Oil in the airbox

Baza · Baza's Garage

No I am not kiddding. I have just opened up my airbox to make it easyer to remove, and found clean oil in the bottom. The car was last serviced at the shop back in October and is running great. I just had too get under the airbox. The oil looks like it come from the air flow meter and the air filter is clean and dry. has anybody herd about this if so what is the answer.

THANX

SoCal Driver · SoCal Driver's Garage

Early 944 NA has a vent hose from the belt covers into the fresh air side of the air box. Check to see which of the front seals is leaking.

Porsche bulletin suggests removing the vent hose and capping the openings. Also one on removing the snorkel from the fender well and plugging the hole in the fender.

Baza · Baza's Garage

The breather has allready been disconected. I was just wondering if the oil was overfilled if it would find its way up one of the two breather pipes between the air flow meter and throttle body? As the oil looks like it has just been poured out of a bottle.
As for the car it was the 4th 944 sold in Australia and I am the 4th owner. Built in June 1982.

profssr2017 · 01-22-2003, 06:31 AM

SoCal -

Do the bulletins say why the vent hose and snorkle should be removed. The reason I ask, is mine ('84) are still attached - in fact, the vent hose saved me from major damage, as when I was checking the car out prior to purchase, pieces of the belts were found on top of the air filter - that alerted me to check the belts.
Thanks.

overkill · 01-22-2003, 07:28 AM

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Yeah, what this guy asked?

COLDBASS · 01-22-2003, 08:52 AM

I seem to recall that the snorkle/vent hose removal SB was due to the fact that the dealers had received several cars on warranty that had ingested water in the cylinders when the vehicles were driven in wet climate conditions.

profssr2017 · 01-22-2003, 09:39 AM

I thought the snorkle ment that they COULD be driven underwater??? I'm soooo confused!!!

Thanks for the info.

feelyx · 01-22-2003, 07:34 PM

do you have a k&n filter? maybe dripping off the filter

Tim in Sac

Baza · Baza's Garage

No the air filter is OEM except for the underwater gear

profssr2017 · 01-23-2003, 06:05 AM

My guess is that the oil is coming from the vent hose from the belt cover. Probably a leaking cam seal, or maybe a balance shaft or crankshaft seal. The only problem I see with this diagnosis, is that the oil looks clean and the filter appears dry. In order to get to the bottom of the filter box, the oil would have had to travel through the filter. Unless your engine oil is very clean (from proper maintenance and an engine if excellent condition, but even then my oil gets black quickly), the oil in the filter box should be the same color as the engine oil. I would clean everything up, tape an absorbent material over the vent outlet inside (inside the air filter lid) to collect any oil coming in, and monitor the situation.

One question:

Do you have any visible sign of oil coming from the bottom of the belt cover, which may indicate a leaking seal?

profssr2017 · 01-23-2003, 06:06 AM

One other thing - If you remove the distributer, is there any oil inside the cap?

overkill · 01-23-2003, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by profssr2017
I thought the snorkle ment that they COULD be driven underwater??? I'm soooo confused!!!

Thanks for the info.

Dude, snorkles are usually used on trucks so that they can be driven in deep water. As long as the end of the snorkle is above the water or does not take in water in any way, the engine will remain running. The snorkle on our cars is facing foward so when you hit a huge puddle and the car kicks up the water it may enter the snorkle and get sucked into the engine. They want to you to discontinue use of it AND seal oof the opening to prevent water from splashing through. The snorkle on our car was meant to take in the COLD air in the nose of the car and not from the engine bay. That engine bay is quite cool once moving so there isnt a big difference

profssr2017 · 01-23-2003, 08:13 AM

Overkill - Thanks for the info.

I guess that explains why my car didn't qualify for the Olympics in the 100 meter butterfly. But now my question is, can I still use the Porsche snorkle to go scuba diving? (just kidding.)

dugcat11 · 01-23-2003, 10:44 AM

I too posed a similar 'oil in the airbox?' question. See this thread. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?threadid=88994&highlight=oil+airbox