Help!! How do you service a plugged up oil vapor separator????? When I discovered oil spraying out of the oil cap--investigated at idle the "jiggle test" and the cap danced. Cleaned the flame trap (is the flame trap even neccessary?), the juntion body and replaced the small hose. I cleaned out the short tube on the ventilation box, but the thing still doesn't vent! How does one manage that???

I want to thank everyone for their input. The vacumn tube on the manifold was partially blocked. A straight coat hanger wire cleared it. The ventallation box was plugged up. Because my work area is outside and it has been below 30 degrees, I was concerned about pulling the box out without dislodging the hose to the sump. I read in the archeives of one person running gunk down through the fire trap and someone else used carberator cleaner. I didn't feel good about either of those options. So what saved the day was Mystery Oil. Found it a an Ace Hardware store. I removed the Fire trap and Y body to expose the box. I used a 6" syringe (with 1 11/2" bore, found at Kmart automotive area)that was long enough to get down to the box. I started slowly injecting the oil and as the box started to accept it increased the flow. I used half the can. Ran the car 50 miles and checked the vacumn at the oil cap. Completely loose it sat perfectly still. I tried to lift it off and it howled like a vacumn cleaner! I didn't loose suction till I was 1" away from the cover. The Marvel Mystery Oil advertizes as a gas additive and a crankcase additive. Today I will drain the oil, change the filter and put in Mobil 1. Thanks again for you input.

Well done! I hope your solution is a permanent fix. If you do have to remove the oil trap in the future, don't worry too much about dislodging the hose to the sump. I've removed the trap on my car twice--the first time to clean it and the second time just to check it's condition. As long as you pull the unit straight up off the housing it attaches to, you won't dislodge the hose. The oil trap is easy to remove if the throttle body and IAV are already removed ... which is a good idea for periodic cleaning.

Excellent move!!! I was contemplating the same thing, and had the same aversion to pulling the box off. And I've got some Marvel around here somewhere. Good stuff, nothing wrong with running it with your oil for a while if you want. We used to add it as the eighth quart when we had a diesel suburban, and it quieted any stuck lifters very nicely.

Remove and check the small brass fitting at the end of the small hose connecting to manifold. It often clogs. Clean out by poking with a small drill bit or stiff wire.

I have never had much luck with the jiggle test. I believe the "jiggle" is different depending whether you have a metal or plastic cap. I just hold the cap over the hole and as you lower it to touch you should feel the suction. Also put a new gasket on the cap. if it's bad you can get seepage even with a good vacume in the crankcase.

good luck

On a normally aspirated (non-turbo) car, that flame trap is necessary. It prevents stray sparks from catching the oil/air mixture in the oil trap and oil pan on fire.

When my oil trap had become restricted, but it was not fully clogged, I removed it and was able to get everything out. I was amazed at how hard the oil deposits on the inside walls of the trap had become (the previous owner had never cleaned the trap). The trap is made of hard plastic, so I held the trap in one hand and lightly tapped the outside walls with the handle of a screwdriver to loosen a majority of the caked-on material. This took a lot of tapping and dumping of the debris. I then started spraying throttle and carb cleaner into the trap to loosen the rest of the caked-on deposits. Just spray it in, swirl it around to let it dissolve, then dump it out.

Brad:

The black plastic box is held on by two 13mm bolts, one front and rear, that go down into the block. Access is less than ideal. Remove hoses, the two bolts, and carefully withdraw the thing up and out. I dunked mine in that nasty carburetor cleaner that comes in the gallon pail and then blasted it with the garden hose. Enjoy!

-Steve