Hi All,


The history of my PCV is unknown to me with regards to its service history. I know the telltale sign is blowing seals, recently I had a small amount of oil burning smell from rear of engine, it was coming from under the exhaust. I know its a possibility of the turbo return oil seal, if so, my next question to myself is "is maybe the pcv clogged hence causing this"?

None the less I am wondering about the balloon trick that I have heard about. I removed the oil dipstick and did not notice any smoke puffing out of the top. At the same time, I put the dipstick back in and tried my luck with the oil cap. I recently replaced the seal after noticing the smell. The old seal was hard as a rock and cracked hence causing oil to leak out. I suppose that maybe some oil made its way to the rear of the valve cover and then onto the exhaust, etc....

I then put the oil cap back on, removed the oil dipstick again and put a balloon on the top of the tube. There was no inflation at all, I reached over and hit the throttle body, I did notice a breif "inflation" if you will of the balloon. By inflation I mean the balloon got a very tiny amount of air, not even pressurizing it, but more or less giving the balloon some "shape"...and then almost instantly it went back to being limp ;-)

I tried to duplicate and give more throttle thinking blowby would increase with higher RPM, but again it was the same almost pathetic attempt of "blowing up".

SO my question is, if there was excess PCV pressure would it be enough to actually blow up a balloon? Does a properly fucntioning PCV actually cause a vacuum in the crankcase? If so, by all means should the balloon have tried to pull into the tube?

After cleaning the engine bay a few weeks and having driven another 500 miles there is no oil being seeping out of the engine, so there is no obvious oil leakings which would make me truly suspect a PCV, but after that breif oil smell before replacing the seal I am none the less curious.

Any ideas on others experience with the balloon trials much appreciated :)

Thanks,
Steve