Quote Originally Posted by finalfighter View Post
im not extremely familiar with the 2.6l but i can tell you that moisture is attracted to metal that is cooling down so the moisture out the pipe is normal in the morning. a little vapor coming out of the oil cap when first popped open is okay but leeds me to believe that you need to replace the pcv valve.
Right on!!! Sure as heck did need a new pcv valve. Did the shake test and major difference between old and new, too. Honestly it has been way under a year since I replaced the pcv TWICE! Once because sure as pie the one that came on the truck when I bought it was 30 years old (no kidding), and then I replaced it again in March.

Oh and because I'm me and want to understand how or why? I looked up pcv info and found a wealth of knowledge here: http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/197

Drove the truck this morning about 8 miles on the freeway 55mph and 8 miles back in town (30-35mph), pulled the cap and no swirls. Will keep checking like a paranoid person for the next couple weeks just to be sure.

I got the truck last December, and it spent a lot of time torn apart through April replacing a LOT of things, so this is my first "cold season" with the truck as a daily driver and I have no idea what to expect out of the tailpipe/steam, how it runs cold, etc. so will probably be reading the forums a lot to try and figure out what's normal & what's not.

Oddly enough there seemed to be better circulation of oil under the valve cover this morning after the new pcv because the oil cap had more oil on it than usual. Just a little observation but sharing in case it's important to me or someone else, too!

THANK YOU so much for the ideas