1995 U13 (Altima): breather/seperator

[3Q Jay]

for those that don't like reading novels: if a breather/sep gets no venting to outside air, will the engine start sucking oil thru the pcv and consuming it?

longer, detailed version: owned since new, about 158k, perfect maintenance from day one.on the transverse mounted versions of the ka 24de, the PCV and breather sep are a royal pain to get to. actually, i've found it's not really bad at all once you remove the PS pump and bracket and position out of the way.

anyway, here's the question: at just over 150k when i did my upper and lower plenum cleaning and gasket change, i also removed the breather sep since there was some oil tracks and greasy dirt on it. never enough to even have to add make-up oil between changes. did i mention that i like REALLY clean engines that are not allowed to leak a drop even when they are aged? ok, moving on- i couldn't get a new br/sep without a 3 day special order, and my daughter needed to get back up to school, so i 'resealed' the br/sep on the inside with some permatex grey (btw, there is an NTB on these because they tend to leak, and a countermeasure br/sep was introduced), and sent her home. next time she was down (about 3k later), i noticed my resealing job was holding up just fine, but the engine was about 1.5 qt. low. now the 24 has never used a drop--ever. i also did a UOA (first one), which i can post spearate, but it was uneventful as to cause. only thing i can think is that it's actually sucking oil and perhaps that is because the vent in the br/sep is now plugged. i already have a new countermeasure br/sep from scottsdale, but i won't see the car agin for at least a month.

what ya think guys?

[wrenched_1]

and i thought only hondas had this problem!

maybe it got plugged with a little of that silicone.

[3Q Jay]

oh, i imagine it is very air tite now. so...pcv part throttle operation creates vacuum drawing in oil from front cover spray and runs it thru intake.sounds consistent with sudden oil consumption.

any other thoughts?