1MZFE S/C Solara high press white smoke @ front Valve Cover

[salaki]

1999 Solara w/ TRD S/C 1MZFE V6

Anyone know why I am experiencing high pressure blow by with white smoke coming from front valve cover?

Looks like nothing blocks the passage of the valve cover PCV. I tried blowing cigarette smoke into PCV inlet while opening the VC trying to replace gasket and spark plugs tube seals. I felt no blockage of air (so effortless I could even breath normally).

Front valve cover PCV outlet is routed back into the intake duct so this high pressure causes oil splash to the MAF and caused MAF reading error.
So I thought I could vent the PCV into the atmosphere and cap it off w/ breather filter but then I see this high pressure white smoke coming out.

Currently I have 4 CEL codes:
3 CEL (Random missfire, Misfire Cyl 2 and 6)
These are probably caused of aging coil packs

1 CEL (System running lean) - probably caused by dirty MAF when I reroute the PCV hose back into the intake duct.
No more of this CEL after I cleaned the MAF, vent the PCV valve to atmospher and cap off the intake where the PCV hose would go.

Any idea why? The car feels FINE w/o any hesitation at during load.

Here are some videos:

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

Any help/comment is appreciated.

[JohnGD]

Is the PCV Valve ok?

That seems like a lot of smoke. Maybe try a compression test to check the piston rings and/or a leak-down test.

[Jason.MZW20]

Yeah, I'd also check the PCV valve and the rear bank's valve cover. The PCV system will only vent through the breather hose if there's a blockage or there's a large amount of blow-by.

You may need to remove the rear bank's valve cover, remove the PCV valve, and allow a strong solvent to soak in the PCV baffle area. My 72k mile 1MZ had quite a few deposits (mainly carbon buildup) come out from the baffle area. Since the baffles are riveted in place, they're not removable.

The breather hose provides the engine with fresh air when the PCV valve is working properly. When there's a blockage, the breather hose becomes an unmetered ventilator as the gas takes the path of least resistance.

[Eye8Pussies]

Originally Posted by JohnGD

Is the PCV Valve ok?

That seems like a lot of smoke. Maybe try a compression test to check the piston rings and/or a leak-down test.

and get rid of those CELs as soon as possible...running lean or rich (which you are probably alternating between with misfires) will damage your rings

[dorifuto.boi]

that hose is supposed to be the breather hose. its suppsed to let in air to the crankcase. i dunno why its blowing out air. the pcv valve blows out air and thats under the supercharger on the passenger's side. the pcv valve only lets air out and doesn't let air into the crankcase so i dunno where all the air comming out of ur breather hose is comming from.

either ur leaking a lot of pressure from the cylinder causing air to blow out of the pcv valve AND ur breather hose or ur pcv valve is broken somehow letting air in from the back and expelling it out the breather hose ??

i can check for u if u want when i have some time but im pretty sure nothing is supposed to be blowing out of that tube. instead air is supposed to be sucked in into that tube.

and about the venting the pcv system, don't vent it to the atmosphere. u'll get deposits all over your engine bay. use an oil catch can. the oil catch can goes between the pcv valve and the supercharger... the pcv hose connects the pcv valve and the back of the supercharger so u need to disconnect that hose and stick the oil catch can in the middle. don't use a breather filter...

about ur cel, fix the misfires first. then fix ur pcv system, then clean ur maf to see if the lean code goes away.

and i don't understand the misfires. cyl 2 and 6 are both on the front bank. so if the coils are bad, it'll also misfire on the two rear cylinders that are connected to the coils on cyl 2 and 6...........

[fenixus]

someone some time ago told me an advice when buying used cars. if you open oil filler hole an the air is pushed out (or it blows smoke) stay away, I think it was about engine may have bad piston rings or something...

OP's engine is blowing lots of white smoke with every hole, while it should be sucking air in instead ??

[dorifuto.boi]

can u check ur pcv valve in the back ? if thats also blowing out air, then u probably have blown rings letting all the compressed air in the combustion chamber into the crankcase... cause theres no where else that all the air can be comming from

[salaki]

Thank You all for the advice.

Recently I replaced the rear valve cover gasket on both VCs along w/ the PCV valve at the rear bank VC. I think the PCV valve would not be an issue. Well unless I got a bad PCV from Toyota.

