1994 Plymouth Acclaim oil leak?

You need to service the *entire* crankcase ventillation system on your Acclaim. The hose you mention is one of several that tend to "cook" over the years.

Here's your PCV system:

PCV inlet air filter-->fitting on underside of driver's side of air cleaner housing-->rubber hose--> -->fitting on driver's side rear of camshaft cover--> Fitting on center rear of camshaft cover-->Rubber elbow-->PCV valve-->Rubber hose--> -->Intake manifold (throttle body base).

Access to the PCV air filter requires easy disassembly of the air cleaner housing. Remove the entire housing from the engine, taking care not to tear the flexible hot air stovepipe that attaches to the driver's-side underside of the housing and taking note of the thermostatic damper motor vacuum supply tube that must be carefully disconnected from the passenger-side underside of the housing.

Turn the housing upside down. Using a Torx T10 driver, remove the screws that hold the plastic lower housing onto the metal upper housing. Grasp the plastic lower housing and pull it away from the metal upper housing.

Inside the plastic housing, you will find a small rectangular box, open at the top, with metal mesh and/or fibre batting visible inside. It will probably be extremely crusty and gunky. Remove the metal mesh (if it has not already disappeared), and remove the fibre batting. This fibre batting is what gets replaced. It is available at any parts store ("PCV inlet air filter"). The metal mesh gets cleaned or discarded -- I usually discard them.

While the air cleaner is off, you can inspect all the rubber parts that tend to cook with age. These include:

(A)The hose between the fitting at the driver's side rear of the camshaft cover and the plastic lower housing of the air cleaner. If a new one is needed. do not attempt to substitute plain old hose - get the proper part from the dealer. It is formed.

(B)The 90-degree elbow that connects the fitting in the middle of the rear of the camshaft cover to the pintle end of the PCV valve. This too is a dealer item.

(C)The *HOSES* (plural) that reside between the camshaft cover and the throttle body. One of these connects to the PCV valve at one end and the throttle body/intake at the other.

You will almost certainly find some or all of these rubber components hardened, cracked, soggy and/or split. Buy new (A) and (B) from the dealer; it's just easier. Make new (C) from fuel line or emissions hose of the correct diameter, and plastic fittings as needed, from your friendly local auto parts jobber.

While you are at the dealer picking up your new (A) and (B) hoses and a nice new factory PCV inlet air filter, pick up a new PCV valve, too. But don't make it the one the book calls for. Make it a 3671076 instead. This is the slightly larger-flowrate PCV valve used on all engines larger than the 2.5. When my own '92 version of your car began to get on in miles, the small-bore PCV valve no longer kept up with the gas flow in the crankcase. Even though the engine ran very well and had excellent compression, I was losing oil due to insufficient crankcase ventillation. A change to the larger valve restored the efficacy of the PCV system and caused no other problems -- the AIS motor simply dials down a tetch more at idle to compensate for the extra air coming through the larger PCV valve and everything remains happy.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly -- I make it a rule to replace the engine air filter every time the air cleaner is opened on my 2.5 nonturbo cars -- the air filter is too small for the application and it clogs quickly.

Also make sure that there's been no service to your camshaft cover that would have involved somebody leaving out the oil curtain. If you can remove the oil filler cap and see the camshaft turning -- there's a missing piece!

DS

Wow! Thanks for the detailed instructions. It sounds like it may be an all day project but I have no doubt that I will be able to fix it by following your directions. Thanks again, John.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel J. Stern" Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech,rec.autos.makers.chrysler Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 4:20 PM Subject: Re: 1994 Plymouth Acclaim oil leak?

Daniel is right on the money. One more thing you might want to do is replace the valve cover gaskets. With time and especially with a clogged up pcv system, the gaskets leak BAD. Easy to do. GOOD LUCK to you.

Once you have all the parts (get them in advance) this is a 25-minute deal if you're working SLOWLY.

DS