I bought an 84 fiero this weekend. I drove it home the 300 miles i went to get it. About 20 miles into the trip I saw smoke coming out from the rear. I stopped (these things catch fire I heard!) The air cleaner was full of oil, at least as much as it could hold before it spilled into the throttle body or run out the air intake! The air cleaner was soaked. I decided to drive it home anyway..I knew it wasn't good, but thought I could make it..I did.

I changed the PCV valve, the separator between the air cleaner and the valve cover, changed out the spark plugs (not fouled as bad I was expecting) cleaned all the misplaced oil and put in a new air filter. I checked the air cleaner today and I am still getting oil in there. Anyone know where I can look next to determine where this oil is coming from?

You might want to do a compression check on the motor. Oil in the air filter can be worn piston rings. How many miles on it? Welcome to the Forum.

Hey Welcome

Sorry about your luck. I think the problem could be valve seals. Thats what I would check first. Hope for the best. Good luck

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87 coupe 5 spd

Blow-by! Can we say, "ring job?"
I look into my crystal ball and definately see the words...ahh, there! I can just make them out now...yes, they are comeing into focus, o-v-e-r-h-a-u-l
enjoy...
Pike

Pull the oil fill cap with the eng running. Lots of blow by? Shut off eng. With a flashlight, look down into the valve cover. See lots of crud? Do a compression test as suggested above. As it was so eloquently put to me on one of my first posts here,"time to bite the bullet and rebuild".

Don 84SE 4cyl/auto

That would be time for a ring job or another motor.....

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11-Sept-01, The day the world as we knew it ended.

If it were me, I'd be sure my valve cover gasket wasn't leaking, and try another PCV valve and crankcase breather.

If the PCV (or PCV plumbing) is defective, the blowby will take the path of least resistance...and that's back through the breather into the air cleaner.

Another thing to check is the drainback holes in the head. If they're plugged, oil won't drain back and the valve train will churn up the oil and send it into the PCV and breather.

Id suspect bad rings too. just do a compression check. Oil in filter can on a turbo engine happens when turbo goes bad too just for info.

Thanks for the comments...I searched the archives after I posted this and found more of the same. The car shows 87000 on a working odometer, but the title says exempt. I thought the pedal wear was a bit much for 87,000....this adds to my suspicion that it has MUCH more mileage than indicated.

Thanks again, and I'm sure I'll be watching this forum!

Bill