Oil cap Came off engine....

[GLaccent01]

Hey all, i really need your help because this is still bugging me out..... Back in November we decided to do an auto-manual swap. Everything went fine except for the fact that the oil pan has a dent in it from the jack holding the engine up while doing the swap.... I've been driving around with it since the swap was complete with no problems. Then just 3 days ago i was driving on the highway doing about 100mph for about 15-25 miles on and off going from 80-100, and from 75-105 on and off. When i got home my car was smoking from under the hood, so i popped the hood and noticed oil all over under my hood and on the underside of the hood. I cleaned it all up the next day when the engine was cool and there was my oil cap sitting right on my coil pack on top of the spark plug wires..... I got real lucky pretty much. I re-filled the engine with the same oil i used, and lucky enough i got no knocking. I'm just curious why the oil cap flew off??? i tightened it really hard. Can it be the pressure from the dent in the oil pan???? someone please let me know, it is bugging me and i'm going to buy a spare oil pan for a turbo project, so i want to know if it is safe to keep driving with that stupid dent in the oil pan..... Thank you

[tak82v2]

the ratchet mechanism could have been damaged..

[187sks]

Yeah, sounds like a faulty cap to me or you had the threads crossed or something. A dented oilpan shouldn't cause your cap to fly off. Your PCV system should prevent that and if it didn't it should blow your dipstick out waaaay before blowing off the cap.

[Jed118]

I had a dented oil pan for years (a result of getting a foot of air from crossing railroad tracks REALLY FAST) and it did not cause that... liz's pan is dented aswell, her cap wont come off!

Must be isolated. Get a new cap and perhaps an oil PSI gauge if you're really worried...