QuestionMy engines distributor has oil inside. I discovered this after the car began to hesitate and run bad.The next day it would not turn over.I cleaned and dried out the points condenser, etc. When I tried to re-start the car it backfired through the carb with evidence of oil? I'm confused, any suggestions?
AnswerIf I understand you correctly, you are seeing oil inside the distributor cap and also in the carburetor? That is certainly strange, but to start tracking it down, let's tackle the distributor first:
There is no normal way for oil to get into the distributor - as it isn't in physical contact with any location in the engine that has oil under pressure, and it is physically higher than where oil would be. The only way I can imagine this happening is if the PCV valve is blocked off such that the crankcase is building up abnormal pressure, causing oil spray to get pushed up the distributor drive shaft and past the distributor bushings and the centrifugal advance mechanism in such volume that it makes its way all the way up into the distributor cap - astonishing, but if that is what you see and no one is playing a practical joke on you, that has to be what is happening.
In order for that to happen, there must be multiple problems in this engine:
#1, the engine must be very worn, or have one or more broken pistons or piston rings, else there would not be enough pressure to cause this even with a bad PCV valve, and;
#2, the pcv valve must be totally blocked - as normally any pressure in the crankcase would be vented off through this valve (and as an aside, that would explain a lot of oil inside the air cleaner - is that where you saw it around the Carburetor?), and;
#3, the bushings in the distributor body must be really, REALLY worn out - I'm amazed the car was running OK before this happened, if that is the case - as the ignition timing would have been scattered all over the place.
I haven't seen this combination of problems before except in VERY high mileage or abused engines - but if I have it figured our right, you need to have the engine totally rebuilt or replaced with a better conditioned one.
Before you go off and shoot yourself, or spend all that money, please get back to me and tell me where I have missed the point here, or give me any more information you have, like what you know of the history of this engine, and how it was running before this all happened.
By the way, oil in the distributor could well be the reason for the backfire, so don't concern youself with this at this time - let's cure the oil in the distributor problem first.
Wow!
Good luck, I think you're going to need it!
Dick
