Triumph Repair: 72 TR6 Oil Leak, charcoal canister, freeway speeds

Question
Car recently purchased. The vent hose coming from the side of the valve cover has been run straight down and left open near the frame instead of hooking up with the carberators. The carbon canister for recycling gases, etc. has been removed. When driving at sustained freeway speeds oil is  blowing out of the line onto the ground actually blowing under the length of the car. Why is oil coming out of the line, shouldn't it just be gases? Aftermarket valve cover.

Answer
Hi Keith,
The vent pipe that is suppose to go to the sides of the carburetors and should each have an restriction so it is not just an open pipe. A "T" in the hose runs another hose over to the charcoal canister. But if too much oil is exiting the pipe either the restriction has been removed or you have excessive ring blow-by. If a lot of oil has been exiting that pipe when the canister was connected, it has destroyed the canister. Probably why it was disconnected.

You first need to check the oil level and then run a dry and a wet compression test or if you have a leak-down tester available you can use it.

If not, run a dry compression test (throttle open) and write down the readings and then put about a teaspoon of engine oil in the spark plug hole (about 4 squirts of an oil gun) and run another compression test (throttle open) If the wet test is more than 10% to 15% more than the dry test you probably have a ring problem.

Howard