'85 Dodge D100 2wd original 1bbl carb, original air cleaner housing and new air filter.

When the motor is running and I put my hand over the air cleaner inlet, I feel no suction and the motor is not affected at all. This is with the snorkel off, and the heated air valve closed. Even covering the heated air intake and the main intake at the same time makes no difference. This can't be right can it?

The wingnut covering the housing is tight.

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1985 Dodge D100 with Slant Six, Standard Cab Short Bed

How much blowby does this engine have? What if you remove the hose from the crankcase breather (on the valve cover) to the air cleaner and cover the port on the air cleaner, then cover the hot and cold air inlets on the snorkel? Keep in mind you've also got air coming in at idle via the PCV valve and hose, and air could also easily be sailing past the remains (if any) of the 27-year-old air cleaner lid-to-body seal.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Air cleaner lid-to-body seal is intact and seems ok. Didn't have much time today but I pulled the PCV hose and it was pretty oily. Also there is oily residue inside the air filter housing, and the carb has some oil on it on the engine side.

I don't know about blow by, I'm not a master mechanic by any means but I know the basics. How do I test for blow by?

I'm sure this engine needs a tune-up and/or overhaul.

I put in new plugs and wires, new water pump and hoses, new radiator, new alternator and VR, and new air filter. What else do I need to do, this is my daily driver and I'd love to overhaul the engine but I don't have another vehicle to drive.

edit: the ODO reads 90k, and I'm sure it's rolled over once or twice. It had 75k when I bought it.

Any links you might have would be great, I don't want to waste your time typing about mundane maintenance tasks.

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1985 Dodge D100 with Slant Six, Standard Cab Short Bed

Don't worry about the air filter housing- it was never "airtight" to begin with. A "quick" test for blow by- with the engine at hot idle, unplug the hose from the air filter housing (the one that goes to the metal breather filter on the valve cover) & put your hand over the end for 10-20 seconds. When you remove your hand you'd preferably feel/hear a slight suction (ie. pcv vacuum flow exceeds pressure buildup past the rings). If you get a puff of fumes out the hose, then you have more blowby than pcv.

If you have oil in the air filter it already sounds like the latter. I'd replace the pcv valve, hose, the breather filter (& check that the pcv port on the carb isn't restricted or "goo-ed" up) & run the engine until some other problem forces the rebuild issue.

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63 Valiant Wagon
225 - 4 bbl

Yes, and to the above I would add:

1. Make sure it's the right PCV valve! Many of them look alike but are not interchangeable. Flow rate matters. See here for my object lesson on that.

2. If the crankcase vent system is in overall good shape (new correct PCV valve, carb base passage free and clear, hoses in good condition, new breather on the valve cover) and you're still getting enough blowby to wet down the air filter element with oil, then you can buy yourself some time by making an oil separator. You need a large-mouth jar, some of those coarse stainless steel or copper scouring pads, and some tubing and fittings of the same diameter as the existing fittings on the breather and on the body of the air cleaner housing. If you want to make life easiest on yourself, you can disregard the original metal jar lid and use a sturdy rubber stopper drilled for tubing pass-through instead -- check a chemistry supply house. Cut one piece of (metal, e.g., brass or aluminum) tubing so that it's long enough to extend about 2" above the lid and extend down to about 1½" above the floor of the jar. Cut another piece of tubing to extend about 2" above the lid and into the jar just below the underside of the lid. Pull apart the scouring pads so they're looser than they come, and push the wad of metal mesh onto the longer tube so there's about an inch of tube protruding below the bottom of the wad of metal mesh. Push the tubes through the jar lid with placement described earlier in this paragraph. Install the lid. If you do it right, as you scan from the bottom of the jar to the top you'll see the end of the long tube, the wad of metal, and the end of the short tube. Mount the jar upright securely, so that you can get access to it to empty out the oil periodically. Get a length of emission control/oil vapor hose (heater hose won't do it) and connect the breather to the long tube, then connect the air cleaner to the short tube. Oil will collect in the jar instead of in your air cleaner.

Seems to me there was a product like this commercially available in the '80s and '90s, sold as a magical gasoline saver for probably more than it was worth. Can't recall the name. Another method of building such a device is shown here, also looks like you could adapt an air/oil separator meant for shop air, see here, though that's kind of small for the job. Also see here.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.