Valve Cover Filter & oil spewage

I have had a breather filter on the valve cover for some time now, but today I was driving and nearing redline in 4th at full boost, when all of a sudden I noticed in my mirror smoke was bellowing from out below the car.....and also coming in the air vents. I pulled over and took a looksey, and as soon as I stopped, smoke came bellowing out from under the hood. When I popped the hood there was oil all over the top of the valve cover, underside of hood, and all down the exhaust mani, and also the breather filter was saturated with oil as well. Has anyone had this problem? I've never had this problem......only thing I have done different was changed my oil yesterday with 5w30. Could this be what caused it? Too thin of an oil? I've never used 5w30 in this car...I usually use 10w30, but the shop was out, so since the owners manual says you can use 5w30 I said why not. I'm glad I have the filter vs it being plumbed back into the intake track!!
Any ideas??? I may have to invest in a catch can if this keeps up.

I had a breather on my neon at one point in time but that never happened and it was on there for about 40,000 miles. That really sucks, your engine compartment was so nice and pretty too. :cry:

Our big box van does that anything over 65-70 on the highway, but that's blowby pushing oil out of the breather. I sure hope yours isn't blowing by that bad, it's a brand new motor, isn't it?

I would check to see if it's the oil or maybe even too much oil

Yeah, that's true, too much oil will do it.

I can't see the oil being too thin as a problem, cause once it's up to temperature, 5W-30 and 10W-30 are the same consistency, 5W is just thinner when it's cold...

Yeah.....I wouldn't think the 5w30 would do this....but like I said...I've never used it before. I put a 1 gal container (4qrts) in, so I know it doesn't have too much in there, and the level on the dipstick is where it should be. It is a new motor, and it concerns me a little. Any other ideas?
Well, the engine should be cool by now....off to simple green it!!!!

I would worry about that as well. It would take an awful lot of blow by to make that happen.

Just a word to the wise, if you see smoke, don't open your hood if you don't have to. If there was a real fire under there, you could have seriously burned yourself, as opening the hood gives the fire a sudden rush of air and a place to expand to. I always carry a fire extinguisher in my vehicles, just in case.

^^^ Good advice. I hope it's not blow-by that would really suck

I would worry about that as well. It would take an awful lot of blow by to make that happen.

Just a word to the wise, if you see smoke, don't open your hood if you don't have to. If there was a real fire under there, you could have seriously burned yourself, as opening the hood gives the fire a sudden rush of air and a place to expand to. I always carry a fire extinguisher in my vehicles, just in case.
Thanks for the advice......if it smelled like something on fire, trust me I wouldn't of opened it.....but since it smelled like hot oil, I figured I was pretty safe.
Anyway....got it all cleaned up, top to bottom.... there was even oil dripping off of the tranny, and under carige from it blowing back as I was driving.
I took it for about a 5 mile drive, got it home and it was still perfectly clean......so I'm stumped, but it was definetly coming from the breather filter since thats the highest point on the motor, and it was saturated, and the top of the valve cover had oil on it too.
Also..at idle air is puffing out from the nipple where the breather filter sits, and when I gas it at the tb, it sucks in or doesn't blow..........so I don't know how or why oil would of shot out like that.
Any ideas????

Lets see... Does the breather have some kind of baffle behind it? It could have just been turning fast enough that oil was slinging out of the valve cover past the breather. I don't have mine handy to look at right now, but that's definetly something to consider.

Hmm ... my car has a breather, and it never did that. The only two things that have soaked my engine in oil were kind of my fault.

I forgot to torque down my valvecover screws (which I should replace anyway), and when the turbo blew.

The clutch fan just slings the oil up, no matter where it's coming from.

Lets see... Does the breather have some kind of baffle behind it?
The valve cover itself has a baffle inside.

you could solve this with a catch can, but you should figure out the problem before you cure the symptoms.... just an idea...

Yeah....the valve cover has a baffle in it. I've had the breather filter on there for some time now, and it's never spewed oil before. I don't have the clutch fan anymore so if it was leaking from somewhere lower it wouldn't of blown upward and over the top of the motor from down below. So I'm stumped.....only thing I can think of is the thinner 5w30 oil in conjunction with the high rpms. Thats the only thing new I've done since it happened. I don't know where else to begin looking :dontknow: Since I cleaned it up, it hasn't done it again, so that leads me to believe it's not something leaking, and it did come from the breather filter.....but then again I haven't taken the rpms up again since it happened. I'll get the rpms up again and see if it does do it again......if it does, I'll drain and refill with 10w30 and see if it does it. All I know it never did do it before I changed the oil to the 5w30.

Looks like it might of been the thinner oil........I drained it and refilled it with 10w30 a few days ago, and so far it hasn't done it again

How many miles are on the motor? Maybe the rings just haven't seated all the way yet. It should be able to run on 5W-30, but hey, if that's all it took, then that's cool!

I got about 1700 miles on it now. I would think everything would be seated properly by now....but maybe not?? That was the first 5w30 I've ever put in it....old motor or new. I think i'll just stick with the 10w30 for a while until I apply more boost then i'll use 10w40
Hopefully it wont spew again......what a mess!!

Yeah i sort ahave that problem but i use 20 50 oil and i have about 2500mil on ym motor but another prob i have is smoke comming out of the valve breather. Sorry to interup the thread but anybody have any ideas

That 20w50 is probably a little too thick for a new motor. I would try 10w30 or 10w40 and see if that gets rid of the smoke.....other than that I don't know