Engine oil dripping out of air filter compartment

[John H.]

Just noticed oil on the garage floor and found that it's coming from the air filter compartment. So, I opened it up and found that the air filter is soaked in oil as well as the air intake areas leading back into the engine.
The first thing that comes to mind is a possible cracked ring or bad PCV valve. Does anyone have any ideas?
The vehicle is a 2000 Mountaineer 4.0 SOHC with 46,000 miles. I've been using Mobil One synthetic oil since about 34,000 miles. It hasn't seemed to lose any power and the gas mileage has held steady at just above 20 MPG. Idle is still very smooth with no indication of anything going on. The oil is a little dirty at 4000 miles since the last change (do it myself). It's changed every 4-5000 miles along with filter.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. If it should be a cracked ring what are the $ needed to fix something like that at a garage? (Beyond my own capabilities.)
Thanks in advance.
John H.

 

[John H.]

Just thought I'd let you guys know the fix to my problem with the oil backing up through the air intake. I removed all the affected components yesterday and found that the PCV valve was not connected into the "socket'. ..not installed. Cleaned the oil from everything (quite a job), re-installed the PCV valve and put everything back together. Seems to run fine so far. Time will tell.
John H.

 

[Bryan Hartman]

I would clean up the mess and install a new pcv valve and see if it returns, if it does I would do a compression test on all the cylinders to be sure there is not a bad ring . If you had a ring problem you would probably be oil fouling a plug.