Valve cover breather issue?

[drddan]

Funny you mention the little screws. I did start to take them out when I had the VC off for gasket/paint. I powerwashed the VC inside and out at the car wash, then blew it all off with compressed air back at the house. I figured that would be clean enough and didnt take them out. (the second screwhead stripped)

[bravekozak]

mystery revealed

Who wants to see the baffles inside the valve cover?

Here is a pic of what's under the cover with all of the screws removed.

Here is a pic of the top of my new unviolated cover that I still have to paint.
Here is a pic of the bottom of my new unviolated cover.

[miami man]

is the valve cover baffled?

[bravekozak]

click the hyperlinks

Click on the blue hyperlinks to see the photos.
Yes, it is like a maze in there. I am not sure why there are that many zig zags. Maybe they want to really make sure that no oil is sucked through the PCV valve.

[Safety Guy]

I remember taking my B6 VC baffle off during my first engine swap. Hard to remember that gasket, though. I do recall it was pretty dirty inside, and those little screws were hard to take out.

I left my current swap VC alone except for spraying it out with carb cleaner as much as possible "as is."

Anyhow, I think I understand why it is designed that way. Thanks for the pics, BK!

Question: Where'd you get a "new, unviolated" VC?

Karl

[drddan]

That's exactly right! Even with a "new" pcv valve like he's got.
Think of your thumb on the opening of the garden hose, you're really not able to stop the flow, but what a difference in the distance and perceived water pressure huh? Well my friends, the same holds true for vacuum control.
Notice the couple inches of length before I placed the restrictor, I could have more easily placed a restrictor right on the very top of that vc hose port we're all familier with right? I've left that little bit of extra 3/8" id (with the 2 90 degree bends) for any oil droplets that might collect, to simply drop back down in the vc. That's all the "oil separator" this particular engine requires, but then my pistons, rings, valves and guide seals are "fresh". You can see how easy it would be to simply add a catch can to this config, and of course in some racing venues, it would be manditory at tech inspection.

I didn't mention it before but, if you've still got the stock intake tube to look at, I think you'll be shocked to see the size of the actuall breather hole in it, it's nowhere near the size of that hose! Obviously use that hole as your guideline!
If someone's got a picture of a stock intake tube, where we can get a pic of the breather hole in it, we can maybe make up a writeup or sticky about breather design!?

Ok, I have made a "restricter", and placed it in the inlet tube on VC. It is now down to a 3/16 hole from the 3/8 ID hole of the inlet. Some drive time and we'll see if it stops the oil from coming up out of the inlet.

[drddan]

Update!

Update!
The "Restrictor" I made is working!!!! (yea!) Over a week of driving..
and no oil blowing out the breather onto the valve cover! (my newly painted valve cover, I might add) Stayin' all pretty and red now.
So THANKS to all ...especially iceracerdude and bravekozak.

[fastivaca]

I've had the same issue with oil blowing out the vent, not the PCV. I cut the plastic bit off the stock intake tube and have it inline with the valve cover filter but still have the problem of oil blowing out ( I hadn't done that when the picture below was taken). I've replaced the PCV recently with no apparent change. All this got worse after I installed a new oil pump before Christmas. I have some Seafoam so I'll give that a try. In researching possibel causes of high crankcase pressure in an NA engine one of the most common causes mentioned is blowby... maybe it's time for a re-ring.

Here's a shot of the intake and the valve cover breather, the little red one. It actually blew off the valve cover after I did the oil pump!

[RhodeStiva]

When the "breathing feature" is in place like on the stock intake tube, yes it's using "already metered air" but the other feature that is often overlooked on a configuration like your's is, that hole in the stock intake tube is actually proportionately much smaller than what you've got right now! You've have in essence, eliminated that needed size difference which assists the vacuum created by the intake manifold.
Once you reduce the size of that breather hole, the manifold will finally be able to suction the oil and fumes away from the breather, and the computer will almost not notice the tiny bit of additional air. I say almost, because the oxy sensor will pick it up and compensate for you! That being said, I can't of course, speak to the condition of your valve guides or seals. Take a look at my setup, and remember, this is with 10lbs of boost!

At the end of the litte tube is a rubber cap that I made about a 3/16" inch hole in.
No catchcan "oil weaping" no worries what-so-evah. I do have a thing called a Krankvent installed over in front of the pcv valve, but that's to stop pressure from going back into the crankcase, a problem you won't realize with your na config.

where did you get that exhaust manifold.

[bravekozak]

Pull off the vent filter and put your thumb over the hole to see how much suction is there. If there is none, I'll bet the baffles in your valve cover are all plugged up. There are six spots between the pcv valve and the breather where it could be plugged with twenty years of build up. I had my valve cover tanked. Originally, it was disgusting.

[georgeb]

I fixed mine today with a piece of plastic tubing attached to the vent running into a water bottle. No restrictor. There was a teaspoon or so of oil in the bottle after my high-speed run. It lives!