The convertible has been running worse and worse lately. Nothing severe...nothing to make me question it's reliability...just not "right". Basically, not bad enough to spend time or money trying to track it down, but enough not to be happy with it. Then I removed the air filter cover for some reason (don't even remember why), and I noticed a bit of oil around the base of the air filter. I put it back on thinking "that's odd, I should look into that one". Knowing that this translates to too much pressure in the crankcase, I picked up a new PCV valve figuring it must be bad. When I got home, I pulled the old one, and was shocked to hear the standard rattle that indicates they are good. Well...I already had it out...and I am not going to waste my time to return a $2.99 part...so I put the new one in anyway.
Wow...what a difference. It runs like a 65k motor should now. I still find it hard to believe that a simple PCV valve (that "tested" good) could cause the car to do that many things wrong. The big thing it resolved is the high idle. It used to idle around 2700 until it warmed up, then hold around 1300 until put into gear, then idle correctly. After driving it, when you would pull it out of gear it would jump up to about 2000-2200 and hold that until it was shut off. After restarting it, it was back to 1300 rpm. There were other "eccentricities" in the way it couldn't seem to decide what the right RPM was as well. Now...after warm, it idles perfectly steady at about 950-1000 rpm in neutral. After driving, you pull it out of gear, and it does the same thing....perfectly steady around 950-1000. It drops about 150 rpm when you put it in gear.
The other thing it seems to have resolved is the high RPM power loss. I know a duke is not a high RPM motor, but when you only have three gears to work with, some of these hills around here require revving out one gear before grabbing the next. With the old PCV, it used to hesitate a bit over about 3800rpm...and I couldn't get it past 4500. Now...it pulls smoothly all the way to 4800 (haven't ventured further yet).
Wonder what this will do for my fuel mileage...
