What the hell just happened???

thegipper

thegipper

New member
As many of you know, the entire midwest is being battered by this "polar vortex".

It is currently 0 Degrees and a wind chill of -30 here in Wisconsin. Tonight it is supposed to be -30 temp with wind chills approaching -60.

I just left work and my truck started up just fine as expected. About half way home (15 minute drive) I started smelling something burning (like oil).

when I got home I quickly popped the hood to see what was going on and found oil all over my engine! It appears oil puked out of several of the spark plug tubes onto the valve covers.

This has never happened and the truck otherwise does not drop one speck of oil from all things valve cover gaskets related.

what the hell happened? the pcv valve is maybe 2 years old and the grommet was replaced at the same time.

I'm concerned because I'm about to leave on thursday night for a 4 day ice fishing trip up north. It's supposed to be a little warmer on Friday and pretty mild the rest of the weekend.

I checked my oil level and it was maybe a 1/4 quart low on the dip stick.

Should I reconsider taking my 4runner or is this a known thing to happen when its bitterly cold like this?

the truck ran normal and wasn't making any funny noises or anything, just the smell from oil burning. I also let it warm up for a good 15 minutes before I drove it.
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
Pix
c3ef5a019c4afa76d2a50a1915761167.jpg
3480fb62f90eebdb89571dd4ce9359f6.jpg


Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
My guess, and it's just a guess, that some of the vacuum hoses froze up. Several hoses such as the PCV valve hose will actually contain a fair amount of water vapor and it might have froze up completely causing backpressure in the crank case. Spark plug seal would be the easier place for vapor and pressure to find it's way out.

The sort of cold you guys are having really is uncharted territory for these 4Runners. Pretty sure driving in -60 degrees was never part of the initial testing. There's also no guarantee if you take another vehicle that it won't have similar issues.
 
Maybe the guy that treks across Siberia will see this thread and chime in,
know he see's cold. Been over six months posted pics of his Treks.
 
gamefreakgc said:
My guess, and it's just a guess, that some of the vacuum hoses froze up. Several hoses such as the PCV valve hose will actually contain a fair amount of water vapor and it might have froze up completely causing backpressure in the crank case. Spark plug seal would be the easier place for vapor and pressure to find it's way out.
Click to expand...

That's a good guess. I've had my brake booster check valve freeze up on mine during the first really cold spell.
Maybe a good run on the highway will burn off any excess moisture.

gamefreakgc said:
The sort of cold you guys are having really is uncharted territory for these 4Runners. Pretty sure driving in -60 degrees was never part of the initial testing. There's also no guarantee if you take another vehicle that it won't have similar issues.
Click to expand...

Windchill doesn't impact machines like it does exposed flesh so it's really only -30.
-30 or more is not a problem for most vehicles.
 
I cleaned off the oil with some brake cleaner, let it dry and fired it back up again. I didn't see any new oil come out initially but after 5 minutes or so, it was coming back out of the spark plug tubes again. I shut it down.

I pulled off the PCV valve and it passes the "shake test". I did not see any moisture/ice in that hose.

So what could cause this excessive crank case pressure? This isn't the first time this truck has seen brutally cold days and this has never happened.

Should I replace the PCV anyways?? I've never heard/seen this before....
 
Last edited:
thegipper said:
I cleaned off the oil with some brake cleaner, let it dry and fired it back up again. I didn't see any new oil come out initially but after 5 minutes or so, it was coming back out of the spark plug tubes again. I shut it down.

I pulled off the PCV valve and it passes the "shake test". I did not see any moisture/ice in that hose.

So what could cause this excessive crank case pressure? This isn't the first time this truck has seen brutally cold days and this has never happened.

Should I replace the PCV anyways?? I've never heard/seen this before....
Click to expand...

if the tubing or PCV isn't clogged the other options might be really bad.

blown head gasket? pushing compression into the crankcase? or stuck valve also allowing excess compression thru?

I don't know if it's possible but I know a chev hot rod guy who had this happen on his beloved El Camino. messed up head gasket was allowing compression inside case and he was blowing oil all over. not sure if this can even happen on the 5vz?
 
