i have noticed golden-brown oil in the flex hose that is between the air mass meter and the throttle body. i have recently(5 months ago)replaced the flame trap , cleaned the throttle body, and cleaned the air control valve. at that time also, there was oil, similar in amount, about four fluid ounce. although the flame trap was not to clogged, i went ahead and changed it. i am totally surprised that this occured again. both the throttle body and the air control valve (iac) were reasonable clean. i did not check the flame trap this time. is it possible that the oil trap(the black box beneath the flame trap) is clogged.

thanks guys. i will defintely check out the hoses and the oil separator box. guYon, i have checked out that post you mentioned and it was very informative. you guys on this board are the greastest.

Make sure you check your Flame Trap again!!
I started routine maintenance the previous owner(s) did not believe in. I change everything regularly (most things that need changing). Last week I bought the Oil Trap from the Dealer. Got a REALLY good price. I did the test, blew through the hose and things were a bit stuffy. Before pulling the Oil Trap, I decided to clean out ALL of the hoses associated with the Oil Trap using a little carb cleaner. The BIGGEST bunch o' stuff came out. Took lots of Carb Cleaner to clean the Hoses. Everything ran much smoother after that enema. I did not replace the Oil Trap yet, but might in the next few thousand miles. Clean the Hoses out.

Todd :-)
--
'90 245 182k

I second that!!

Clean or replace all the hoses associated with the flame trap and the throttle body then check your oil trap to see if it is clogged - probably not...

Don't overlook the small hose that goes from the flame trap to the intake manifold. If hard, replace it. Cheap, about .50. Also remove and clean the brass nipple that hose goes into. These are two common spots for a clog to develop. The small hose was the culprit in my case. Seemed to be fine the first time I checked it. Upon second inspection, I discovered to be hard and clogged. Cheap replacement. No flame trap problems since....

Then, as mentioned by guYom, you can then just remove and clean the bellows hose. Check for cracks too. I’ve had to do this a couple of times myself.

These are blow-bys from the TB I think -- I had the same problem. You may just want to clean your TB again, if your recent cleaning job was thorough and complete (TB removed, new gasket put in, etc. maintenance which is called for every 30K miles I believe)this time you could simply remove the black acordeon hose and wipe the inside there and butterfly plate, small miror can help without removing the whole thing this time, if you don't feel like going through that trouble again. You could also gently remove the mesh grid from the AMM and clean it once it is removed, dry it and put it back on, a small ring is all that is holding it in place. You can clean your black acordeon hose and check for vacuum leak while you are at it.

If you really think you have excess crankcase pressure, you could test your breather box since you have already done the rest of you PCV system -- remove small hose that goes from the breather box to the flame arrestor and put in a longer hose instead so that you can blow in it with oil filler cap removed and you should feel your breath coming out at the oil filler cap. If you want to remove it and clean it, check out Mike Ponte's page at

http://www.mikeponte.com/volvo/oiltrap.htm

You can remove the breather box without removing the intake manifold, I simply removed my air control valve and throttle body and had plenty of clearance. You can check in the 200 archive kourt99 's post "Oil Separator / Flame Trap Question dated February 11th of this year for a good description.

I clean my flame arrestor at every oil change.
--
'89 244DL M47 159K miles

I find that even cleaning everything thoroughly the car is prone to doing this a bit. I just regard it as a routine job - say every oil change. The oil separator box can be left longer, once you have cleaned it out or replaced it.