Regarding the air coming/out into the crankcase, let me confirm my understanding on a perfectly fine running 1MZFE:

So the front valve cover nipple above the oil filler cap is to let the air IN from the intake duct (after MAF) aka breather.
And the rear VC hole (w/ PCV ) is where it lets the air OUT (if there is any blow by) into the intake manifold/ SC if equipped.

Originally Posted by dorifuto.boi

can u check ur pcv valve in the back ? if thats also blowing out air, then u probably have blown rings letting all the compressed air in the combustion chamber into the crankcase... cause theres no where else that all the air can be comming from

Last time I was putting back the VC together, I did not notice any air coming out from the hose connected to the PCV
So like what Jason said, unless my brand new PCV is BAD, there seems to be a blockage on the rear VC due to some carbon build up and if I could remember, I did see carbon build up on the rear VC.

Originally Posted by Jason.MZW20

You may need to remove the rear bank's valve cover, remove the PCV valve, and allow a strong solvent to soak in the PCV baffle area. My 72k mile 1MZ had quite a few deposits (mainly carbon buildup) come out from the baffle area. Since the baffles are riveted in place, they're not removable.

I suspect this is the issue (I hope)
I checked the front VC like I said on the first post by blowing smoke into it and saw the smoke coming out but I DID NOT (damn!) check it when I had the rear VC open.

Originally Posted by dorifuto.boi

and about the venting the pcv system, don't vent it to the atmosphere. u'll get deposits all over your engine bay. use an oil catch can. the oil catch can goes between the pcv valve and the supercharger... the pcv hose connects the pcv valve and the back of the supercharger so u need to disconnect that hose and stick the oil catch can in the middle. don't use a breather filter...

about ur cel, fix the misfires first. then fix ur pcv system, then clean ur maf to see if the lean code goes away.

and i don't understand the misfires. cyl 2 and 6 are both on the front bank. so if the coils are bad, it'll also misfire on the two rear cylinders that are connected to the coils on cyl 2 and 6...........

If I were to put catch can then it would at the hose that comes out from the PCV valve right at the rear VC.
When I cleaned the MAF, I did not have any lean CEL so hopefully it remains like that for a while.

It might be poor connection to the Cyl 2 and 6 from the coilpacks or maybe I have a fouled/bad spark plugs.
The weird thing is that the car w/ the SC drives perfectly fine.

BTW, I have a second car so the Solara sits in the garage until I can remedy this problem.
I'll post back w/ updates whenever I open the S/C again in the next few days

Thanks again for the help guys!

[JohnGD]

Yes. In a typical Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) system there is typically a fresh air inlet hose (the front one from the intake) that brings fresh air into the crankcase. This hose also serves as an outlet in case the PCV valve can't vent excessive blowby. Therefore, large amounts of oil in the intake duct is a sign of a PCV system problem.

The "outlet" from the crankcase is a metered orifice (PCV Valve) that lets small amounts of crankcase gas pass by at lower engine speeds and larger amounts pass at higher engine speeds.

Blowby is more of an issue at lower engine speeds than at higher speeds. Under ideal conditions the crankcase should have a very slight vacuum. It also keeps oil from leaking out from a pressurized crankcase.

And looks like you have a pressurized crankcase.

Originally Posted by salaki

Regarding the air coming/out into the crankcase, let me confirm my understanding on a perfectly fine running 1MZFE:

So the front valve cover nipple above the oil filler cap is to let the air IN from the intake duct (after MAF) aka breather.
And the rear VC hole (w/ PCV ) is where it lets the air OUT (if there is any blow by) into the intake manifold/ SC if equipped.

[Tony the Tiger]

High crankcase pressure + white smoke is usually signs of blown ringlands on the pistons...

I am afraid your motor is hurt.. The misfire codes are signs of loss of compression and showing random misfires. Usually blown ringlands will only let pressure seep by the rings and create lots of blowby within the crankcase. It may not necessary leave a cloud of smoke from your tailpipe.

From the video, that is not normal at all. Even due to a malfunctioning PCV system, it will only build pressure, but not create blowby smoke.

[jtex2717]

Time for a rebuild or new engine.....

HI TONY!!!! where have you been....