engine and drivetrain A lot of gook buildup on my engine...

[ACHTUNG]

I bought this car a year ago and I notice I get a lot of oil that builds up on the driver's side underneath the air cleaner and in that driver's side area in general. Can't tell if it's oil or fuel, I'm thinking oil. Is this as easy as a gasket replacement? what is the pecking order of diagnosing this? where do I start?

[Rob7502]

Is there a hose that comes off of the valve cover gasket? This is your crank case breather and usualy is run into the air filter housing. If it is not there or is just floating around it will spray a fine mist of oil especialy in a high milage motor,

[Zenon]

I have found that even if the breather hose is routed into the usual pancake-style K&N-like filter you find on a weber, you will still get the fine oily film on everything.

I think it is because the filter is too small and open to contain all of the blow by and perhaps intake reversion pulses make it worse. The stock frying pan air cleaner solves this.

I know that since I converted to my EFI setup with a long tube between the point where the breather connects and the cone-style air filter itself, the engine stays much cleaner as does the filter itself.

One possible solution with the small filter is to use an intermediate catch can so most of the water and oil will settle out while the vapours still get sucked into the motor.

regards,

Zenon