oil issues / breather hose off valve cover

[artdf175]

so here is a question and NiVani's observation re oil on around throttle body
re my DF 175 oil loss issue
the oil breather hose exits the starboard side of the valve cover
inside is a sheet of stainless that fits snuggly inside the back of the valve cover
This covers about 2/3 of the back of the cover and is sealed all the way around except for a 1/2 by 1/4 hole at the top on the port side about even with the top of the exhaust rocker cam
it does not appear to have any breather holes at or near the bottom of this cover plate
my mechanic indicated my oil loss could be going through the breather tube to the throttle body.
Since I do not have any classic signs of oil getting by rings or valve stems.. --either dirty plugs or smoke or oil in the coolant water.. Oil may be getting through breather and mixing well enough to burn cleaning.. leaving no residue
So can oil from the journals at the top of the exhaust cam be spraying out enough oil to work its way into this cover plate? and then subsequently get pulled into the breather hose ?
Just why does this cover plate not have a drain hole at the bottom ?
I will be pouring some oil through this to see if it can run out the bottom but it sure looks to be a sealed chamber to me.
Any of our Suzuke mechanics have any observations?
Art..

[boats.net]

Being overfull of oil, oil deluted with gas, or a breather plate problem in vlave cover could cause that. Need to have a leak down test run on engine to see if rings are not sealing.

[artdf175]

thank for your note
1 - never overfill above dip stick marks
2 - never have had gas in the oil
3 - Breather plate problem.. can you expand on that
is there suppose to be a spot at the bottom of the place where any excess oil behind the plate can drain? there appears to be a cut out of sorts in the bottom starboard side but from what I can see up inside looks to be a gasket type caulking, without pulling the plate off.. ..
Can Suziki give further guidance on this ?

also.. will run a compression and leak down after I get the valve shims corrected
like I mentioned in another post the exhaust side was minimal or below minimal clearances the intake side was zero on most and completely negative on #2 cylinder

PS.. was very pleased to order some parts from you the other day..
Art..

[kmoose]

Having gas in your oil is hard to detect unless you have it tested. I had that problem from extended idling to which oil would seem to appear and then dissapear. The solution came from my tech mandating I run at least 10 minutes near the end of the day @ 90%. This solved all my oil issues and is quite fun in the channel at the end of the day.

[artdf175]

Not the breather hose
Did find a small place for oil to drain
And there is not oil around throttle body and breather hose was basically dry inside