Best blowby remedy

[happykid55]

Hi all,
I'm getting a fair bit of oil coming around from the oil filler cap (sometimes spraying into the engine bay) after a trip or hardwork in my 200 tdi, presumably from blowby.
I know she is probably pretty tired after the 370 000kms and is likely to be eventually due for rings or a re-build.

But in the short term, Ive tried cleaning out the cyclone breather but that hasn't adressed the issue. I have read good things on here about the provent breather, but I've also come across this little guy AlliSport Defender 200 or 300 Tdi Oil Breather Tank | eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AlliSport-Defender-200-or-300-Tdi-Oil-Breather-Tank-/250882708064). Which would be best in my situation or am I chasing a lost cause?
Cheers for the help.

[flagg]

I would recommend the ProVent over the Alisport tank based upon the fact that Mann+Hammel are one of the worlds largest and leading filtration companies - they have nearly 15,000 employees!

Also the ProVent has a filter, whereas the Alisport tank just has a baffle.. so the oil going back into the engine wouldn't be as clean, and you are more likely to have oil clogging up your intercooler (or worse, making it into the engine intake and causing a run away) The ProVent also has safety valves etc and a check valve (when installed) will stop the intake sucking oil through the filter into the intake manifold (again, run away!). The Alisport doesn't doesn't seem to have that (I would definitely install one).

That said, make sure you install the ProVent high up in your engine bay, and use the check value if your oil drain is below the oil level in your block or you could suck oil up into your intake (as I think happened to Dougal, I'm sure he will chime in - (he isn't a fan of the ProVent for that reason ;)))

[steveG]

Haven't used it myself, but have read on here of others having good results with FTC Decarboniser from CEM (Cost Effective Maintenance)

For the $100 or so cost I'd be giving it a try if it were my vehicle.

Steve

[isuzurover]

I would recommend the ProVent over the Alisport tank based upon the fact that Mann+Hammel are one of the worlds largest and leading filtration companies - they have nearly 15,000 employees!

Also the ProVent has a filter, whereas the Alisport tank just has a baffle.. ...

Good points.

However fitting a Provent to a sick engine won't help much if it is already breathing heavily enough to blow out the filler cap.

The first step is to clean the existing breather to make sure it isn't blocked. Or even temporarily remove it to see how heavily the engine is breathing.

De-sludging the engine is an option, but beware as in some cases it can do more harm than good...

[steane]

Sure it's not just a leaking oil filler cap? Used to happen with mine, fan would blow the oil around as well. A new cap fixed it.

[Red90]

I would suspect a head gasket failure myself. They tend to leak from #4 into the pushrod gallery. I've never seen one with ring blowby.

Is the stock PCV system sucking?

[roverrescue]

I've never seen one with ring blowby. teeheehee

After running a dusted 300tdi for some 30,oookm or so I think I have some insight.
This engine had polished bores with a lip at the top of the pot that measured in at over a mm in places.
Im not sure that old block is reclaimable now considering 40thou OS pistons is as big as you go get and my engine guy felt boring out the block that far was a risky move. I guess if I ever get the urge it would be a good candidate for 40thou pistons. If the boring went bad have only lost cost of engine work.

Anyways, while it was slowly dying I did install a provent with the filter in and managed to bugger up Bens data set as it was spewing so much oil... the next thing was the over pressure relief on the provent would open. So for the last 10,000 or so I just ran the provent with no element in the can. This managed to keep oil consumption down to lets just say I never bothered dropping the sump... it would chew 10L of oil in a normal drain interval.

But, as mentioned above if it has suddenly started chuffing it could well be a HG into the pushrod gallery - this is not uncommon.
But if it is true blow by from the rings you are really only doing things to control oil spillage and make sure you keep the oil up to it until you can rebuild the block.

Steve

[happykid55]

I'm not sure if it has just stated or I have just started noticing it..
But it definitely doesn't happen all the time, just after a bit of a flogging.

[Red90]

I assume you would need to have horrible to no maintenance to wear the bores. The ones I've opened have no measurable bore wear. I also assume that anyone on here does reasonable maintenance....

[uninformed]

meh, could be the enviroment?

[roverrescue]

"dusted 300tdi "
In my case the engine in question was ex NSW forestries then ex farmer Joe
When I changed the air filter out it kinda sorta had an extra large breathing hole... even biogger than a K&N ;)

So in that case yeah maintenance

S

[Dougal]

That said, make sure you install the ProVent high up in your engine bay, and use the check value if your oil drain is below the oil level in your block or you could suck oil up into your intake (as I think happened to Dougal, I'm sure he will chime in - (he isn't a fan of the ProVent for that reason ;)))

Yep. 8 litres of oil in 1500km was sucked out of the sump, fed to the engine and burnt. It came through in big enough quantities that the engine ran on oil numerous times and blew the 4BD1T head gasket. I think it has also stretched ring-lands and created an oil burning problem which I didn't have prior.

My biggest problem with the provent is the design flow is in the wrong direction. Clean air out must head through oil dripping from the filter before it can leave the housing. Instead of just filtering the droplets from the clean air, all oil returned to the engine must pass the filter.
The outlet is the lowest of the two connections, which means even more oil goes out the outlet and if oil is sucked up or the drain blocked that oil will head out to your intake in gulps.
The outlet chamber is a type that can fill with oil and not drain back into the housing. The only exit for this oil is out through your engine intake.

I have reversed the flow of mine and removed the internal valve to stop it sucking up oil. This also means only clean air to the intake is filtered. The vast majority of the blowby oil is seperated by the vortex and never gets to the filter. Greatly reducing it's load.
This places the outlet on the top connection, where it makes the most sense and cannot fill with oil. The inlet is now the lower connection where the chamber filling with oil is not a problem.

The results are now excellent. But functionally it is now nothing like the device I purchased and the layout doesn't fit nicely in my engine bay either. Long term it'll be scrapped and I'll make another seperator of my previous design but bigger.

Alternative products from other filter companies include the Envirogaurd from Fleetguard-Cummins and the Donaldson Spiracle.
It's worth nothing that both these products have the outlet high.