Engine oil in intake and inter cooler.

My 2004 is using oil. I see oil leaking from the intercooler hose on the driver side of the vehicle. (I already tightened the clamps). I don't think it's coming from the turbo because I see oil in the hose on the airbox side of turbo. Anybody see this issue? Could it be the pcv valve? Where is pcv valve located? Thanks in advance.

Oil is common from the turbo resonator to the intercooler to the EGR as oil vapor condenses from the crankcase, and usually doesn't result in oil burning.

in the 05/06, the PCV is a plastic box on the passenger most side of the valve cover. there is a filter and a few chambers in there designed to trap the oil before it gets too far out of the motor. there is a rubber hose that leaves this box at the front end of the motor and heads down to the intake tube between the aircleaner box and the turbo (which makes sense....since it's the only place that never sees boost pressure, only vacuum).

I don't know if the 2004 has the exact same arrangement, but it probably has something very similar.

it's highly possible that your motor is pushing oil into the intake stream thru the PCV system.

I cannot find a service replacement for the filter in the plastic pcv box. dodge wants to sell the whole box for a couple hundred bucks. the parts stores don't seem to carry it. I suppose it could be washed, it's little more than twine wrapped around a hollow core.

my 2005 is pretty bad about it, and I'm seriously considering plumbing in a proper catch can.

Thanks for the info. I see there's a connector and component in the hose coming from the valve cover. Going into the intake hose. Is this a valve or a sensor?

The PCV valve I think with an oil vapor condenser that does an incomplete job

Why is any oil in the charged air cooler normal? It seems the design should have been to pipe the EGR/PCV over to the other side of the engine, after the cooler. I see the service manual refers to cleaning oil and debris out of the cooler.

Turbo seals always pass some oil. Crankcase vapors are a major pollution source, and are burned to reduce this.

swtdir said:

Why is any oil in the charged air cooler normal? It seems the design should have been to pipe the EGR/PCV over to the other side of the engine, after the cooler. I see the service manual refers to cleaning oil and debris out of the cooler.

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Unless the crankcase is pressurized to intake boost levels (which increases system losses) the pcv needs to feed into the turbo intake. The oil separator on the om647 seems to control oil mist losses, but can clog... The bottom panels can be unclipped for cleaning if it’s passing excessive amounts of oil. In olden times (pre-1970’s) cases just vented down onto the road. Having the engine injest the oil fumes is MUCH cleaner.

As engines age and their piston rings wear down the volume of exaust blow-by will increase, and this MAY result in an increase in the volume of oil mist blowing past the separator. That said my ‘05 used no noticable amount of oil over the last 10k change (just passed 180,000 miles).

-dave