Oil in air intake tube from pcv breather - GM Enclave Outlook Traverse Acadia 

There is a lot more to this problem than what he is fixing. The 3.6 liter High feature engine on the Traverse Enclave and Acadia had factory service bulletin's on this problem. I don't know what kind of engineers the colleges are putting out anymore but what GM did was either out of stupidity or greed along with bad engineering. This is the story, GM had a lot of in warranty complaints about these engines burning oil and all the problems that came with it caused a lot of service bulletins. The Bank 1 side of the motor facing the firewall had a opening coming from the crankcase leading up to the valve cover to what they called a PCV ( Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve. There was no baffle to keep oil from the crankcase from hitting the 2 tiny holes in in bottom of what they call a valve that is not a valve at all. What GM did to cut costs was they just stamped out 2 pieces of metal to look like a PCV valve with no valve inside, instead they made 2 tiny holes in one end and 1 slightly larger ( but still too small) hole in the other end for what reason I do not know because it is suppose to be a check valve, I guess engineers thought making real small holes simulated a sort of check valve, but unfortunately it ended up checking both directions to the point of being an ideal place to clog. Crankcase gases (if not vented) can make your oil get saturated with blow by gasses and residual fuel from the ignition gasses that blow by the pistons each time a cylinder fires, which if not vented cause your oil to turn black. By Sucking clean air from the boot (where he said the oil collected) down into the front valve cover, down through the crankcase up to the PCV valve on the other valve cover and right into the direct vacuum of the intake to be burned, that is what keeps the engine clean. A PCV valve should have good air flow to accomplish this, A (REAL) PCV valve has a check valve to only allow the flow of crankcase gasses in one direction. The piece of junk fake PCV valve GM put in these motors has no check valve inside, their stupid idea instead was to make the valve holes smaller. Next I explain why this system is a problem and GM's attempt to fix it. The tiny holes in bottom and top of the so called PCV valve were so small and the port from the crankcase leading to the valve was too big, this was allowing oil to be splashed directly on the bottom 2 holes of the PCV valve clogging them. GM put out service bulletins as a fix. First they changed the gasket for the firewall side valve cover to block off the port leading to the PCV valve, the rubber part of the GM modified gasket blocked off the port to the PCV valve except for small 3 holes in the rubber gasket to still allow crankcase gasses to get to the PCV valve,. The next service bulletin was to drill out the top hole in the (so called Valve) with a 7/64ths inch drill bit, and each of the 2 bottom holes with a 5/64 inch bit. This was their attempt, a cheap fix trying to keep the crankcase vent system from clogging because when it clogs, it clogs at the end of the PCV vent system where the engine suction is. Then what happens is, crankcase pressure builds up and blows oil backwards through the front valve cover fitting that leads up to rubber boot throwing oil into the intake.. A poorly designed factory PCV valve clogging caused all these problems, premature dirty oil , low oil level because oil was being slowly burned through the intake before you would normally change your oil, causing low oil levels in the engines, and the lower oil levels meant the oil got hotter, broke down quicker and provided less lubrication and more heat to the timing chains so they would tend to prematurely stretch causing other engine codes and the need for replacing them. I recently rebuilt one of these motors, the owner was a woman, she was not aware it was burning oil, went low on oil and burnt up the motor, it had barely 100k on it. A 35k dollar car lasting her 7 years. I hope GM does better with electric cars if their greed in manufacturing costs does not make them shoot themselves in the foot. I use to be a Chevy man, GM has gone to hell, This engine they required you to replace rod bolts, head bolts and flex plate bolts because they were good for one tightening, they were not cheap, also they told you to replace 2 stainless steel fuel lines. It made the rebuild almost not worth doing it. The fuel lines looked good to me, I reused them and made sure there were no leaks, had no problems. But I was not taking a chance with head bolts and rod bolts and flex plate bolts, I kind of suspect GM made just the hard bolts to get to, the ones you had to replace because they stretched ( for profit) to sell more parts that you could not find anywhere else because they were GM specialty bolt sizes that only GM made. The only thing high feature about this motor was it's poor design with a cheaply made poorly designed PCV system. I found a real PCV valve when I rebuilt this engine, it had a large hole in it and a check valve. I guarantee my modification is better than GMs, but you do need the modified gasket for the rear valve cover to keep oil from directly hitting the PCV valve

Hey Peter just a heads up you should have drilled out your new PCV valve with a 7/64 drill bit on the top hole and a 5/64 drill bit on the 2 bottom holes. Gm posted this upgrade several years ago to help alleviate the oil problem in the throttle body snorkel. I hope you all find this useful. Good luck.

