Chrysler: 1994 Plymouth Acclaim oil leak?

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 nospam.com wrote:
 

You need to service the *entire* crankcase ventillation system on your
Acclaim. The hose you mention is one of several that tend to "cook" over
the years.

Here's your PCV system:

PCV inlet air filter-->fitting on underside of driver's side of air
cleaner housing-->rubber hose--> -->fitting on driver's side rear of
camshaft cover--> Fitting on center rear of camshaft cover-->Rubber
elbow-->PCV valve-->Rubber hose--> -->Intake manifold (throttle body
base).

Access to the PCV air filter requires easy disassembly of the air cleaner
housing. Remove the entire housing from the engine, taking care not to
tear the flexible hot air stovepipe that attaches to the driver's-side
underside of the housing and taking note of the thermostatic damper motor
vacuum supply tube that must be carefully disconnected from the
passenger-side underside of the housing.

Turn the housing upside down. Using a Torx T10 driver, remove the screws
that hold the plastic lower housing onto the metal upper housing. Grasp
the plastic lower housing and pull it away from the metal upper housing.

Inside the plastic housing, you will find a small rectangular box, open at
the top, with metal mesh and/or fibre batting visible inside. It will
probably be extremely crusty and gunky. Remove the metal mesh (if it has
not already disappeared), and remove the fibre batting. This fibre
batting is what gets replaced. It is available at any parts store ("PCV
inlet air filter"). The metal mesh gets cleaned or discarded -- I usually
discard them.

While the air cleaner is off, you can inspect all the rubber parts that
tend to cook with age. These include:

(A)The hose between the fitting at the driver's side rear of the camshaft
cover and the plastic lower housing of the air cleaner. If a new one is
needed. do not attempt to substitute plain old hose - get the proper part
from the dealer. It is formed.

(B)The 90-degree elbow that connects the fitting in the middle of the rear
of the camshaft cover to the pintle end of the PCV valve. This too is a
dealer item.

(C)The *HOSES* (plural) that reside between the camshaft cover and the
throttle body. One of these connects to the PCV valve at one end and the
throttle body/intake at the other.

You will almost certainly find some or all of these rubber components
hardened, cracked, soggy and/or split. Buy new (A) and (B) from the
dealer; it's just easier. Make new (C) from fuel line or emissions hose of
the correct diameter, and plastic fittings as needed, from your friendly
local auto parts jobber.

While you are at the dealer picking up your new (A) and (B) hoses and a
nice new factory PCV inlet air filter, pick up a new PCV valve, too. But
don't make it the one the book calls for. Make it a 3671076 instead. This
is the slightly larger-flowrate PCV valve used on all engines larger than
the 2.5. When my own '92 version of your car began to get on in miles, the
small-bore PCV valve no longer kept up with the gas flow in the crankcase.
Even though the engine ran very well and had excellent compression, I was
losing oil due to insufficient crankcase ventillation. A change to the
larger valve restored the efficacy of the PCV system and caused no other
problems -- the AIS motor simply dials down a tetch more at idle to
compensate for the extra air coming through the larger PCV valve and
everything remains happy.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly -- I make it a rule to replace
the engine air filter every time the air cleaner is opened on my 2.5
nonturbo cars -- the air filter is too small for the application and it
clogs quickly.

Also make sure that there's been no service to your camshaft cover that
would have involved somebody leaving out the oil curtain. If you can
remove the oil filler cap and see the camshaft turning -- there's a
missing piece!

DS

Daniel is right on the money. One more thing you might want to do is
replace the valve cover gaskets. With time and especially with a
clogged up pcv system, the gaskets leak BAD. Easy to do.
GOOD LUCK to you.



"Daniel J. Stern" <umich> wrote in message news:<engin.umich.edu>...