Yesterday I opened the hood of my L to show a co-worker the motor. My L is silver and the underside of the hood is kind of a white color. I showed him that I have a silver JLP RAM Air box and silver Thunder tube installed. Then he pointed to the back edge of my hood and asked what that brown stuff was on the underside of my hood. I had never seen that before. I touched it brown stuff and it was oil! I then started feeling around to see if I could tell where it was coming from. Then I noticed that oil was on the bottom of the Thunder tube all around the 3 hoses that connect to the bottom of it. It appears that the oil has been drawn up the tube(s) and run out of the thunder pipe which was then blown, probably by the fan, onto the hood and top part of the firewall near the hood.

I am aware of the oil in the PCV system threads that has been discussed umpteen times here in this forum. But, I never saw any oil leaking from my factory rubber boot.

Does anyone else have any issues with oil leaking from their thunder tube?

Or, does anyone know how to stop this?

Thanks,

Eric

 

I bought my 01L new in July of 2001 - and I first noticed puffs of smoke about every 3-4 times I started it up a couple of months later. That clued me in to check out the intake system and I was surprised to find oil in the throttle body - and in the rubber boot. I'm pretty sure if I had any connections in the lower part of the rubber boot like yours- it would have eventually leaked out and looked like yours.

As you're aware of the PCV threads on here - I'd check them out and make a decison on what you want to do to keep the oil out of there. I eventually eliminated the PCV system and installed breathers.

 

Can I pass inspection here in VA if I eliminate the PCV system and add breathers like you say?

 

Good question about passing "emissions" test with breathers. I really don't know as we don't have emission testing in Michigan - but I'd guess probably not as it's a a part of your total over all emissions system as designed by Ford. But if you do a search on here I think you'll find some guys that passed emisisons tests that thought they'd fail - and some did fail them.

 

I Richmond we don't have emissions testing either. I just can't remember if part of the regular inspection involves looking under the hood and examining emissions related items.

EDIT:
I did find this on VA's inspection web page.

"14. – INSPECT EXHAUST SYSTEM FOR:
Exhaust line-manifold, gaskets, pipes, mufflers, connections, etc.
Leakage of gases at any point from motor to point discharged from system. "

"17. – INSPECT AIR POLLUTION CONTROL SYSTEM (1973 and Subsequent Models) FOR:
Installation.
Operation.
(NOTE: This includes the catalytic converter and the fuel tank filler pipe.) "

 

My guess, and it's only a guess is that when you go for an emisisons test, most states would open your hood and look for emission systems disconnected and/or altered or inoperative - even before taking a sniffer test in your tailpipe or checking OBD diagnostics. Needless to say - those of us running breathers would automatically fail as we have a system venting directly to the atmosphere.