Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a shade-tree mechanic on the weekends, you’ll eventually come across a problem that just seems… Bizarre. One of the weirdest problems I’ve experienced was the time I was helping a buddy with his freshly-restored ’73 Camaro.

We had just taken it for a test drive / burnout test when it started to bog down and run sluggish. Luckily, we were able to limp it back to my garage and get poking around under the hood. What we found surprised us. Motor oil had somehow found its’ way up the distributor and into the distributor cap. After a few minutes of back & forth questions and thoughts, we found the culprit. Too much crankcase pressure.

A few clicks and a credit card number later, and we had our solution on the way. He ended up running a crossover tube from one valve cover to the other and had two breathers installed. However, if having twin breathers and a crossover tube isn’t in your budget, or you want to try a few other distributor-based solutions first, Performance Distributors  has you covered.

The guide supplied by Performance Distributors walks you through the two relatively cheap options. The first, and more complicated solution, involves pulling your distributor and drilling a pair of ¼” holes in the main shaft of the distributor. According to their expertise, as long as the holes are drilled properly, there will be no effect on the strength of the housing.

This will also allow the oil to flow back out of the shaft instead of being carried into the top of the distributor. The second solution also involves pulling your distributor. However this trick is a bit simpler to perform. For the price of a tube of RTV silicone, all you have to do is block 4 out of 5 slots around the bottom bushing.

There’s a few more in-depth steps involved; so for the full step by step instructions from Performance Distributors, please visit their step-by-step guide. And always remember: When working with a distributor, mark your timing so you don’t end up having to constantly re-stab your dizzy and make adjustments after you perform this solution.