Ok, since I'm now 11 days overdue for inspection I've gotta get this car to stop throwing codes. Its been throwing them for a year and a half straight but its been running fine from what I can tell so my lazy *** didn't fix it. So now is the time finally.

Codes are 23 (MAT), 32 (EGR), and 34 (MAP). I have a Haynes and the service manual so I know what they mean, I just posted them for your information.

Here's my real question: I took off the air cleaner housing (yes TBI) and the air breather filter is filthy soaked with oil. The inside of the cover is peeling paint from all the gas and oil fumes that have been coming through the filter. Now, what is the reason for all this pressure in my valve covers to be forcing all this oil into my air breather filter?

 

Gross.

Valve seals leaking, if oil is getting in your cylinders, fumes etc are getting out causing pressure???

I dont know man.

Sometimes I'm glad I dont know the answers to the "my car is doing this" questions because its never happened to me.

 

Same thing is happening to my car. This started happening ever since i installed the slp 1 5/8 headers. I second the bad seal. Can you tell me if your dipstick has a slight rusty color to them as well.

 

my car did that before...valve seals were fine, piston rings were shot. my air filter was filled with oil and the air cleaner lid was just like urs. and smoke at the startup? bule is oil burning so watch out... and an oil burning car will not fail emission tests. oil has nnothing to do with hc and co emisisons

 

Your PCV valve is clogged...
it is located on the drivers side valve cover

The breather filter, airhorn, lid, @ TBI unit can be cleaned with gumout. You can buy a new breather filter since that one looks pretty dirty. The air filter is probably soaked with oil too...

Looks like these items were never serviced or replaced.


Your charcoal canister has a filter that should be replaced also...drivers side fender on a firebird...

Your fuel filter is probably due for replacement too...


There's a whole section in those precious "service manuals" dedicated to maintenance, perhaps you should get off your "lazy rear" and read up on those...

A year and a half driving with codes when's the last time you checked your air filter???

 

whoa now, thanks for the suggestions. Let me supply some more information.

The air breather filter was actually replaced only a few MONTHS ago and this is what it looks like now. The PCV valve was checked and cleaned out about a year ago. The fuel filter was replaced the very same time the PCV valve was checked.

I'll look into replacing the filter on the charcoal canister and the air cleaner is going to be cleaned in a few days.

As far as my statement about being lazy well, one, I'm a full time student and don't have much time or money on my hands, and two, getting three codes at one time is somewhat overwhelming on where to start and what to diagnose first and how to go about doing it.

I hooked up a vacuum line that was plugged and reset the ECM where it now gave me three new codes: 32 (EGR), 42 (EST), and 54 (Fuel Pump Circuit). I'm going to diagnose the EGR as best I can or replace it completely. I'm also going to replace as many vacuum lines as I possibly can. Thanks for the suggestions, keep'em coming.

 

I had a similar problem with oil in the air cleaner. mabey yours is doing the same thing that mine did.

BE SURE THAT THE ENTIRE PCV system is clear! I checked my pcv valve and the tube that runs to the TBI and it was fine but I still had oil blowing back up thru the breather tube on the opposite valve cover. half of the crankcase ventilation system is the pcv valve and tube that connects to the throttle body and the other half is the breather tube on the opposite valve cover that runs into the air cleaner housing.

look for a schematic in your manual and you will get a good idea of what the crankcase ventillation system does and the direction that the air and fumes flow (personally i really didn't see what was going on until I looked at that schematic several times)

oh yeah, sorry back to my point...

my problem was that the metal tube that runs from the outside of the TBI and goes thru the tbi to the bottom and splits leading to the intake manifold was clogged with massive carbon buildup. I thought the pcv was clear but upon further inspection found it was blocked. the only place for the pressure to get out of the crankcase was back up through the crankcase breather tube and into the air filter housing

you can try to dig the carbon out of the tube but it is hard to get around the bend if your carbon problem is as bad as mine

you can try some of that top engine cleaner but it didn't work for me

somebody mentioned using a torch to burn it out but I could not get a good angle at it

I had to rebuild the throttle body