I bought a harbor frieght 1/2" (which I will step up to the 3/4" size of the ccv fittings) compressed air filter/oil and water remover, which I plan to use as a cheap ccv filter.
My question is which port should I use for the valve cover side (dirty/ pressure) vs the intake tube side (clean / suction)?
One port of the filter leads straight to the "bowl". The other goes to the brass filter cartridge inside the bowl.

Being a cheap harbor freight item, there aren't really any useful instructions with it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-s...ter-68279.html

 

One thing you might want to look at is the drain on that filter. If it is like the one I have on my compressor, the drain releases when the pressure is off. I'm not sure if this will work for the CCV filter. I don't think the CCv builds enough pressure if any to keep the drain sealed and if it does when you shut off the truck the oil will drain out when the pressure goes away.

I hope I'm wrong and keep us posted. If it work I'm heading to Harbor Freight

 

You're right about the drain. I am figuring out what to do about that. I cut the stem off the included valve, since it was the only way to get it out of the bowl; only to discover the bowl hole is not threaded. :-( I wonder if a tap will cut threads in the plastic, without cracking the bowl?

 

I have a Mann-Provent and the drain on it is just a open nipple. I just ran some clear 3/8 vinyl hose with a valve on the end so I can drain it when I change oil. FYI, I have this on a VW Diesel, and these VW's will load the air intake with much more oil than what I have seen on my 7.3.


Just glue or some how insert a brass nipple so you can run a oil collection hose. I would run at least 1 foot of hose, because you will not believe how much oil and other stuff it will collect.

 

I picked up a 1/4" NPT tap, and a manual style compressor drain fitting.

 

My Provent has 2 pressure by-pass valves, that will allow the crank to breath no matter what happens. The inlet would be from the Valve cover and the outlet would go to the intake. Would be nice to find some kind of pressure relief valve in case you get a blockage. The pressure relief on my provent have very weak springs. Could you drill the top housing an install some type of breather that opens at low pressure????

 

Well, this turned out to be a big fat fail......
Just thought I would come back and update the thread.
After spending nearly two days on this (fabbing a bracket, tracking down 1/2NPT to 3/4 hose barb fittings, etc..), I ended up discovering, after more time and money, that this was posing a restriction severe enough to visibly increase blow-by out of the oil fill cap and raise crank case pressure enough to cause oil to practically gush out of the dipstick tube adapter, pushing past the o-ring. It was enough that I lost a gallon of fresh oil in about 60 miles of driving. A new o-ring did not fix the leak. Disconnecting this whole contraption and reconnecting almost like stock did stop the leak instantly.

In theory this SHOULD work just fine. Oil breather catch cans are a "thing". They do work. Also, I got this particular part#/idea from a Mustang forum. It is being used successfully by many there apparently. For whatever reason, my truck didn't like it. Maybe a catch can located much closer to the engine (less hose to travel through) might work better? At this point though, I don't care. I have no plans to try again anytime soon. For now, I just left the doghouse on backwards (didn't want to risk having the new o-rings leak), and used a little extra length of hose to reconnect it to the air intake duct.

 

good post.. I was wondering the same thing and saw the filter you may be using. Another thought i had was like on the 7.3 the hose connects to intake side of the turbo after the filter.

When i was in a pepboys I noticed they had the PCV type filter you used to see on older cars. I remember having one on my 72 chev and having to replace it every so often. I was in the air filter box before the filter and a hose came from the engine somewhere. I would eventually get oil filled and start looking quite grungy so i wouild replace it.

I was wondering about rerouting the hose from the CV into the air filter box and putting a hole for the PCV filter, i have searched pepboys and can not for the life of me figure out what they are called.. I have seen them in the store that is what gave me the idea for this.

I think you need a bit of suction to help pull the oil laden vapor out of the engine hence the pipe going to intake tube.

just spitballing here if it helps. might make the NT filter you had work.

 

Too much pressure drop across a 40 micron filtration element. WAY too much drop!

All you need is a low point drain with a stainless steel pot scrubber to catch oily droplets... NO pressure drop to create back pressure on the system, and yet you'll collect the oily juice which spits out of the PCV doghouse.

This has already been done so many times, I see no real value in trying to reinvent the wheel just to have something different. Forgive my cynicism, if it comes across as such.

 

An air compressor filter will work. I ran one for about 6 months with no problems then I upgraded to a Moroso air/oil separator for a more professional look. The Harbor Freight one was most likely poor quality and restrictive.

 

Revision... the 40 micron is too tight UNLESS there is adequate surface area.

 

This is what I run too, and I can vouch for you on the amount it collects. It is unreal. I have to drain way more often than I did with anything else (usually every other month). However, my intake is spotless.

Here is the hose I ran off the drain.



Have you ever checked how much pressure it takes to open one of the bypass valves though? On mine it is a lot. If one ever needed one to open, I would for sure have leaks somewhere on the engine. For this reason, I drain often.

 

Justin where can a guy buy that? I would be very interested in that. Will it freeze in cold conditions?

 

Shoot me a PM.

I do not think it will freeze in cold conditions. These are used by many as a CCV filter, especially in the VW world, and I have heard of no issues with freezing. The coldest temps mine has been in was about 22*, and I had no issue either.

 

They are not cheap, though, by any means. Depending on which model and where you buy, they start at $140 and can get over $200 easily.