my tailgate area has a nice film of oil on it!

So the first REAL road test of the Radio Flyer was this afternoon on a 300 mile milk run to Jax, FL
Question: WOULD A CORK IN THE PCV HOLE CREATE ENOUGH POSITIVE PRESSURE TO CAUSE A LEAK UNDER LOAD?

Up until now I only had put about 250 miles total in the last two weeks and aside from about 75 miles of highway it was low speed(tailgate dry).

Now two days ago I bought some engine cleaner/shine and sprayed the engine.
I put a cork in the passenger bank so no cleaner would go in the hole (PCV missing on that side).
I forgot to take it out until I got to JAX tonight.
The only other thing, was I bought the wrong oil 5W 20 which I mixed with 5W30 to get two batches of 5W 25???? (had to change oil in two cars). So the oil is a little thinner.

During the drive I would smell burning oil, but it was a light smell and only a whiff (figured it was getting pulled in from the back of the car).

When I got here, I popped the hood and sure enough a light film of clean oil (fresh changed on Wed this week) was on top of the pass valve cover and in that area. Not much a but enough to see. Drivers side had a little but not as much.

On the tail gate there are little droplets attached to the glass and gate (have to wipe it down in the AM).

The underside of the car is wet a expected, but no jack to get under there to see if it's the rear seal.

I pulled the dipstick and it still shows full, so it's only a few ounces at best.
I bought a couple of quarts and will monitor (what else can I do)....

Mostly curious about if the cork had anything to do with it.

Sprocket wrote:

Mostly curious about if the cork had anything to do with it.

Yes,.

Nick

Nick is correct and hopefully you caught it before you damaged any seals.Just clean everything good and keep a
eye on everything for any more oil.The mixed oil weights shouldnt matter but the rear main seal is very sensitive
to any kind of excess crankcase pressures and thats probably where all the oil underneath and the tailgate came
from.Stop and go driving wont show any problems as quickly as constant 70 to 80mph speeds will due to the
constant higher oil pressures.
Best Of Luck
Jim aka Flasheroo

thanks guys. Figured I screwed up.... Hopefully it'll be okay.
I had a ford van that the rear seal started leaking and the back and the back of the van was REALLY wet, so I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't damage that seal due to the huge PITA factor to correct.

From how it looks under the hood there was some oil on top of the rear half of the valve covers and on the pass side some blew out from under the valve cover seals.

If the 5W-20 is synthetic, some older engine gaskets don't swell and seal as well as they would with conventional petrolium oil. That may have somthing to do with it as well, but as Nick and Flash said, cork in the PVC is the biggest problem.

Mike

Well I drove 600 miles today with not a drop of oil leaking, so for the record, a wine cork in the valve cover is not so good.

Sprocket wrote:

Well I drove 600 miles today with not a drop of oil leaking, so for the record, a wine cork in the valve cover is not so good.

use the cork for extending your driving time without stops,.

Nick

phantom 309 wrote:

Sprocket wrote:

Well I drove 600 miles today with not a drop of oil leaking, so for the record, a wine cork in the valve cover is not so good.

use the cork for extending your driving time without stops,.

Nick

That should give him at least another 100 miles, don't think I would want to extend it too much more than that or he'll have more than an oily film on the tailgate.