She's bleeding from the oil bath filter!!!

Guys this scared the heck out of me this morning. Took the 57 out for a run on 2 track on Sunday. Her first run that long in about 10 or 12 years. All was well with the run. I parked her in the yard on a bit of a tilt, right front down the hill. Not severe though. Hard to start last night, but I chalked it up to being cold (~32degrees). Tried to start her this morning and I notice a stream of oil coming through a gromit hole in passenger floorboard. It's spraying oil through the air/oil bath, covering the carb, soaking the right side of the motor. I had to run to work so no time to check it til tonight but....any ideas???

Scared

 

No over full. Oil looks normal. Guess it could be head gasket. Plenty of power down the home stretch on Sunday though.

 

I'll have to look. That sounds like it would make the mess I was looking at. Thanks guys... hopfully it'll be obvious when I look at it but you know how it is..you get one look at something bad and have to run to work thinking the worst.

 

I really don't think that volume of oil could be a result of the hose from the oil dipstick tube back to the air cleaner - if it is, the engine would have to have a SERIOUS blow-by problem, and you'd be fouling plugs pretty regularly.

I could see where oil from the oil bath cleaner could be leaking through the back, but you'd have to be parked on a pretty steep hill - even if it was overfilled.

 

Thanks for all of your comfort yesterday fellas. Billy hit it on the head. That line that runs from the filler to the cleaner decided that 47 years of service was quite enough. I like 75 cent fixes! Thanks again for the info.

 

Dumb questions...what causes blowby? What is the oil blowing by? What fixes it?

 

I was afraid you'd say that.

 

Fully concur with the MMO. Give it the treatment, and see what happens - All is not lost even if you do have a little blow-by

Eck

 

I'll third the vote on using MMO. I bought a 64 CJ5 that had sat up for several years. ANd it appears the piston rings were stuck inside the piston groves and would not flex out to stop the combustion gasses and oil and it caused blowby and also smoke from the muffler. I did the MMO trick. Treated both the crankcase oil and the gas tank. And she cleared up after a tank of gas.

What causes the blow by is some of the combustion gasses are passing the piston rings during the combustion stroke of your motor. This pressurizes your crankcase and the gasses has to escape. ANd it goes out the oil filler hole that your dipstick is in. A little blow-by is normal. However when excessive it will carry some of the oil with it and some smoke.

To me, this is not a real worry if you use your jeep just a few times a year.

Another temporary fix is to use 40 wt oil. This will reduce the amount some blow-by. And seeing how you are from Florida, your not going to have any real cold winters to cause it to be hard to start on a freezing morning.

If it is a real problem, you can do a ring job. I did an in frame ring job on my present 57 CJ5 in a couple of evenings. You can use a repair manual and consider it leaning experience. Just follow the directons. And you can always ask some of the guys on this forum who are always glad to help.


I live in a small town, and have found some of the older mechanics are always glad to share their advice with folks on how to fix problems such yours. I once redid the motor on a 1940’s John Deere tractor, and called the tractor place, and they got me in contact with their retired mechanic who was in his 80’s . HE was a real blessing for me to call, during the process. And I could tell he also really enjoyed being able to help me. Might give it a try if you want to repair it yourself.