Oh, I can understand because I once had the same situation. The rubber grommet hardens with age and becomes almost impossible to remove easily. I had to carefully slice the grommet to remove the valve and then used pliers, vise grips, etc to remove the grommet. Be careful to not let rubber chips fall into the manifold cover and purchase a new grommet and valve before you start the procedure.

 

Thanks rriddle3, that is what the fellow with the Toyota with a similar issue also posted he had to do. I'll have to try that. If only I could get easy access to that sucker! :-(

 

An update on this issue.

Yesterday, I looked at this little PCV valve again. After a long time it seems that the stuff I sprayed on it last year did its magic. With a slot screwdriver I was able to pry the valve out, after taking off the air intake for access. The valve is not actually a valve at all, it is just a steel tube with a small orifice at the bottom of it to limit the amount of air it lets in from the crankcase! There is nothing there to rattle as in most PVC valves.

Anyways, the tube was corroded badly both on the upper half that the plastic tube connects to and the lower half that goes into the engine. Once I took it out, I simply soaked it in rust remover (CLR) for a while, then took some sandpaper to it and polished it up nice and clean. Then sprayed it with brake cleaner to clean out the inside thoroughly. It looked as good as new. Lubricated it a little to make it easier to tap back on and pushed the tube back on it. All is good now.

Hopefully this will help others with the same issue.

 

Thanks for the update! Always good to have closure.