Perfect instructional video. Thanks for sharing. Some personal experience points; as a safety precaution, remove the hose and wiring harness from the purge valve (in front of the front pcv breather.) That hose stem is plastic and breaks easy. If that breaks, you'll know it because when you fill up the tank, it'll take a while to start (cranks a lot longer before it starts.) Just push in the little green tab and the hose will release from the stem. Next, He's right about the back one being a bear to get out. I ended up clamping on vice grips and used a flathead screw driver under to pry out. I am in no way an expert on this type stuff, but this video worked and removed my codes (haven't come back in a while.....yet.)

I am so glad I came across this video , that explains why mine was just like your tube , I was thinking like how in the heck did this happen , I ordered my new PCV Valve today , can’t wait to install it and see the difference

The problem exist from fault valve cover gasket a. This was a recall on enclaves 3.6 v6 engine. When buick installed the gaskets they where opened section gaskets, they later realized that a section of the gasket should have been sealed and closed to prevent the oil mistake. It causes oil to build up inside your snorkel and breather taking from the oil it needs to lube the timing chain properly and causes the chains to stretch and jump time due to an access in heat build up. It can inturn bend a valve through jumping time.

Well done. Had the same problem on my 2008 GMC Acadia, but I didn't know there were 2 PVC valves until I watched your video. Will be changing them soon! Appreciate the sharing!

Great video I couldn’t find any others that showed it like this thanks

Been trying to solve this problem for over a year.... cleaned and reconnected the pcv valve and no traction control/stabilitrac error in 70 miles! Thank you!

1st gen Enclave was hands down, the biggest PoS vehicle I've owned in my life. No doubts.

PVC (:46 and 1:06 in the video) is polyvinyl chloride, a type of plastic. The valve you replaced is the PCV, positive crankcase ventilation.

this is exactly what happened to my 2014 buick enclave , thanks for vid ...

BRO! Thank you for this video. I just changed the air filter in my Outlook and was like WTF is all this yellow oil. Im going to try this out and prayerfully it fixes the issue.

Thank you, the dealer had us thinking it was a major job...

Helped a ton thanks dude

Great video , explained an showed very well , thanks

Great video 👌👍

It's called a P C V valve positive crankcase ventilation

Thanks this video was helpful i have this problem right now

I probably need to do this to my daughters 09 Acadia. Attempting this weekend. Wish me luck

helped out a lot, thanks!

Thanks friend for your video because I don’t fiend the válvula thanks from CALIFORNIA

Soo sad just how much that PVC valve affected the motor. A low cost part ignored by many people.

nice video ,, i have a euro 1.6 2008 focus ,, my pcv is under the intake, i changed it recently , but there is another hose from the top of the valve cover to the air box i thought it should suck air in as a breather but it pushes air out and oil as well to the air box , you have an idea whats going on?

Thanks for the information! Should be an easy fix.

Why can't you leave it off if it runs drain oil into the intake? Then put a longer hose on the breather tube and run it to a safe place for it to drip.

Very helpful!!

Not here's the craziest thing about that took that snorkel off it was for the oil and I clean the throttle body and I cleaned the snorkel l out but I never knew about the PCV valve this is some good information now I got to go back and replace it

Very helpful

You don't need to clean the second line?

Glad I saw this video! I was wondering why I had all that oil. Gonna try soaking the metal valve first to save the $16. Cuz I'm cheap AF. Update: Just did this while flushing my power steering. The rear valve is completely hollow. No screen or filter paper. I drilled all 3 holes about 2x bigger to 7/64. I used a metal body panel pry bar fork tool to pluck it out really easy. I had it from an Amazon kit cheap like $6. A gardening weed lifter fork from Home Depot would work also. I sprayed some brake cleaner on it and reinstalled with spark plug anti seize. Tapped it in with a small hammer. Hope this keeps the oil out of my air snorkel.

The issue is not the pcv valve. The issue comes form the valve cover gasket that you need to replace. New valve cover gasket have a smaller holes that will not oil suck through the pcv valve.

oreilly now has these. Just ask for part #V546 $23.99,....and part#V518 $23.99. These are the front and the rear "whatever" yo wanna call them. They are not refered to as pcv valves though.

Awesome thank you🙌🙌

The title also mean you need an OIL CATCH CAN.

Be sure to let the engine come up to temp before removing the rear valve. Makes removal A LOT easier. I initially started the project with the engine cold and almost snapped off the top of the valve...that would've been ugly.

What was the issue to be fix by doing this? My outlook 2007 feels like it loses pressure going up hill or if going less than 30 miles done change many things, check engine light is still on and it keeps jerking

great video. don't you need to clean inside the pcv valve as well before installing it?

