I have oil in my pcv valve. I spray throttle body cleaner in the valve every week. I have noticed that I will drive the car to work with no problems then on the way home the car will studder and not idle properly if I come to a stop. I then spray throttle body cleaner in the throttle body and this seems to clear up the idling problem. Can I reduce the oil in the pcv valve? Is there a trap I could rig to collect the oil before it clogs the pcv valve?
Your are likely building up excessive pressure in the crankcase, likely due to combustion blowby casued by poorly sealing piston rings. How old is the car and how many miles on it? How often do you change oil?
The PCV vents the crankcase, which is normally full of oil mist, vapor and blow-by. Oil in the PVC system is normal. The valve is located to avoid as much oil mist as possible…As engines age, blow-by increases and the PCV must work harder…
Some Saturns don’t have PCV. What year and model is yours? Are you sure what you’re shooting with cleaner is a PCV valve.
I have a 95 saturn sl and the valve is in a grommet in the cam cover leading to the intake manifold after the throttle body.
I have a 95 saturn sl. 188,000 miles on it. Try to change the oil every 3,000. I have to add oil every two weeks. Can I put in thicker oil like 10W40 or a thickener? Will this reduce blowby? Any gas addidives that would free up piston rings? Any oil additive that would free up piston rings?
Your engine peformance problems appear to be related to excessive blowby that is caused by worn piston rings and/or cylinder walls. The blowby (excess crankcase gasses mixed with oil spray) is strong enough to push thru the PCV valve and into the intake maniford where it can create an improper air/fuel/oil mixture sufficient enough to cause a rough idle or stumble on acceleration. The absolute cure is to have major engine surgery involving ring replacement and cylinder honing; however, I doubt that you want to spend that much money on a car with that many miles on it. I have experienced identical problems with my 92 Mitsubishi Eclipse with 165,000 miles on it, and I also am reluctant to spend a lot of money to fix a worn out engine. As a possible solution to your excessive blowby problem you might want to try a product called Engine Restore. It is added to the oil and comes in different sized silver and black cans for 4, 6, and 8 cyl engines. It is available in auto parts stores and Walmart. It costs about $5 for the 4 cyl can. I normally am not an advocate of adding anything to the crankcase except 10W-30W oil, and I am definately against the concept of adding heavy weight oil - or oil thickeners; this will only make matters worse faster. The Engine Restore product is not an oil viscosity thickener; it’s a solution of micoscopic particles of copper, lead and a trace amount of silver in a 30W oil carrier. It worked for me. My 92 Eclipse now runs great with a smooth idle and no stumble on acceleration. Check it out at http://www.restoreusa.com/ You can also do a web search on “Engine Restore” and get various reports - some call it snake oil and others think it’s a miracle in a can. It worked for me. Good Luck.
OldArmy