Fuel/Oil spewing out of breather valve on valve cover.

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TNAILAV

TNAILAV- VALIANT
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WOW. I have never seen anything like this before. I put clamps on the fuel line last night and changed a tire out on the drivers side rear. I go to start the car up and it is giving me some trouble. I jump the battery and it starts. I had the air cleaner assembly off. I rev the engine and a mixture of fuel and oil comes spewing out of the breather valve hose. I immediately shut the car off. I could not beleive it at first so I started the car again and it did it again. I am disgusted and do not know if I even want to what could be wrong.
 
Pull the dipstick. If the crankcase is full of gasoline the mechanical fuel pump did it.
 
Which hose, exactly, do you mean when you mention "the breather valve hose"? RedFish's advice is right on: check your oil level and if it's way overfull and smells of gasoline, replace your fuel pump and change your oil and filter.
 
Which hose, exactly, do you mean when you mention "the breather valve hose"? RedFish's advice is right on: check your oil level and if it's way overfull and smells of gasoline, replace your fuel pump and change your oil and filter.

+ 1

Fortuneately not catastrophic
 
So this is not a major "engine is done" type of thing?

Redfish,
Thanks for the help.

slantsixdan,
On the back of the valve cover there is a large circular object with a hose coming out of it that goes to the air cleaner assembly.
 
Sounds like someone sold you a bad fuel pump.
A fuel or water crackcase wash isn't good for a high milage engine.
Pray about it and keep your fingers crossed too.
 
may be a defective fuel pump. did you get one that just bolted up or did it have an extra connection or 2. There are 2 fuel pumps that I know of.
Frank
 
So this is not a major "engine is done" type of thing?

Assuming the fuel pump is the culprit, then no -- not as long as you fix it before you drive it again.

On the back of the valve cover there is a large circular object with a hose coming out of it that goes to the air cleaner assembly.

That "large circular object" is the crankcase breather. There's no valve involved in it. The PCV valve is retained to the top-middle of the valve cover and has a smaller hose running to the base of the carburetor.

Strongly recommend you get the three books described in this thread as quickly as you can…and start reading!

Fuel pump quality is inconsistent and poor these days; it seems many of them are coming out of the People's Republic of Yes Yes No Problem Can Make For You Hundred Percent Quality Good Good You Sign Here Now Oh-Kee-Doh-Kee. :roll:
 
I am very willing to learn. I was going to send my car to someone and have them get it up to snuff for me. I have now decided to do it all myself, even if it takes a long time. I have tools, air compressor and air tools. The thing I do not have is time. I work 9-5 and I have a 6 year old and twin 1 year olds. I get maybe 2 hours a week to work on the Valiant.
 
I agree with the other Dan on Fuel Pump quality. I have gone through 2 in 2 years, and it is time for another one. I may step to a Carter unit, if I can find one, and it still made here in the states.
 
I would also suggest confirming hookup and condition or replacing PCV. I had one where previous owner unplugged PCV, but left breather. It chugged huge amounts of blowby into the air cleaner, and soaked the air filter. After hooking up PCV correctly, very little blowby, as PCV is doing its job.
 
Very good advice on making sure the PCV system is intact and working right. Make sure you use the correct PCV valve; see here.

(And for good measure: Tune-up parts and technique suggestions in this thread. The engine will need periodic valve adjustment. Carburetor operation and repair manuals and links to training movies and carb repair/modification threads are posted here for free download.)
 
If it were me I would take the opportunity to replace it with an electric fuel pump. Makes start ups much better!
 
If it were me I would take the opportunity to replace it with an electric fuel pump.

Boy, I surely wouldn't. I find electric pumps on carbureted non-race cars create more and bigger operation and safety problems than there are to solve in the first place. IMO the only reason to do this is as a quick fix pending replacement of a camshaft with a worn-out fuel pump eccentric.
 
I cannot wait to get the car running properly so I can take a pic of myself sitting in it with a smile on MY face.

I am going to put the mechanical fuel pump that was in the car before this one back in. Old owner told me it was new. I did not know it when I changed it out.
 
Boy, I surely wouldn't. I find electric pumps on carbureted non-race cars create more and bigger operation and safety problems than there are to solve in the first place. IMO the only reason to do this is as a quick fix pending replacement of a camshaft with a worn-out fuel pump eccentric.

Really? Like what kind of problems?
 
Like what kind of problems?

Well, the biggest one is that unlike a fuel injected application with a fully-closed fuel supply system, a carbureted application has an open fuel supply system. If you have a problem that causes the carburetor to flood (stuck float, stuck inlet needle, etc.), the engine will stall. A mechanical fuel pump will stop pumping, but an electric one will keep right on pumping as long as it has power…it'll pump the contents of your fuel tank into the carb, which will overflow and spill into the intake tract and onto the (hot?) engine and street below. The same will happen if you are in a serious crash. Sure, "turn off the ignition", but you have to think about situations in which you might not be able to do so. This can be addressed with thoughtful fuel pump control circuitry. For a clean installation without any nonstandard dashboard switches, you use a couple of relays. One, a timer relay, closes for 2 seconds or so when power is applied and then opens. This causes the electric pump to pressurise the supply line when the ignition key is first turned to "on". The main relay for the pump gets wired with its trigger circuit contingent on the oil pressure sender's state. If there's a ground at the sender, then the pump doesn't operate. That way when the engine stalls for whatever reason, the fuel pump will quit running after oil pressure drops off (usually within a few seconds of engine shutdown). If your engine requires extended cranking from cold for whatever reason, you can also put in a relay bypass circuit fed off the starter relay, so the fuel pump runs whenever the starter is cranking, regardless of oil pressure. The smart installer also puts in an inertial cutoff switch that kills power to the fuel pump if the car is hit hard.

Putting in an E-pump also means looking at the charging system, which is pretty marginal and beleagured on many of our cars. Line voltage already drops at idle -- lights dim, heater fan slows, radio gets quieter and staticky, wipers slow down, and ignition quality gets poorer until the engine is revved up. Adding another steady load on the electrical system will aggravate all those symptoms as well as stressing the fuel pump motor (motors don't like undervoltage; it makes them run hot). This is not incurable, either; there are perfectly good upgrades to be made to the alternator and the charging system wiring. But like proper control circuitry, it adds to the cost and complexity of "just put in an electric pump".

Then there's noise. Some pumps are noisier than others, but it can be harder than it might seem to find a quiet one and mount it such that you don't get chuckle or whine annoyingly audible throughout the car whenever it's running.

I just haven't (yet?) encountered the cold-start problem that couldn't be fixed without resorting to an electric fuel pump. Carb condition, choke adjustment, etc., and cold and hot starting on a slant-6 car get way less bîtchy with the simple fuel line mod.
 
Slant six sedan,thats one of the most outstanding explanations I've ever seen.

I will argue the point on voltage drop and overload.Many guys do upgrade to a late model nipondenso alternator,as well as new wiring throughout.

Why dont hi perfomance fuel pumps come with the built in safety circuitry?
 
an inertia switch will take care of the turning the pump off in the event of a crash. i have used one from a Ford in the past.....

inertia.jpg
 
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