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How much pressure from under valve cover is normal

killick

New member
"Hi Everyone,

I've got


"Hi Everyone,

I've got a 10 year old Vetus 3.10 diesel in my sailboat. Boat is new to me, the engine has less than 400 hours. It ran great, so far..until yesterday when I noticed the smell of exhaust in the engine compartment. Took a look and it appears to be leaking exhaust out of the intake gasket. Bit of black soot near where the leak is.

Now, when starting the motor, there's a distinct "air sound" before it actually fired up. There's a blow-by hose that goes from the cover to the intake manifold (near where I think the leak is), if I take put my finger over the end of the hose with the engine running, within a few seconds I can feel the pressure building up. What's normal? No smoke just pressure.

This seems to be a sudden thing, it's been running well, with no sign of trouble before yesterday. Since the engine is new to me, I've been constantly checking the oil, looking for potential issues, adjusting idle speed ect, and noticed nothing until the leak happened.

Could the pressure from the vent hose have blown the intake gasket? Attached to the intake manifold is the air intake so there shouldn't be any pressure there, correct? Could I just have an old gasket that needs replacing, or more serious issues."
 
I've just read in Calder&#

I've just read in Calder's book that you should check the pressure from the crankcase breather hose (I called it a blow-by hose above) under full load. I checked it at idle and noticed pressure building. Is this meaningless since the engine was at idle? Calder also writes that a steady stream of gas is bad news (when checked under full load).

What's the difference? Would the pressure I noticed increase under full load???
 
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