Thank you very much

I find oil in trotle and the only thing is the pcv valve but why is oil inthe trotle some one say its a pistons problem leaking oil, hesay need to rering the pistons all 6silinders

Quality gm engineering

2007 acadia two blade plug cut

I replaced these and installed a oil catch can say goodbye to oil and carbon build up also replaced throttle body after I did a seafoam cleanse man my 09 traverse runs like new and im at 150+ miles

While doing this project I had to replace my air intake tube which is called an "air mass meter boot" but it doesn't have the hose sticking up to reconnect the hose from the V546. What is that little hose sticking up called that's on the air intake tube. That's the final part of this project and I'm trying to figure it out.

Did anybody have coded thrown for this? Literally had to be towed home code thrown was P0430 which is catalyst codes as in bad converter, it wants to start so bad but won’t, Iv got it to start 2 times only ran for maybe 2 seconds and died

,,,in the pcv valve ,,,is it normal that there is no oil can pass thru in the pcv valve hose?,,

really hope I can find a fix. anyone have an issue with 3.6l. anytime I'm driving and if i press slightly more than a feather it shakes violently like the block is gonna fall out. forget passing too dangerous. anyone with any help is appreciated

Gracias!!!! Yo sabia que el aceite en el tubo no era normal pero mi mecanico decia que todos los carros lo tenian asi. Hare por mi mismo lo que haces en el video. No puedo esperar el resultado en mi Traverse 2011

From what years are these part compatible with? Ive been searching for 2017 enclave and the rear orifise dont show nothing for that year

Has anyone else a their Buick Enclave spit and sputter when your at low speed ?? Mine does on first acceleration but seems like when I got over 20 mph it doesn’t do it ? Any ideas ??

A little oil is okay right? Somewhere I read that. How much is too much?

Pvc valve against the fire wall very hard to put out v518 I can't remove 2015 Buick enclave premium, please give me a little more information. God bless

By any chance you know where the oil pressure sensor is located at. Thanks

Hello, what year were you working on and is this the resolution for a rough idle?

Did this stop the vehicle from smoking and or burning oil?

Saturn doesn't have that valve or at least is not the same as the Acadia, the autoparts store tells me that 2007 saturn doesn't have PCV valve.

So by having this problem does it make your rpms idle up and down?

Does this affect gas mileage?

Can just make bigger whole as the hose ? ,,,,,so can make breathing much easy er ,,,,,

Part V518 will not fit in the hole in my valve cover it is different then the original one that was in it. not sure what it the problem 😢

How do you get an angle to use the pliers to pop off the valve?

If you have oil in the intake check piston rings

What you need to do is mod that 2nd pcv - make those holes bigger, get a 2 port oil catch can - connect those two pcv lines and exit port will be at the intake manifold. Problem solved.

*IMPORTANT: This can be done free of charge thru a Cadillac dealership! Under recall which means will be fixed for FREE!!!!*

I have a 2006 Buick Rendezvous 3.6L engine. I am trying to find the location of the PCV valve, not the breather tube on the front but the actual valve you depict here. I went to the dealership, parts department and they do not know either (no diagram). I need to replace it, oil in the breather tube to the air intake. Do you know where it might be, Thanks

$27 later replaced the tube and rear valve, super easy. im sure it will be too good to be true. still think a throttle body sensor or MAF sensor is in my future.

Put a catch can on it

It does not have 2 PCV valves LOL, Actually in truth it does not even have one PCV valve at least not in the conventional check valve design of a PCV valve , read my other post. The front one is is simply an intake port off the valve cover for the inlet Vent air it gets from the rubber boot which is on the filtered air side of the air filter. It is simple , clean air is being sucked through the motor from the front valve cover down through the crankcase and back to the rear valve cover where the 1 so called PCV valve is, then through a tube to the vacuum port on top of the intake manifold.

I have an 09 Buick enclave , I can’t get the back PCV out !!

dfg to use that clener guys

Where did you have to order the parts from?

I had the same problem. Replaced the pvc valve. 6 months later I found oil insise the air intake hose. I was told to replace the engine worn rings. Any suggestion

Where you bay the parts

Oil tube catch can

This for the info

If you still get oil into air intake housing after pcv valve replacement what does it point to?

If there is oil in the tube and the MAS is dirty would this cause the engine to think it should turn off the Stabilitrak and Traction Control and make it go into limp mode(3 cylinders running)?

Mi Acadia prende el service tracción control y el stability service y no le encuentran nada, podrá ser el problema que enseñas de aceite?

Pvc ????

