Did anyone ever successfully remove oil separator without open up valve cover?


Please see photos below, did I pull out entire oil separator or just a half piece? I can't see clearly if I have the other half stuck inside. Any help will be very much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Spray carb cleaner down inside there, or Marvel Mystery Oil or Seafoam.
Any type of cleaner like that will work to dissolve that gum/varnish.
Buy a new oil separator, leave yours out for right now, wait until you get a new one before you install it.
I know you just got this thing, once you get a new oil separator in clean it twice a year.
I use needle nose pliers to get mine out.
Yours looks short to me, but its hard to say in a pic.

 

I think under there (The valve cover) is a square baffle. Not sure if that has paper in it (The baffle inside or not).

Looks like you got a filter off from the outside.
Not even sure my 2001 has one of those.

 

Your sleeve is different from my 03 in that my sleeve appears to be upside down in the valve cover. I needed to remove the the metal sleeve to access the oil separator as I only had the little hole exposed when I removed the rubber hose.

I would be interested in knowing the proper orientation of the oil separator sleeve into inserted in the valve cover.

2003 Discovery with high miles service complete 129K

 

Like someone said, wait until the new one arrives, and compare. I did the Marvel Mystery Oil trick and still broke mine flush with the insert. It was very brittle - had to remove in a couple of pieces but convinced myself I got it all out. I don't think it had ever been changed before.

You will notice on the new one that it has flats at 90 degree angles or so on each of the four or five concentric rings that make up the length of the separator (thus forming a tortuous path serving as a baffle). With a small rigid piece of wire, you can try to catch the top ring by hooking it through the flat portion that provides an opening through the ring. The gap is small - didn't work for me. Eventually I drilled the smallest hole I could through the remaining separator piece, and tried the wire hook trick again. That did the trick.

Good luck - it's a PITA but can be done!

DRW

 

here is the photo I think I only pull out half piece, can I pull out the remaining piece without removing my valve cover? can anyone show me picture how it look like inside valve cover? thanks a lot!

 

on the picture left side is a brand new oil separator, right is mine... I think I only pull out half piece, how do I pull out remaining piece without removing my valve cover?

I don't think remaining piece still in that hole, what can I do? If I don't remove valve cover to take it out will it damage valves?

thanks guys..

 

Clean out the hole, stick in the new one, does it go all the way in?
Yes? You got all of the old one out.
No? You need to remove the rest of the old one.

 

Looks like you didn't get all of it out. Just take the valve cover off. Not a big deal.

 

If you didn't get it all, you likely only left a few grams of plastic inside your valve cover. Could it wind up somewhere and do some damage? Maybe. But, in my case (and likely yours), the thing was so old and brittle that the internals will likely make short work of any remaining foreign material. Disclaimer - this is my personal opinion. I'm pretty **** about this sort of thing, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. There are far bigger potential issues with these trucks...

While removing the valve cover may not be a big deal (though I'd rather stick a needle in my ear), I'd just install the new separator and get on with life.

Embarrassing story - I lost my first replacement separator somewhere in the engine compartment when I took the old one out in pieces. Had to wait a week for a new one to arrive. I drove the truck in the interim, and believe it or not, nothing bad happened!

Good luck!

DRW