possible oil blowby valve cover question

[SROBERTLAW2003]

hello, I recently was driving through town in my trusty 1996 cobra and spotted a real nice 2000 model black GT with 18inch cobra R's with nitto drag radials forsale. so like any mustang guy I pulled in lot to check it out. its income tax time and Ive got that itch for a change. and due to this mustang having drag radials on it I knew there had to be go fast goodies. also intercooler sticking out under the front spoiler was give away. car had 134k miles with a price tag at 7k. the owner was near due to fact he own a business close by and was kind enough to pop hood and show me the shiney new vortec sc pushing 6psi with stock block. car was all stock other than supercharger and injectors. was real interested in car until he cranked it and car sounded good but noticed on drivers valve cover he had a chrome filter that had what appeared to be blowby coming out of it. and I noticed it seemed to be blowing oil from the chrome filter due to it was all oily and oil was present around the area of the filter and some blown up on fire wall. should this be something to worry about? is this blow by from bad rings or worn out block? sorry for wall of text but just dont wonna invest in a car, just to have to rebuild the block. there wasnt any knocking at all just steamy like white air coming from the valve cover filter. thanks for any imput.

 

[vertigasen]

If there is white air coming out of the PCV then forget it. These engines have some blow-by naturally. Thats why the PCV system is there, to recirculate the air back into the engine. A lot of people put catch cans or something on there, some even do the breathers. For my new build, I am going with a catch can/breather setup.

If you can see vapor coming out of the breather, that is a bad thing. If you do use a breather, then typically there is going to be some oil residue around that area. With 134k miles, you know the blow-by is going to be a little worse than a new engine. The rings might be a little worn. A compression/leakdown test will tell you the whole truth. I would request those tests be performed and go by the results.

Another thing that concerns me. You said it was a Vortech with an intercooler. I highly doubt it is set to 6psi.....or if it is, it wasnt @ 6 psi before. Normally 6 psi is the non-intercooled version.

This is what I hate about buying a used, modded car. It is almost impossible to tell what someone did to it before you got it.

 

[SROBERTLAW2003]

well I know he stated it was tuned at a well rep dyno in mobile alabama by guy named bubba lol whom code name on youtube is RWTD=Running with the devil . guy is suppose to be the guru of tunning 03-04 cobra's and lightning's. he stated he had dyno sheets showing 400RWH and car had a recent tune. guess I should prob leave this car alone. just wasnt shure if this was a natural thing with supercharged vehicles.

 

[hotpony]

This is normal on FI vehicles, Moroso sells a nice catch can you can route the two valve covers to, then you can plug the TB and intake piping. My 04 Supercharged GT also has the Vortech installed PCV in the passenger side valve cover and an inline filter installed into the drivers side plumbing. My 02 GTI w/ GT2871R turbo had a LOT of oil entering the turbocharger before I installed a catch can on that setup. As stated, all engines have ring blow by, and when you have forced induction, this obviously amplifies this. Look on the under side of the oil cap, if it's got white milky substance, there is definitely a problem.

A leakdown test will tell you everything you need to know, most sellers will agree to allow you to do one prior to purchasing.

Also, an 8PSI non-intercooled setup usually sees 6-7PSI with intercooler due to the extra volume it needs to discharge in order to fill the plenum, car sounds good, maybe a little greedy on the tune but I'm sure it's fine. At 7K, I think that's a fair price.

 

[Noobz347]

If there's a breather then the PCV system is negated. There's always going to be SOME moisture in motor oil that is not at operating temp. That's part of the job of oil. The breather is now path of least resistance for moisture vaporizing from heating oil.

Let the car get fully warmed and check it again. I might be concerned if I could still see water vapor coming from a hot motor.
Closing up the PCV system and using a catch can is recommended.
Sent from my HTC Aria

 

[SROBERTLAW2003]

actually its 11 psi the guy is running. to be shure im going to take a friend of mine that works for the local ford dealership to check it. just hard to spend 7kish then have to rebuild it. ty for the replies. hopefull car checks out ok cause I want it so bad I can taste it.