leak tests will diagnose. What's your PCV system like?

[James_C]

Is the motor currently drysumped?

Once spun a main-bearing and the vapour from the breather looked like steam.

Hope you're logging oil pressure and temperature.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

I doubt we did anything like spin a bearing, if so, Honda needs to look into the toughness of their motors... I don't recall our motor ever going over 12500 RPM, or every being capable of such a thing.

I'll drain the oil today if I get a chance, see if it looks like their is water in it. Also, I'll drain the water to see if it looks like there is oil in it.

BTW this isn't this year's engine, it's last year's. Hopefully the new engine doesn't have any serious issues.

[JamesWolak]

Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:
I doubt we did anything like spin a bearing, if so, Honda needs to look into the toughness of their motors... I don't recall our motor ever going over 12500 RPM, or every being capable of such a thing.

I'll drain the oil today if I get a chance, see if it looks like their is water in it. Also, I'll drain the water to see if it looks like there is oil in it.

BTW this isn't this year's engine, it's last year's. Hopefully the new engine doesn't have any serious issues.

I would leak down and compression test it before you do anything. But that's because i hate dropping our pan and already waste oil like its water.

Also a easy way to tell if you have blown your head gasket is to take the cap off of your radiator and start the motor. If its blown you might see bubbles coming out. But this only works if you put your fill mount in the correct position. Also wont work for every blown head gasket situation. Its a quick and easy test though.

II am curious like the others though. How much oil is coming out? Steam boat or small mist? NA or turbo, dry sump or wet, is your PVC caped off or open?

[Grant Mahler]

Originally posted by JamesWolak:
I would leak down and compression test it before you do anything. But that's because i hate dropping our pan and already waste oil like its water.

Also a easy way to tell if you have blown your head gasket is to take the cap off of your radiator and start the motor. If its blown you might see bubbles coming out. But this only works if you put your fill mount in the correct position. Also wont work for every blown head gasket situation. Its a quick and easy test though.

II am curious like the others though. How much oil is coming out? Steam boat or small mist? NA or turbo, dry sump or wet, is your PVC caped off or open?

Good idea. Alternatively, if you look in the fill port and the oil is chocolate brown, you have a headgasket R&R on your to do list now.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Wet sump, just some steam as the engine heats up, not much at idle, more as you put a load on the engine. NA, I'm not sure what PVC stands for it's late and I'm tired lol.

As for wasting oil like it's water, our oil might actually be water (I sure hope not)

[Wesley]

PVC is polyvinyl chloride. Plastic.

PCV is positive crankcase ventilation - or the port from which crankcase air is drawn by engine vaccuum for recombustion in the motor to help seal piston rings, promote oil longevity, and reduce emissions. It's usually where teams put their breather tube to the catch can.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Wesley:
PVC is polyvinyl chloride. Plastic.

PCV is positive crankcase ventilation - or the port from which crankcase air is drawn by engine vaccuum for recombustion in the motor to help seal piston rings, promote oil longevity, and reduce emissions. It's usually where teams put their breather tube to the catch can.
I was gonna say... I THINK I know what PVC is but I don't think there is any on our engine haha.

So is the PCV the one coming off the of the valve cover? That's what we're using to go to the catch can.

[BryanH]

Mikey, Your engine is combining hydrogen and oxygen at a great rate, and some of the resultant H2O slips past the rings into the sump, Normally the PCV system sucks the vapor out of the crankcase into the inlet manifold before it can condense and mix with the oil.
If the valvecover is vented direct to a catch tank vapor removal does not take place, instead the h2O boils off the oil when the oil temp exceeds 100c and is seen at the catch tank vent when it condenses again in the relatively cool atmosphere.
Cheers

[UNSWTIM]

hey guys, the best way to test for a blown head gasket is to purchase a small test kit from any auto store. All you do is place the test thing in the top of the radiator with the engine running and it will test for the presence of combustion gases with a simple chemical colour change.

http://www.rxauto.com/block-test-kits.htm

[Wesley]

Yeah, it's on the valve cover of the F4i.

And even without a PCV system, you shouldn't see much water vapor. Any more than you see out the tailpipe, really. Unless you've got way more water than normal.

I would say that you probably don't have a popped head gasket unless you see steam out the tailpipe too.

It's either a lot of blow-by due to cylinder wear, or your oil is getting too hot.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Luckily this is a problem with last year's engine. F4i, still. If I grow the balls I'll take the head off one day. We have a fresh head gasket in the shop anyway. I can't imagine the engine would be too worn, it only has a few thousand miles on it, and we've probably driven it a total of 30 miles. Once you factor in the tune we had on that engine though, it could be a different story.

Let's just say we will be using an EGT sensor and a dyno this year to tune the engine.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.