Was driving to work today and noticed some smoke and that my power steering was hit and miss.
got to work and there was oil POURING out from what seems to be the passenger side of the engine. But the way the fan and pulleys slung it everywhere there's no telling.

Came to find out my pcv valve wasn't opening.

I'm assuming these things are related. But what would have been torn up and where would all this oil be coming from?

Need my truck for work so I can't afford to not fix this.

Thank you all in advance

 

hard to say, without knowing what engine, or the year. pics help, too.

 

Knew I was forgetting something. I'm sorry.
its a 94 pickup with the 3.0.
Don't have any pics because I had to leave it on the side of the road

 

The power steering pump is on that side of the engine bay, so uhm is it oil or was it your power steering that was leaking.

Check the fluid levels, try to identify the fluid they look and smell different.

 

It's definitely oil. I I had a safe oil level and now it's low enough it's not reading on the dipstick.
think the power steering was slipping because oil was soaking the belts and pulleys

 

Could be the entire trouble. If i's not opening at all, the oil system may be pressurizing as the truck warms up, allowing oil to be forced out of the engine somewhere.

Replace it asap.

Also, check to see if the filter was blown out, or one of the halfmoons on the valve cover got blown out. Maybe the valve cover gasket, o it's rubber grommets for it's bolts, too.

Now, having said all that, the last several times that's happened to me, and it has, it was the front crank-shaft seal in the oil pump. You'll need to pull the belts, and then the front crank-shaft pulley.
Make sure you don't loose the key that lines the pulley up with crank-shaft correctly. It's just a small, rectangular block of metal that sits in the slot of the crank-shaft. There's also a slot on the pulley, the key matches the two up.
Then pull off the oil pump, and replace it's seals. There's one for the crank-shaft, which can fail, and is pretty easy to drive out with a socket or pipe the same size as it is. The seal around the oil pump periphery (big word for the day ) is a small, thin little rubber piece, and prone to failure. If it were me, I would bet on one of those two seals. When you buy the oil pump seals, they come as a kit, with both seals included.
I always use a small dab of very thick grease at the corners, and the middle of the space between the corners, to hold the seal in place, so I can put the oil pump back on. Otherwise, it's very easy for it to come out of it's slot on the oil pump while installing the pump. If it gets slightly out of it's slot, and you pinch it, it's shot, and you need a new one again. Be very careful when installing the oil pump not to pinch it, or let it slip out of it's little slot. If it get's pinched, you're right back to the beginning.

May as well put new oil and filter in while you're at it, too. Can't hurt anything, and might be beneficial.

Good luck!
Pat☺

 

Thank you very much.
ill be checking all that out as soon as I can get the truck home.
Much appreciated for you taking the time to describe everything in detail. I work on my own vehicles, but I'm still new to this engine specifically. Will update as progress is made

 

You have the 3.0 3vze engine. No valve cover gromets and a different oil pump layout. There is a cover plate on your pump with a seal that could have failed and pumped out a lot of oil rapidly.

On the plus side big oil leaks are much easier to find than a dribble here and there.

 

Just to be sure. You're talking about a cover on my oil pump, correct?

 

My mistake, I was looking at and 80 series oil pump.

The 3vze has a cover plate but it is internal.

 

Gotcha. I'm thinking this weekend I'm just gonna start with valve covers then work my way down replacing anything that seems even somewhat worn. We'll see where it goes lol

 

To save your self time and money I would buy a UV dye kit and see where it's coming from. If the leak is that bad it should show up within a minute of idling the engine.

 

That's probably a good idea. But to be fair, it's the original engine with over 450k miles. And I have no knowledge of maintenance before about a year ago

 

That is a really deep rabbit hole, things that are marginal but unlikely to fail in your life time. It really adds up fast.

Get the engine relatively clean and dry, fill the oil, and look for the leak. Your only out what $20 for a 5 quart jug of oil another $5 in rags/towels and maybe a can or two $10 of brake cleaner that's a really inexpensive diagnostics fee. Compared to replacing a hand full of seals that aren't leaking.

A good example of this would be a manufacturer error of an oil filter (bad crimp, rolled edge) we had in the shop last week. It could if been thousands in labor and parts but a tech filled the system and systemically looked for the leak.

The UB dye works really good for slow leaks, on large leaks it's usually just a simple get eyes on the likely causes.

Best of luck and let us know what you find and how you tested.

 

I appreciate the guidance.
Your idea is what I'm gonna go with.
The leak is severe enough that I'm convinced it'll leak even without the truck running.
Thanks again.
Will update as I make progress