Inline

Drop your thoughts/ experiences about the subject.

Been wondering a long time what to do with mine. Street driven 99% of time, mostly longer trips where oil gets up to temp for longer periods.
Ive set my mind to go with dual-port adjustable PCV-valve by M/E Wagner, air/oil separator and filtered breather ( not connected to air-cleaner to prevent breathing back-ways on low-vacuum condition and possibly pushing oil to intake), since positives for running PCV are clearly undeniable, atleast thats my opinion.

Im mostly interested to hear what people use here, usage of their car, and why, and how does it work on YOU.
Keep it civil, and not get in to fighting about PCV or not.

VC455

When I bought my 95,000-mile, 13-year-old car in 1983 and removed a valve cover, what remained under the cover was a brown shape that matched the inside of the valve cover. You couldn't see valve gear. I assumed it was from the Pennzoil curse.

And then when I tore down the engine, I found broken rings on two pistons (probably from overheating, judging by the radiator work). Overheating could have carmelized the oil as well.

Both valve-cover breathers were clogged; the PCV system obviously didn't work any more. I put the breathers in my kiln for a few hours at 800 °F to ash the sludge inside.

I reassembled and used synthetic oil, retaining the breathers, (one for the PCV valve and the other for the vent into the air cleaner housing). I found that, unlike my Corvette of the same model year, there has never been a trace of oil inside the air cleaner--which I ascribe to the superior design of the valve cover breather that knocks out oil vapor before it gets to the air cleaner housing.

In driving the car since, about half on short trips, everything internal has stayed spotless.

On my modern Challenger, I noticed that the car would sometimes pull a lot of timing when accelerating hard. I added the equivalent of the Olds valve-cover breather--the so-called catch-can--and eliminated that problem.

I think Olds did a great job designing the PCV system for the lower-performance engines and I use it, unaltered.

If I had a W-30, I would add some type of fine mesh under the intake manifold at the PCV entrance to avoid pulling oil vapor from the valley.

Allan R

Hey Jouni,
I'm not shy. I still have PCV usage on my 350 but it's not a high performance engine. I guess I'm curious about your comment
Those are perfect conditions for the PCV and also your oil/lubing system. For the 1% of the time you may 'abuse the hell out of it" why even bother with changing out the PVC system? Reason I make that comment goes to looking at the L77 high performance engines in the W30 machines. They were designed to be driven and raced. Are you modeling your needs like that? I did look up the Wagner units you described but they seem to be a lot of work for something you don't need to adjust for the most part and they're not cheap either ($US 129,00 each, and more if you need adaptors). Besides, using 2 standard breathers (Cheap - like $US 12,00 each) will reduce the likelihood of pressurization you may be worried about and likely work just as well?

What about just installing 2 of these? You still get an open system that doesn't pressurize and create oil leaks. Anywho, just my 2˘

coppercutlass

I haven't ran a PCV in years I made stepped baffle risers for my open element breathers and then tossed on sweat bands for your wrist around them to comply to what the local track wanted.

70sgeek

I run the Wagner PCV on my modified 350 - pricey indeed, but very effective. it tunes to your specific engine combination to essentially provide best available vacuum. Set it, forget it. No adaptors needed for install (I'm using factory valve covers) - it fits into the OEM valve cover grommet

I run an Edelbrock 4405 breather cap on my passenger side valve cover as well.

zekecut70

Just a little story about my pcv issue. I have a modified 455 that I had to cut out the stock baffle from valve covers and make my own baffle because of the Harland Sharp rockers. Couldn't go with tall covers because of the A/c box and power brake booster. Was getting oil sucking in the carb. Because of the amount of oil being pushed up by the high volume pump resulting in some oil consumption and filthy oil. (Guess my fab work wasn't good enough). So I welded a nipple into the oil fill tube, put the pcv valve there and ran a line to a catch can then to carb. Problem solved!

oddball

Wagner valve here since my 403 has all of 11" vacuum at idle but 20" vacuum cruise. Billet Specialties breather on the other side. Pay attention to the breather - there's lots of designs, many suck. This one is pretty good about catching any oil mist headed out. Also using stock valve covers - controlling oil splash is always important.

Allan: two breathers is not PCV (P is Positive), it's just an open system. Fine for race engines, but a street engine really needs the fresh airflow to keep the crankcase - and therefore the oil - clean. Or just do oil changes more frequently.
A system with two breathers will be more likely to provide that slick oil film over the entire engine bay. (all of this assumes one isn't using the PCV valve in the intake setup.....)

dragline

I like the Wagner design. Will use it on next build. Talked to the father, nice guy. As 70sgeek said, after initial setting your done! PCV is something that get's overlooked in the tuning aspect, but is very critical. It can cause blow by, leaks and other gremlins. Although quite expensive, the Wagners invested quite a bit of time and resources perfecting their product.

VORTECPRO

I like to keep it simple.

madmax442

Vacuum pump with a catch can and breather. You’ll keep the crankcase evacuated and have virtually no oil leaks!

bccan

Similar to “zekecut70” I drilled a hole in back of oil fill tube, put in a basic round PCV grommet & installed my valve there. I have a breather in each valve cover connected to air cleaner, W30 style. Seems to work without issue. I am interested in the M/E Wagner pcv valve & might try one although I don’t have a problem, I wonder if it might help smooth my idle a tad even though that doesn’t have a problem either. I must be nuts.

FWIW I was @ car show yesterday looking at a guy’s 70 Cutlass. He had an open style breather in passenger side valve cover & I quickly saw the oil film & small drips on his firewall.

Lonnies Performance

A nice way to do it is to run a PCV on 1 cover & a filtered catch can hooked to the other...

Under cruise conditions, the PCV pulls air through the filter on the catch can & into the engine.

At full throttle the engine will not pull any thing into the engine (due to no vacuum) & crankcase pressure will flow into the can... this is nearly the same as a valve cover breather, but there will be no chance of oil residue on the valve cover, instead it is contained in the can. I do this on a lot of high HP forced induction builds where there tends to be more blowby due to high cylinder pressures.

I do not like to plumb anything to the air filter as any blowby is pushed into the intake & ingested at full throttle, which can lead to detonation.