So I'm driving along, coming home from the mountains(about 300miles) and probably twenty miles out, the last 50 or so stop lights and such, my brake light comes on? What's that mean? They don't feel any different to me? 85 f250 i6

Also the oil leak is worse, I just don't know where it comes from, it seems to spew out the breather but I can't find a proper gasket for it? Also my valve cover seems loose so I am going to fix that shortly.

 

The brake light probably means you are low on brake fluid. (Actually, it indicates an imbalance in the system between the front and rear brakes, but that is usually caused by a lack of fluid in one side of the system.) So pull the cover and look. However, if it is low you are losing fluid and you need to find out why. Go under and look for fluid running down the inside of one of the rear brake backing plates or down the inside of a front tire.

Gasket for the breather? You are going to have to post pictures as I'm not understanding what you are talking about. Breather means a lot of different things to different people.

 

By breather im assuming carb, and if some the only fix without a tear down is thicker oil and something like engine restore.

For the brake lights I would start with the switch one your pedal disconnect it if they stop, which they should. I would begin with that.

 

And I appologize I misread the original post I thought you were refering too the actuall brake lights. Gary is 100% on fluid level and check your low pressure switch where all the brake lines come together under the booster box.

 

It isn't really a low pressure switch, it is a differential pressure switch. In other words, a difference/differential in pressure from the front to back moves the piston to one direction or the other, which turns the light on. So, it doesn't take truly low pressure to turn it on, but lower pressure on one side than the other - if that makes sense.

 

Thankyou for the clarification on my end

 

The breather on the valve cover. My bad y'all. And okay because my first thought was my parking brake but I forgot I had that unplugged, my parking brake is pretty weak as it is, my drums probably need to be adjusted again.

 

Also I don't know whether it's from the valve cover, or what but I've always had a leak and I don't know if it's gotten worse(possibly rear main seal) but the lip on the valve cover was full of oil when I parked it after all those miles.

 

If we've been over this before please stop me. But the Positive Crankcase Ventilation system is designed to bring air into the engine via the oil filler on the driver's valve cover, down through the engine via the crankcase, and out via the PCV valve in the other valve cover and then into the carb or intake manifold to be burned. A restriction in the hose going into the manifold or in the PCV valve can easily allow a buildup of pressure that will push oil out the "breather" as you called it. So, you should check those items. Pull the PCV valve and shake it - if it rattles it is probably good. Start the engine and put your thumb over the bottom of it - if your thumb is held pretty tightly it and the hose are good.

However, at some point the PCV system is not able to handle the blowby of a worn out engine and oil starts coming out in places it shouldn't. So, if your PCV valve and hose check out ok then you probably have a completely worn out engine. At that point you should do a compression or, preferably, a leak-down test to see how bad it is.

 

I just put a new pcv and new lines, so that's not the issue, I think. The smog pump and egr I do not think work, and the smog pump is dissconnected( took the belt off, new exhaust).
What's a leak down test?

 

Here's a description of a leak down tester in Wikipedia. But, basically you put the cylinder to be tested at TDC, which means the valves are closed. You put regulated air pressure (I use 100 PSI) into the cylinder via the spark plug hole, but there's a small orifice in the line, with a pressure gauge on either side of the orifice. If there is no leakage, meaning the rings are tight and both valves are completely sealed, then both gauges read 100 PSI. But if the rings aren't tight or one/both of the valves are burned, or if there is a leaking head gasket there will be flow. Flow through an orifice causes a pressure drop, so the 2nd gauge shows less than 100 PSI. The difference is the percentage of loss, and you typically want it to be less than 10% for a tight engine, and less than 20% for a worn engine.

But, you are also checking cylinder-to-cylinder. All the rings have the same # of miles on them, so they should all have the same leakage - and if one is low you know you have a problem. How do you tell what the problem is? The sound of escaping air in the intake means a burned intake valve. Ditto the exhaust. Lots of escaping air in the sump, hear via the hole where your breather goes, means worn or broken rings. And bubbles in the radiator means a blown head gasket or cracked head or block.

 

Okay. There's an occasional miss too, would that be the cause if that? Thank you for your reply I really appreciate it

 

Not sure what "that" you are talking about. But a worn out engine will be low on compression and that can cause a miss. And, it will burn oil that can cause plugs to foul, causing a miss.

 

Brake fluid was a dark red and straight mud look to it. Changed it and it's better now( I have front brakes again, just weak) and they are both muddy looking, whys that?

 

Glycol based brake fluid adsorbs moisture from the air.
This not only causes rust in the brake system but causes the fluid itself to oxidize.
So, tiny specks of rust + soaked fluid = mud.

This is why it says to only use fluid from a sealed container.
Once the bottle is open it can and will start to deteriorate.