Bought truck with low pwr steer fluid. Replaced same with NAPA pump. Filled 'er up w/ tranny fluid as it says. Kept filling it, day after day after...you get the idea. Musta put 10 - 12 quarts. Couldn't for the life of me find out where it was going. There was a tiny leak up at the top of the engine back on the passenger side fire wall. Not enough to matter-a little smoke off the manifold. Kept looking at the brakes, as they're pwr asst'd by the pwr steering pump. Didn't find anything. While all this was going on, I noticed the crankcase oil was up. Way up. Like 1/2 way up the dipstick. Looked old so I changed the oil-nothing in it I could see, and didn't get a chance to measure it. Then it began to smoke, intermittently. Smoked when started and for a while after. Cleared up when warm, then smoked some more. Took it to NAPA who was thinking pvc valve. We got to looking around and he saw the 2 hoses leading up from the pump to the rear engine. He pulled one off and there was the fluid. It had been getting sucked into the manifold. Some burned and some ran into the crankcase. I took the "EVO" valve off, plugged the 2 vacume lines and got a brass screw-in plug from the NAPA guy and it has all cleared up. (The EVO valve cost's $100). But, I wonder, what all happened to the engine for the 4 - 5 wks I drove it? NAPA said crankcase pressure was low, used the word "non-existent"

So...your saying the vacuum switch mounted on the power steering pump that increases idle speed when you turn the wheels was leaking and found its way into the crankcase? I don't really understand how it could have made it in the crank case.

And FYI your brakes arent assisted by the power steering pump. They use a vacuum assisted brake booster.

That's the way I see it. Now that I removed the offending part, my oil is as it should be, and I am not losing any fluid from the power steering pump. What I meant by powering was that the rear anti-lock brake system is powered by the power-steering system, at least, that is my understanding.

I installed a new switch on the pwr str pump hoping that would help the idling cycling I'm experiencing and when I hooked up the hoses and started it up, the reservoir emptied in about 30 seconds and thick white smoke came billowing out of the tailpipe. I figured I had inverted the 2 hoses and switched them but the truck still smokes. Anybody know which hose (upper/lower manifold) goes to which switch nipple? Did I do something critically bad or do I just run it til it stops smoking (fluid in the manifold?)? I already ran it 3 times for a couple of minutes and it hasn't cleared up!!!