Blue smoke

[S34n]

I have a 1996 c180 auto with 107k miles that's chucking out lots of blue smoke at random times. It's mainly after about 20 minutes cruising at motorway speeds or after a bit of spirited driving it poors loads out if you come of the throttle and go back on it, eg coming up to a junction, slowing down but being able to carry on without stopping. It fills the junction with blue smoke! But it's only on the letting off/back on the throttle. It's not all the time, it's gone 2 weeks with out issue, but was terrible tonight!
I just took the plastic air intake off and found a lot of oil in there from the crank breather pipe, cleaned it out and it seems fine again at lower speeds. Any ideas?

[davepoth]

Clogged crank breather would seem to be a fairly obvious suspect, and would do what you've mentioned.

[S34n]

It wasn't blocked, just full off oil, there also was a puddle of oil sitting infront of the throttle butterfly. I know it will pull some out, but the amount of blue smoke puts the bat mobile to shame! It's quite embarrassing!

[davepoth]

You have a problem with crankcase pressure somewhere - it's the oil coming through there that's burning and making the blue smoke. The engine isn't really overfilled with oil is it?