A Proper PCV

During a dial-in a few weeks ago, I was alerted by my local mechanic that my PCV set-up was reminiscent of a "horse's ass". I think this was a regular term the guys down at the shop used for something extremely lame done by a do-it-yourselfer with no real automotive certification. I've learned to humble myself, button my lip, listen, and learn on the rare occasion that I bring one of my project cars into a professional.

On the day I brought my Torino in, I was still running dual breathers. Combine my "wrong" dual breather set-up with the fact that both of them were spitting oil at high RPM sent the guys at the shop into immediate corrective action. Since I always have my camera with me, I took some shots to show you what was done in an instant to make my PCV system right. Perhaps you can learn from my errors.

Pictures 1 and 2
In this shot, the breather on the passenger side valve cover was removed and a 1-1/4" PCV grommet was added to accommodate a 90 degree PCV valve. Some 3/8" hose was routed to the large constant-vacuum PCV port on the back on the carb's base plate.






Pictures 3, 4, and 5
To prevent oil from splashing out of the breather on the driver's side valve cover, some "Butler" household scrubbing material was stuffed into the riser. The riser I had installed had two baffles that were not doing much. The top one was removed and the lower remained to keep the "Butler" material from falling into the motor. You can find "Butler" or "Chore Boy" at the grocery store. While it looks like steel wool, it much more coarse.








Pictures 6 and 7
These shots show the driver's-side breather installed along with the final PCV set-up. Pretty simple and tough to accept that I neglected having a proper set-up all these years. One valve cover runs a PCV to the large constant-vacuum port on the carb base-plate, the other valve cover uses a breather. Any other way does not create "Positive Crankcase Ventilation."

Looks good. No more oil issues now

By ported Vacuum you mean Direct constant vacuum or do you mean ONLY when the Butterflies are open Vacuum?

To myself, ported vacuum is vacuum only when the throttle is opened... Am I bass ackwards?

Thanks Gary. I had the terminology wrong. I changed it to "constant-vacuum". Yes, "ported vacuum" is above the butterflies.

Ummmm.... So wait a second. I have what I assume is the factory pcv/valve cover setup. I have the pcv valve in the breather on the driver's side valve cover; however, the passenger side valve cover has a plastic fitting connected to a hose that goes straight into the back on the air cleaner.

My question is: What is the difference between my setup, the passenger valve cover plastic fitting with a hose going to the air cleaner, and a breather with the filter built into itself?

The hose going to the air cleaner is just exactly like Jon has, but he didn't use the air filter, he instead installed his own cute little one...

With the PCV being hooked up to the left cover, when his engine is running, the vacuum from the carb will constantly pull air from that valve cover, and the Right valve cover will constantly pull air IN, thus the Filter he installed, and the hose going to your breather. keeping junk air from going into the engine.

The CLOSED PCV SYSTEM (fresh air drawn from the air cleaner asm) is more efficient. Dust can be drawn through that mesh filter shown and it has to be serviced on a regular basis.

Hold on a second Kul...

The system Mr. Mikelonis has is almost as closed as they get...

Read it this way if you will.

Valve cover with PCV valve conected to vacuum port.

Hose going from opposite valve cover to the air filter housing.

Sure it's a closed system, but... The inlet hose to the VC goes to the filter housing but it draw's air from OUTSIDE the Filter, through a small piece of Poly-Cotton Batting...

That poly-cotton batting is nowhere near as efficient at filtering the air as that cute little Washable K&N filter that Jon uses...

So I think the Closed PCV System is a little out done here...

What do you think of my pint of view?

FE

FE, that's exactly what I was thinking.... I eventually want to change my valve covers to the black, finned Ford covers and was thiking about just using a mesh breather like Mike's rather than running the hose to the air cleaner.

Speaking of which, I need to find a way to seal the breather on my driver's side valve cover to the valve cover.

At moderate rpms (around 2000) a bit of oil weeps out of the breather down on to my exhaust manifold. I changed the pcv and cleaned the wire mesh screen inside the breather with carb cleaner, but the oil obviously has no problem weeping past the rubber "seal" on the bottom of the breather.

I read an article in Popular Hot Rodding, but the system that they hooked up cost upwards of $300, and I'd rather just live with the oil leak for the time being rather than spend that kind of money on that, even though the system was really neat and clean.

Any ideas?

Originally Posted by 72BlackOnBlack

Speaking of which, I need to find a way to seal the breather on my driver's side valve cover to the valve cover.

At moderate rpms (around 2000) a bit of oil weeps out of the breather down on to my exhaust manifold. I changed the pcv and cleaned the wire mesh screen inside the breather with carb cleaner, but the oil obviously has no problem weeping past the rubber "seal" on the bottom of the breather.

Is it the correct grommet and is it still pliable? Once they harden, they will not seal. Finding a good one may be hard also as most of this stuff is CHI-COM now. Can you show a photo of yours?