heliflyer

Hi Guys,
First of all I should stress that this is not an issue with any of Dave's products - in this instance he has not even supplied any parts.

To start at the beginning - 16v euro 1986 ROW car - recent head gasket change etc. Noticed a fair amount of blueish smoke when driving, especially on the over run, so decided to fit a sharkvent system to see if that helped.
Rather than wait three weeks plus for shipping from the States I sourced a Provent 200 from a UK supplier and fitted it today exactly as per the diagrams on Dave's site with one exception:-
Mann Hummel are out of stock of the non return valve and can't supply for another month, so instead of installing the drain line to the sump I have left that part out for the moment, simply blocking off the drain on the bottom of the provent. I figured I will fit the drain line later when the valve is sent to me, and in the meantime have the provent act as a catch can and drain it periodically.

Drove the car home (about 8 miles) and on shutting the car off was presented by a big cloud of smoke from under the hood and a strong smell of burning oil. On opening the hood, the entire engine bay is covered in oil (approx 2 litres).
It seems that enough oil has made it to the provent to fill it and it has then been ejected out of the port that is fitted with the small air filter.
Alarmingly, this also suggests that without the provent fitted, a huge amount of oil would be sent through the intake system and I cant see that being the case.

My question is - In Dave's planned set up - when in operation, is there a flow of a large quantity of oil through the provent that would normally be directed back to the sump? My understanding was that there should only be vapours and that over time these would condense and the drain line would return this small quantity of oil to the sump.
Could bad rings be allowing the crankcase to become hugely overpressurised and forcing oil up through the filler neck and hence to the Provent?

Oil level on the dipstick at the start was about 3mm below the top mark on the dipstick, it is now just showing on the very tip of the stick.

All thoughts gladly accepted.

Thanks
Jay

Bill Ball

Did the blue smoke problems start after the head gasket work?

No, there should not be a big oil flow in the breather system, pro-vent or not.

heliflyer

No - it has been a little smokey on hard acceleration for a while, but nothing too drastic. Even on the drive that threw all the oil out there was no real sign of smoke whilst driving other than a faint burst on acceleration or over run.
Thanks

heliflyer

Done - I only used the "sharkvent" in the title because I plumbed it in, in the same way that Dave shows on his site. Other than the fact that the individual items were not supplied by Dave, it is in all respects identical.
Again - I would like to stress that this is not an issue with any of Daves products or ideas - I'm just trying to find out why all this oil was ejected. Had I purchased and fitted a kit from Dave I would have had exactly the same issue and would be asking exactly the same questions.
So.... other than changing the title, do you have any helpful suggestions Gio???

ptuomov

This is funny, asking DR for support after copying his system from his web site and not paying him a dime. I love it! Do you also ask Microsoft for support on your pirated Office copy? ;-)

Giovanni

No Jay, I have no other suggestion. Hopefully I will get to install DR's product in the new future, I am sure my SC will benefit of it.

soontobered84

Jay,
I don't know Provent from Sharkvent but it sounds as if your crankcase is either being pressurized or you have a vacuum line hooked up that is enabling oil to be sucked out of the crankcase. (or both)
I would check my interpretation of the plumbing diagram carefully just to make sure that I didn't get crazy with a vacuum line.

DR

Jay,

Can you post some pics of how you have it installed?

For the record I don't have a problem with individual DIY 928ers "copying" my designs. If I did I would never go to all the trouble of doing all the detailed product layouts, hose layout charts, and such and posting those on my website...... of course other vendors copying my stuff and profiting from it is a whole nuther subject unrelated to this thread.

UncleMaz

What a nice response

ptuomov

It's not the copying, it's the first copying and then asking for support that I found very amusing.

GlenL

Agreed.

You've got a big problem somewhere. Let's hope it's in the plumbing, but the conditions before you installed it aren't encouraging. You had a lot of smoke in street driving?

DR

Thats better than buying it somewhere else and then asking for support. That happens all the time, but my first priority has always been to help other 928s, no matter if the tech help involves products that are copied or purchased elsewhere but, I do reserve the right to rib them about it :-)

Funny story, last week I was giving some free tech help to someone installing a certain Twin Turbo system HA, HA!!!

ptuomov

Well, my next 928 part order will come your way then! ;-)

I actually did some work figuring out which way I want the crankcase vacuum (pressure in the case of 928) lines run on the turbo system. This will be implemented by the time the low compression engine goes in. First, I want to be basically in the ball park emission legal in spirit, which means no venting to atmosphere and instead to the intake. Second, with the turbos, there's no reliable static vacuum source, which causes special needs. Third, at high load all four cam cover ports should relieve pressure, while at low load some of them should air circulation thru the crankcase. In a couple of months we'll see whether it works as intended. I've run these ideas by some people and the voice of experience has been "too complciated, KISS." I'll post the results here, whether the system works or fails.

Tony

^^^^ the blue cam covers looks great BTW! I like it...unusual!

ptuomov

Must at this point be Jim Morton's signature color scheme, I think.