failed breather?????

[mikey]

2002 2.7 car with 45k miles.

Started running rough, then cleared, then rough again then lots of smoke then it cut out, all in the space of 2 mins. Coasted to a halt and tried to restart but wouldn’t turn over.

Recovered to dealer who removed and started to strip engine and discovered that 1, 2 & 5 bores were full of oil which was hydro-locking it. They can’t find any mechanical problem and best guess is a faulty breather. Plan is to rebuild engine and fit new breather.

I’d be a lot happier if I had a bit of broken metal in my hand as I struggle to see how a breather could dump so much oil into the inlet. There was some evidence of oil in the inlet but not huge amounts although it did stand over a weekend before going to the dealer.

Anyone got any ideas?