i have a 1405 edelbrock 600 cfm with the driver side valve cover capped off, and the passenger side one hooked up to a simple pcv with a hose leading to the front of the carb. i've been running that setup for a few weeks now and am not very happy with those smoky crankcase gases going back into my combustion chambers. i am thinking of going back to the old way with the caps open, hey oil came from the earth, so it can just go back right? just kidding.
well is anybody running any other type of setup. i've seen these little performance filter deals that screw right on....

 

If you want to get oil out of the return plumb in air compressor water separators. Or you can just plug the holes on the carb and run filters on the valve covers.

 

You should not get that much oil to the plugs, unless you have a intake manifold leak or high leakage around the rings.

I have a breather on drives side, this is a source for fresh air. It should slow the consumption down. It's needing for the PVC system to work correctly. On some they pull the fresh air from the air breather to passenger side VC. Without it, it puts the crankcase in negative pressure, so it's pulling all the oil vapors it could get. Install a breather cap and see if it drops.

 

You need a cross flow ventilation thru the motor, left VC fresh air in and right VC with PCV valve to the carb base. If you have worn rockers without restrictors in the heads you can fill the VC's causing oil to be sucked up by the intake valves if running umbrellas vs valve stem seals. When the VC is filled the PCV valve will start sucking oil. If the baffles in the VC are removed you'll suck up oil.
This will cause detonation, mosquito control and fouled plugs.
A bad sealing intake manifold gasket around the intake ports will also suck oil.
We haven't talked about the condition of the rings, compression check or a differential compression check. What weight oil and how many miles on the motor?

 

great compression, did a test not long ago. i still want to do a leakdown test but havent gotten around to it. 10w30 oil. i disconnected the pcv and put a rubber boot over the carb hole. now i am just running the valve cover caps open. it is to my understanding a pcv valve simply allows air to flow in only one direction, and the reason its most commonly hooked up to a airbox or carburetor is the vacuum helps suck the gases out of the crankcase? cetain diesel engines and tanks from ww2 used a little tube that would almost drag on the ground to cause negative pressure and redirect those smoky gases away from the engine bay.
isnt the main reason a pcv valve was invented was just to be kinder to the environment? the man who invented it was from southern california. sorry i spend way too much time reading encyclopedias,

 

PCV is a good thing for the motor plus better than the road draft that was around before. My guess PCV came around the late 50's early 60's I may be wrong? I like the older ones trucks of the 60's you can take apart the PCV valve and clean 'em if needed.

 

Ford Motor Company installed the PCV system across the board in 1961. All the engines had smog valves, except on F500 and larger trucks.

 

If you remove the PVC valve and do not install filter caps or any type of cap to seal off the VC you will Allow all of the road debry, dirt and dust to get in your engine. This is not good if you wany your engine to last.

 

That is what the 68 and 69 F250 has, the so called clean air sucked into the motor comes from the 90* fitting on the outside of the air cleaner hence dirty air with only the stainless steel mesh inside the filler cap for your filter.
I installed a filter inside the fitting on the air cleaner, thhis keeps the stainless mesh clean hence no grit in the motor. What were they thinking if at all?

 

The cap has a oil air filter in it. Most do not know they are suppose to clean it and re-oil the filter. But yes, pulling from the main air filter is the best choice.

 

ok so i will go get a filter breather for my oil fill hole on the drivers side vc.
blue68 are you saying its fine to run the cap open or fab up a road draft vent tube on the passenger side vc?
is a vacuum and pvc hookup really not that necessary?
is that just being kind to the environment or is does a slight vacuum make a world of a diffrence?

 

Never run with out a cap. I will suck all of the dirt and trash into your engine. You do not have to run a tube from the VC to the filter. Most after market caps have filters in them. That is what I use. The connection to the air filter (between the carb and filter) is the best choice, finer filtration. But does not give you the normal custom look. But you can use SS braid over the hose.

The PVC system keep the engine from sludging. So Yes it is necessary and is environmentally friendly.

 

yes i understand it keeps the engine from sludging by removing nasty gases from the crankcase and keeping the oil clean, but does it absolutely have to have a vacuum to work? does the road draft tube method work just fine? i like the idea of a vacuum but i refuse to put those fumes back into my engine where only clean fresh air belongs. even with a quality pcv valve and a cap with a filter in it and all that the gases may not be oily but they are still smoky and i just dont see it being any good to recirculate them. it would almost be like egr exhaust gas recirculation. i am really considering fabbing up a road draft tube that will be routed to the bottom and back of the motor, so that these gases will not be accumulating under my hood, they will just go back to mother nature and turn into wonderful smog.

 

It has to have the vacuum in order to remove the gases. If you have the correct PVC and a breather cap/ hose it will not pull enough oil to foul plugs generate smoke of any kind.

NOW; If you have a after market VC, you my not have the needed baffel in the covers. With out the baffel you will suck oil and not gas vapors. Which can foul plugs and smoke out the tail pipe. Correct this and your problems will clear up.

The old crankcase breathers use to come off the side of the block. These will put oil down the side of the engine. You would be better to run 2 breather caps.

 

well heres an update
i changed my spark plugs and oil to do yet another trial and it resulted in error still.
for the last week i have been running the pcv on the pass. vc, and a fancy chrome breather on the driver side vc. my pcv has 2 filters, one in the stock cap and another small one in the fitting itself.
these blowby gases being recirculated back into the motor are still very smoky and yet again my plugs became fouled. there is nothing wrong with my carb, choke or mixture.
my only option now is to run the fancy breather caps on both valve covers, but that would still mean i'd be getting lots of smoke billowing out from under the hood at traffic lights, so i am going to fabricate some sort of scavenger system to hook up to my exhaust or run a 4 foot hose down to the bottom of the engine bay and i will be running a road draft tube. the crankcase ventilates itself quite well and those gases billow out of the pass. vc with no prob, so maybe a vacuum isnt absolutely necessary? my buddy ran this type of setup on his mustang for the longest time and his oil really never got that dirty or sludgy. i will remove and clean the spark plugs and do another trial with the light at the end of the tunnel hopefully not being an oncoming train.