Won't start

[So Cal Mark]

heater hose is okay for a short term fix, but it will swell and turn to mush as it absorbs oil vapor. In Calif, your car would fail a smog inspection if heater hose was found on a crankcase breather

[FordPrefect]

Good thing I live in 'The Natural State' where I don't have to worry about smog, I can pollute all I want.

[FordPrefect]

Actually found a crankcase vent hose on Vicks, but it's 16.00 buck with shipping, so I can get that, or just replace heater hose for a dollar each time it falls apart...

[So Cal Mark]

and replace the rest of the rubber parts under the car that get contaminated with oil when the crankcase breather fails. I suppose it comes down to how many times you enjoy fixing the same things over and over

[FordPrefect]

I went ahead and put an order in with Vicks for the hose, but I was wondering, my manual suggests removing and cleaning the liquid/vapor separator the hose connects to with solvent after 12k miles, have you guys done that, and how easy is it to do?

I've always had an oily airfilter and carb, would this help?

[bwilson27]

Does your car smoke with that oily carb?

[So Cal Mark]

there isn't room to get the vapor separator off with the intake in place. If you're gettng oil in the air cleaner you may have too much crankcase pressure. This can be caused by sludge in the separator, overfilled oil pan, or worn piston rings. Typically, owners bottom out breaking the oil pump, then add an extra qt of oil to compensate for the broken oil pump pickup. With an extra qt of oil in the pan, oil will be pushed into the air cleaner any time you rev the engine over 4000rpm

[FordPrefect]

It doesn't smoke, I just noticed there is always a little oil coating the air cleaner when I remove it, and find it around the carb as well. Enough that I've always thought that crankcase hose was supposed to lubricate the air filter or something.

Last I checked, oil pressure was a little bit low, and I doubt it's ever overfilled with oil.