Did this actually fix the problem? Update?

What is the name of the hose that goes into the breather that he put in at the end

By any chance before you did this to you’re car did the RPM’s jump at all when cold

How you get the new one in ,,in back,,,hard,,,was hard coming out too

You need to drill out the holes a bit bigger 7 /64 and top hole 1/8 inch

I have an 08 enclave, ran good before one day I moved it in driveway and shut it off. The next day went to start it, and it wouldn't. I put my Diagnosis machine on it, and said I need to replaced the Tunning Valve, which I did. It still wont start, so i started to take top end apart to get the plugs out, to check for spark. I had a bunch of oil/water mixture in my snorkel, what could be the cause of the car not starting? Possibly the PCV breathers clogged and needs plugs and coils? Please help me!!

Common mistake calling it a PVC valve if your a plumber too. PCV valve is the correct acronym. My problem is more serious, yea these engines were poorly designed, they came up with a fix for excessive oil consumption, now the valve cover that contains the PCV valve they have a gasket that blocks off the port from the crankcase to the valve except for 3 small holes. The previous owner of the one Im working on, she did not keep an eye on her oil, the number 5 cylinder had no compression and the car a Traverse smokes very bad, she must have ran it low on oil and overheated the heads warping a valve and destroying the valve seals, Mine is a total rebuild, fun fun. No easy PCV change for me.

Could this potentially be the reason for fluctuating rpms on the acadias and enclaves also??

Is it a slove for a car which oil burning thank you

They do not have 2 pcv valves, the plastic one is for the inlet air for the crankcase, it connects to the filtered air part of the intake. The valve is in the rear, the front has no valve in it. New redesigned gasket for rear valve cover blocks passage from crankcase to the valve except for 3 small holes, previous gasket the port was wide open. Too much oil splashing directly on the PCV valve without any baffle caused these engines to burn oil excessively. Poor designed valve covers, not the first time GM has made this mistake. No wonder they went bankrupt.

Just did all of this,,ty,,,how long did it last

I have a similar problem. Question, did you find oil in the spark plugs too? Cuz my has oil in the spark plug chamber in addition to the air intake.

What if pcv is replaced and you’re still having this issue

Can I just clean the the PCs breather or Do I have to replace it?

did your car run better after doing this?

Changing these two fitting is a scam. Neither part is a valve. These can be sprayed clear with carb cleaner and reinstalled. A real PCV valve has a spring and a flap inside to seal the valve. A valve opens and closes. It opens when too much pressure builds up inside the crankcase. I'm watching this in wonder. How can you pick this part up and think that it will correct your problem. Other people have posted the correct answer to this problem. Valve cover gaskets were re-designed to prevent excessive oil consumption through the PCV fitting. They need to stop calling this part a valve. It's simple a hose fitting. These engine have problems with sludge build up because they don't vent properly. I suspect that is because the rear fitting has these two small holes that plug up. That hose goes directly into the intake manifold. The front fitting goes to the air box and that nipple often breaks off or comes loose.

Late 2019 GM patents their own air oil separator 😂 and it doesn’t work...

dont spray throttle body cleaner on plastic or rubber use compressed air or replace it

Earlier this year I did the modification of the PCV valve or EGR as some folks call it on my 2012 enclave.. that's on the back wall side of the engine. Basically I just drilled out the holes as many has suggested and I just pulled my air intake hose to do a CRC INTAKE spray for the valves and low and behold there was not a drop of oil in the tube..It was dry as a biscuit.. Thanks to the many people that have posted the modification whick takes no time really to do.. Here is one of the many vids I looked at and hope this works for you guys.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vxxv_4t7fvY.html

Why cant you just clean them aswell. The pilot is just gonna get back into the valve again. Very poor design.

