Compare the routing to my diagram above.

 

my routing is tapped at the intake, tapped at left and right vents and Capped at the grey line. Mustard on dipstick and in valve cover, slight blowby feel when oil cap is removed. We thought it had a blown head gasket until reading this forum, yet no smoke, no foul smell ... car at Mini now, what do you think my chances are with a re-route of tubes and an oil change?

 

Yes you do need to reroute the lines as per my diagram above.

It is not difficult to do at all. The IC does need to come off. You will need to cap off the connection at the intake hose also.

Let me know if you have any problems or questions.

 

Has anyone here with the mustard in their mini found out that the problem indeed was more than just mere condensation? If so, what was going on, and what were you looking at to fix it$

 

It seems to be an actual issue with condensation, exacerbated by short trips in extremely cold temperatures and/or using an oil catch can. Those that are driving long enough to adequately evaporate trapped moisture are not having the problem.

 

As was posted before, about the only other reason for this would be a blown head gasket.

 

Just back from Dr. Mini and the oil change and re-routing for OCC seems to be all that was needed. Thanks for all of the great info.

 

 

ok, so maybe all is not well. my car is now making something of a howling noise. when oil cap is removed, rather than blowby, it acts like a vaccum. The sound stops when the oil cap is removed. This didn't occur immediately after our trip to the dealership ... drove fine all the way home. This happened on my second trip out tonight. Any takers on this one?

 

Maybe one of the hoses is crimped?

Did you empty out the OCC?

 

So capping off the intake hose wouldn't cause this sort of a noise? It sounds like my car is "choking" for air. It almost wants to kill the engine

 

occ has been emptied

 

Ok ... now I'm frustrated again. How do I just take the OCC off and return everything to stock ... can anyone offer guidance with that?

 

My truck had the exact same looking milky oil on the filler plug. It was there from the very first year I owned it. I've now had it for 5 years and no problems. I have autostart on the truck and it idles in the parking lot at work quite a bit. This fall I sent a sample to Blackstone Labs and explained that I idled a lot, so they may find something odd... and they told me that there was absolutely no water in the oil. In fact the sample came back perfect and the complimented me on the maintenance and how the oil looked.
If I were you I'd take a sample and send it to Blackstone and have it looked at. My money is on the short trips and not getting the engine up to temp ( oven if the gauge in the car says "half" it doesn't mean that the oil is at operating temps.)

Hope you get it all sorted out soon.

 

Capping off the intake hose connection would not cause this problem. Try disconnecting the line at the drivers side vent and capping it or connect it to the intake hose. You may want to just use the OCC for the passenger side vent (PCV) and leave the other line stock.

Does the engine run better when you have the oil filler cap off?

You can go back to normal very easily. The passenger side vent connects to the grey line under the IC. The driver side vent goes to the intake hose connection.

 

Hey peeps, as I had posted that I changed the occ lines to the way Polizei had it posted which is only running them through the pass side lines. So today I took the intake boot off and it was filled with the liquid that the occ use to catch when it was routed the other way. The funny thing is the driver side vacuum lines are the way it comes from the factory, so isnt it bad having all that dirty oily liquid go through the throttle body ? Can I just totaly remove that hose on the driver side and put two small air filters on the intake boot and the valve cover so I wont have all this dirty liquid go into my intake ?? I know I could just get a second occ but I dont got the funds for that now. I am really just curious as if this is really okay since it comes like this from the factory.

Thanks

 

How is it installed compared to my diagram above?

You can always get another OCC on Ebay for about $40. Check my gallery for more diagrams on a double can system.

 

The driver side is all stock. The occ only runs from the grey pcv live to the pass side valve cover. I am curious why the intake boot would get so freakin dirty and why Mini designed it like this. Is this harmfull at all or is it okay to fead dirty oily liquid through the intake ?

thanks

 

OK You are talking about the intake hose getting dirty where the vent hose connects right?

No, this is one of the reasons why an OCC is a good idea. The dirty, watery stuff is normally just ingested by the engine. The OCC helps keep that stuff out of the engine and IC.

If at all possible, get a cheap metal OCC from ebay and set it up like mine.

As to being normal.....my old "78 VW did the same thing. Vented the valve cover into the intake path.

 

Unless I'm wrong, all cars do this. The crankcase needs to be ventilated to remove buildups of aforementioned moisture and general crap, and it's fed back into your engine to be burnt off fully...if this were not the case, it would just be spraying over your valve cover into your engine bay. Both NA and forced induction cars have this.

- Matt

 

Finally got around to doing this and now the car makes a sound like a flying saucer. Thoughts? The sound is constant, doesnt change w/ increased RPMs. Why could you choose to either cap off the intake hose connection or filter it. Sounds odd to me.

 

Not sure about the noise........maybe something is rubbing, or a line is kinked?

You will have to clarify what you mean about capping off the line, not sure what you mean.

 

In the diagram above,that was copied from your post, isnt the sideways "T" a cap on the intake hose to the TB? Nothing is rubbing no kinks.

 

Yes.....that is a cap or plug in the hose on the intake tube.

Sorry.....can't help with the noise. Haven't heard anyone else with this problem either. You sure you don't have a kinked line or a leak at the OCC?

 

I left it all apart and going to attack it tomorrow. Make sure I have no leaks, etc. If it still does the flying saucer sound, I'm going back to stock.

Any diagrams of stock out there?