I would pull the coils (inspect for oil) and clean it up as needed. Agree with gamefreakgc, PCV freezing and created excess pressure.
 
I may have a spare pcv laying around, maybe I'll swap it and see what happens.

I have no normal symptoms of a head gasket failure (coolant loss, rough idle on cold start up, white smoke etc).

And I doubt its just a bad spark plug tube seal since its all of a sudden happening on 4 or 5 tubes at the same time.
 
I have no idea - but at some point I definitely remember seeing a video of some people being interviewed in Northern Russia, and it was so cold that their eyelashes were freezing...it was something like -60 Fahrenheit. Behind the people being interviewed, someone walked up to their 3rd gen, started it, and drove off like it was a normal day. Best of luck, OP.
 
Unfortunately with the rushing cold temps you're experiencing, any moisture can freeze and cause crank case pressure. Hopefully its a one off event.
 
sdwaltz said:
I have no idea - but at some point I definitely remember seeing a video of some people being interviewed in Northern Russia, and it was so cold that their eyelashes were freezing...it was something like -60 Fahrenheit. Behind the people being interviewed, someone walked up to their 3rd gen, started it, and drove off like it was a normal day. Best of luck, OP.
Click to expand...

Never had this issue before and its been colder here before.

I found an old PCV that I swapped over. I'm letting it idle right now and will see if its still puking oil.
 
I wouldn't say it's normal, but it's not uncommon either.

As I'm sure you know, when temps drop your fluids thicken. When the oil becomes more viscous it can force it's way though internal seals like what you noticed. You could have internal issues since the oil was forced from the engine. I haven't seen/heard of this happened on a 4runner, but have on other vehicle. Might not be a bad idea to run a compression test.
 
Last edited:
Well, I think it may be fixed.

I swapped out PCV's with an old one I had laying around. I cleaned the valve covers and fired it up.

The engine started right up, ran completely normal and made no funny noises.

I revved it up several times (2800 rpm for 2 minutes), let it idle for about a half hour and there is zero oil coming up the tubes now.

Either the PCV was bad even though it passed the shake test, or if there was a line frozen, it un-f'ed itself.

I called my local stealership and of course, they do not have the PCV in stock and can't get one until Friday after I'll be gone.

At this point, I'll replace the PCV anyways as soon as I can.

It supposed to be -30 tomorrow morning, should I take it to work (actually drive it around) or wait until I'm 100% confident the issue is resolved.

I really need it for the ice fishing trip this weekend.
 
Never experienced such Mike but once I had a Ranger that was puking oil through the intake manifold. If I pulled the dipstick I heard the engine struggling to breathe. Turned out that the PCV valve, despite passing the shake test, would stick shut under pressure. A new one resolved such along with some manifold cleaning.

Got a block heater or blanket lying around? Good luck.
 
LittleCaesar said:
Never experienced such Mike but once I had a Ranger that was puking oil through the intake manifold. If I pulled the dipstick I heard the engine struggling to breathe. Turned out that the PCV valve, despite passing the shake test, would stick shut under pressure. A new one resolved such along with some manifold cleaning.

Got a block heater or blanket lying around? Good luck.
Click to expand...

No block heater. I can always take my Camry to work which is in my garage. The 4R lives outside where it belongs.

Shit, it may not even start tomorrow morning if its actually -30 degrees out. I started it last saturday when it was -18 and it fired right up!

Hopefully this was a fluke or the PCV was actually bad. The old one I had laying around definitely looks older but it appears to be working the way it should.

I ordered a new OEM PCV and grommet via Amazon but it won't be here until next Monday.

Fingers crossed!
 
I find that my coolant tempts do not reach the standard 190 degrees for a good 20-25 minutes in near zero temperatures. I also find my transmission tempts only reach 120 after driving around at least 20 minutes in city traffic. If I hit the highway they stay low about 115. I do have a trans cooler though.

All monitored via torque app

I’d let your car warm up even longer than 10 minutes.
I do have a remote start which helps with warming up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 339 (members: 4, guests: 335)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,307
Messages
3,554,049
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top