Oil vapor smell

[metroplex]

I have noticed that if I drive the Explorer a bit harder (numerous WOT accel / or downshifts), I start to smell PCV oil vapor in the cabin. If you pop your engine oil filler cap after the engine is shut down from a hot drive, that is the smell I detect inside my cabin. It's not very frequent and seems to only occur in certain drive scenarios. I have a CO detector in the car, and the peak it detected was 14 ppm, but it never beeped when I smelled it. I don't see any oil dripping anywhere and the engine compartment doesn't always smell like the oil vapor.

 

[mguy13sport]

Some things to check:
- Oil in the air filter/air box tubing
- Valve cover gaskets leaking
- Oil leaking onto exhaust/heat shield

Oil must be going some place it shouldn't and you are getting the burn-off smell from the engine bay into the cabin.