Thread: What in the world would cause this..?

So I'm going this morning to leave for work, it's about 0F out, and I get about to the end of my driveway before smoke starts pouring out of the vents and from under the hood..turns out the oil dipstick blew out and was spewing oil all over my exhaust.

I've never pulled the dipstick or the oil filler cap while it was running so I don't know how much, if any, blowby at idle is normal...but there is a steady stream of what I think is exhaust (i guess that would be blowby) coming out of the oil filler...is that normal? Worn rings? I haven't run a compression test or anything yet, motor has about 170k miles and my only mods are a header and the ghetto-ziptie-airbox mod.... I also have replaced the PCV valve a couple months ago but I don't know if that has gone bad again..

If anyone has any ideas...

Could just have been a buildup of crankcase pressure maybe from the cold. Usually blowby causes the dipstick to blow out. Ive never had to deal with that cold of temps so i havent gotten to see how it affects ring sealing. Id imagine because of the cold the rings might be a bit stiff for a bit until the motor warms up.

How did it drive after warmed up?

Could be worn rings but im more leaning towards the cold affecting the older motor.

That's what I was thinking too...the cold. I drove my stepdad's truck today in fear of there being some bigger problem... Everything sounded and felt fine from the little driving I did. I'll have to try it again when I get home.

I've had the dipstick pop out in negative temps before, not 100% sure why it does it, but have NEVER had it blow oil out or do anything to cause smoke...? I've pulled my dipstick out with the car running on a few occasions and nothing near that happens, Not even any kind of strong exhaust, just a VERY slight bit if any...

If you run the car with the oil filler cap off do you have a lot of air come out of there? I didn't see any smoke coming out of there but there was a steady and pretty strong stream of air coming out when I put my hand over it... I am just wondering if that is normal at cold idle.

I have enough air come out that you can feel it, yes. Comes out in pulses as well if that makes sense. But, it is not an extreme amount, just little putts of air.

Hmm it feels about the same as if you held your hand in front of the tailpipe lol..in pulses yes but I dunno how much is normal...

I wouldn't say that is abnormal. I'm not sure exactly how strong it is in comparison with the tail pipe, especially since theres a ton of factors that change how the exhaust is tossed out of our pipes between each of our cars. If that makes sense...What feels the same on yours could be completely different on mine.

Anyways, this has taken itself off topic. Oil spewing from the dipstick at idle is not normal.

Right. Well I just took it for a drive warmed it up and it seemed to be working fine, dipstick didn't pop out or anything..so I guess just because of the cold?

edit: i didnt pull the dipstick or anything to see if oil would still come out