I wanted to add why this vehicle does not really have even 1 PCV valve by explaining what A PCV valve is and what it does. The valve parts inside a real PCV valve consist of a spring and an actual valve that has 2 purposes 1 is restricting air flow and the other is as a check valve. When an engine is at idle, the vacuum is higher which causes a lean condition because it will be pulling a lot more air through the Crankcase venting system. When a car is under load or harder acceleration, the vacuum is weaker and the blow by gasses are increased requiring more venting. The valve should meter the air down at idle by being more restrictive because on one end the suction is higher and on the other end ( being the blow by from the pistons) it is less When the car is accelerating or under load, the valve needs to open more being, less restrictive to allow more venting when there is less vacuum at one end and more blow by gasses at the other. The only purpose for the front hose coming from the front valve cover is for clean air to be supplied to flush out the crankcase gasses. The flow should NEVER be backwards where it blows oil into the intake boot UNLESS your PCV system is clogged. That is why GM putting 2 pieces of stamped metal together to look like a PCV valve with no internal parts is not really how to make a PCV valve, unless you can fool whomever you need to, in order to cut your manufacturing costs and get a vehicle out the door cheaper. In turn it causes multiple engine problems and failures down the line ruining GM's reputation. The other purpose for a real working PCV valve with internal parts is, if you ever have a backfire through your intake , especially with Turbocharged engines, without a check valve inside your PCV valve, the pressure can go right through into your crankcase and blow your seals out. I guess GM thought their tiny holes would prevent this from happening along with tiny holes preventing too much crankcase venting at idle which causes a lean condition which would have probably triggered the engine light to come on for a too lean condition. So this POS excuse for a valve was acceptable if the emissions system did not trigger an engine light What they did sacrifice was when you are under acceleration, or under load when the engine blow by is high and the vacuum is less, the venting does not increase which they have noted that after an engine has 30K on it, there is enough wear and blow by past the pistons to start causing a positive pressure in the crankcase with this Mickey Mouse venting system, something you never want because that is when oil gets thrown back into your intake boot, your seals leak oil, you burn oil causing the engine to run with low oil levels which causes a breakdown in every engine component, with the most venerable ones to wear and the first ones to experience wear being the timing chains which have tens of joints in them that when they wear cause valve timing issues and premature engine failure. The vehicle that caused me to become an expert on these was a 2011 Traverse. It reminded me of why the Government had to bail out GM back when Obama was in office. Corporate Greed has caused more problems for Americans than anything, out Politicians have made it to where Corporations selling products in the USA can get their products made cheaper in China, a communist Country accustom to Government control creating cheap labor in order to compete against Americans sending our jobs to China. Democrats and Republican Congress and Senators both are guilty of pandering to the Corporate Greed making laws to benefit them. In doing so, they are selling out the USA by profiting our next biggest World War enemy China. When Covid started I saw a sign. It said don't worry about Covid, it was made in China and nothing made in China lasts. When the German economy was bad before World War 2, it was caused by decisions the Politicians had made. Hitler came along, he monopolized on the peoples desperation and anger because of their situation by placing blame on Jews who had nothing to do with the economic failure. He used Peoples anger and built them up saying they were a greater race than all other races bringing on the second world war. Now we are in a pandemic, Our politicians on both sides are causing it because if you noticed recently, when Corporations were upset about the attempted insurrection, how they said they were temporarily suspending their contributions to politicians, it was restricted to both parties. That is because they buy off both parties and know politicians for the most part will do whatever they want them to do in order to stay in power. So Now we have the same lifer politicians ruling the country, no little guy can win because it takes millions to run a Campaign. You end up with entitled career politicians getting wealthy from Corporations who control our Government at the expense of the little people, ( the rest of us). Trump is following Hitler's play book, he is demonizing minorities as the cause for everyone's suffering, making whites feel superior to other races when it is true all races even whites have their undesirables. He is monopolizing on peoples anger and desperation caused by our Politicians decisions, decisions made based on Corporations corporate greed , to directing the fault for the problems on minorities entering the Country. Yes we need Immigration reform, but as far back as Regan, every president has given amnesty to illegals, so it is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it is both have failed us by making no reforms. A president can not do it alone, it takes all 3 branches of Government and in this Country we are divided with a filibuster rule that makes sure no laws get passed. China is on the rise, they will be the #1 super power before long. Maybe that threat is what it will take to get stupid Americans to stop fighting one another, a common enemy. Just my opinion. In the mean time the truth is all Politicians both parties only objective is staying in power with their perks, Until this Country steps up, gets rid of Gerrymandering, Citizens United along with creating Campaign finance reform, creating term limits and making Lobbying illegal. This Country will go down like Rome. I do not support either Party, both have been reduced to one another's lows. Republican Politicians now are willing to sell out our Democracy to save their Political power even if it means supporting Authoritarian Rule over Democracy, they are saying a President in Office can do anything he wants prior to exiting office, and he will have no consequences. This should scare the hell out of everyone, because if this ever happens and the Military leaders go along with it, good bye USA. A self described Law an Order Authoritarian will now be solely dictating to all of us how we must live. He will make the laws like it or not. So when your Enclave, Traverse, or Acadia breaks down, remember the root cause is the love of money and the people making decisions for the Corporations and against the rest of us in Politics. When greed rules our country, we all lose and our PCV valves end up sucking, just not the way they are suppose to. Remember this is a place for comments and opinions. Not me telling you how to think. Knowledge is wisdom!

IT;S PCV !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!