Should there be oil here? E36 S50 breather tubes

[callison157]

I found something I thought was peculiar with my car (95 M3) and was hoping someone here could shed some light on it.

The car was giving me a bit of a surging idle at times on cold starts, so I decided to clean my idle control valve. I noticed a bit of oil gunk around the connections for the breather tubes at the valve cover, and a lot of oil sludge, even wetness, around where the small breather hose and upper ICV hose plug in at the bottom of the intake manifold:

IMG_20170522_202753_523[1].jpg


so I figured I'd replace the connectors and the hoses as part of the job. When I unplugged the connectors, I found a LOT of oil inside the plugs at the valve cover (pic) and the manifold.

Valve cover plug:
IMG_20170522_224206_932[1].jpg


My question: Is this normal? If not, what could the cause be? Will replacing the lines and connectors fix the issue? Seems like an awful lot of oil going into the manifold and it's no wonder the ICV was clogged up with all that oil sludge getting in there. I did notice some oil in the #1 spark plug hole, so it's probably time to replace the valve cover gasket, but from my research so far I don't think that should affect this situation.

Thanks!

[dworthy]

Yes, you will get some oil, as it should be pulling the vapors from the valve cover area back into the intake. Until the advent of the CCV cyclone valve, you will see more oil in the intake, as it is pulling directly from the top of the motor.

[callison157]

Thanks for the response! I did a little further digging and it does look like some oil there should be normal, but this seems like an awful lot of it. Anyway, I'll put everything back together with the new parts and run it a while, keep an eye on it, and see how it goes.

[dworthy]

Well after 20 or so year of build-up, it will seem like a lot. You can take some MAF or intake cleaner, and that will get it out too.

[callison157]

Well, it's 20 years but only 80k miles.

One thing I noticed when searching around: there is a baffle inside the cover, right where the breather hose plugs in. ECS has some good detailed pics here: https://c1552172.ssl.cf0.rackcdn.com/262874_x800.jpg and here: https://c1552172.ssl.cf0.rackcdn.com/262876_x800.jpg Any chance the seal around that baffle has failed?

Yeah, I'm probably just being paranoid.

Thanks again for the responses!

[dworthy]

The main reason for the baffle is to keep oil from getting splashed up into the breather area from the camshaft. I really don't think that there is so much of a seal to keep the oil out, as it has to allow the vapors to be pulled in.

Everybody needs help now and again, even I ask at times on this forum for help.