Klaus, thanks for the info.

I may have been confusing originally, I actually put the balloon on the oil dipstick tube top. I did not actually mess around with the PTC value. I was actually doing this during our nice freezing rain storm last night and got nice and soaked, causing me to then go upstairs, have a drink and then post :) Perhaps I did not implement the balloon trick as it was intended.

My thought process was:
1. some oil burning smell is present.
2. oil cap gasket was leaking..it was old and needed replacing anyways.
3. replaced gasket, cleaned old oil from around that area...but estimate some oil leaked down to manifold and perhaps caused and is causing smell. Not seeing any acutally smoke though, such that one would expect when burning a lot of oil off engine somewhere.
4. then was curious about PCV system anyways as I know it can blow the RMS when glogged, hence trying my balloon attempt.
5. tried balloon trick again today, and there was not even a puff of air into it when revving engine and with balloon on oil dipstick tube.
6. did notice a slight oil smell again this morning. Only present after sitting a light for a min and then accelerating, smell was brief and not overwhleming. At the same time, I had actually gotten an oil change yesterday so there was some residual oil from "spillage" around the oil cap. I have to clean that oil up as well to better determine if smell goes away.

My only problem is that in MA right now the ice and snow prevent me from getting under the car to poke around to check the oil return line.

When this line goes does it tend to really piss out oil or is it more of a weeping?

I may be wrong but assumed that a clogged PCV would cause some sort of pressure within the crankcase? In both cases where I remove the oil dipstick or oil cap I do not get any indication of pressure escaping (looking for obvious vapor/light puffs of smoke, no whooshing sounds). When I unscrew the oil cap there does not appear to be any pressure pushing it upwards, but it does rise. I am attributing this to the new gasket, as it was not perfectly flat as a pancake when I installed it, it had more of a funneled look but seals well.

Appreciate your response as always!!
Regards
steve