Oil at PVC Fitting?

-

Ricks70Duster340

Child of the King
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
1,277
Reaction score
1,002
Location
Sisterdale, TX
I have a fresh 440 (about 750 miles on it) with Ansen cast valve covers & their PCV. The valve covers have baffles like the old Mickey Thompson ones did. Took my carb off and turned upside down to verify the transfer slot appearance. Found some oil around the PCV port and am wondering if this should be a concern. The engine does not seem to have an oil appetite and no obvious oil smoke out the pipes. This is the first engine I've had where I've noticed this.
 
You better get after it cuz oil in the chambers leads to detonation.

Are you familiar with how that system is supposed to work?
I understand that the PCV functions to evacuate crankcase gasses and to reduce crankcase pressure buildup. Am a bit unsure why oil would be present in that area of the carb when there are baffles in the valve covers... unless the oil is splashing around the baffles and getting picked up by the PCV.
 
I understand that the PCV functions to evacuate crankcase gasses and to reduce crankcase pressure buildup. Am a bit unsure why oil would be present in that area of the carb when there are baffles in the valve covers... unless the oil is splashing around the baffles and getting picked up by the PCV.

Get a separator and plumb it in.
 
I’ve got a silly question: you have a breather on one side and a pcv on the other …. Right? Just asking because if there is now way for the air to get in it will suck oil regardless of baffles. Syleng1
 
How much "oil" are we talking about here? The purpose of the PCV is to vent the crankcase vapors into the intake and burn them. It's completely normal for "some" oil to accumulate. You're sucking vacuum from the valve cover, after all.
 
Sounds like the rings aren't sealed and it's sucking blowby
 
Dulcich removed the baffle and gave more clearance plus drilled a hole in it to drain on the F-Rod project. That is a drag car but I thought it might be a good idea if . . .
 
How much "oil" are we talking about here? The purpose of the PCV is to vent the crankcase vapors into the intake and burn them. It's completely normal for "some" oil to accumulate. You're sucking vacuum from the valve cover, after all.
Don't know how much, but it was draining out of the PCV area so not a little I would think. Never had an engine that did that, but never had valve covers like these either.
 
I’ve got a silly question: you have a breather on one side and a pcv on the other …. Right? Just asking because if there is now way for the air to get in it will suck oil regardless of baffles. Syleng1
Yes, the other valve cover has a breather cap.

20240413_053006[1].jpg
 
I see one with a filter/breather on top and one without. Since it has a breather, will air still be drawn in through the other valve cover that has a breather?

My bad. You don’t want one with the breather/filter. You want to pull air from only one source, so the air that the PVC is pulling comes through that breather, down through the crankcase and then out the PCV valve, into the separator and then back into the engine.
 
Okay- just checking. Some people have sold me engines blowing oil smoke before and it was lack of breather or pvc and breather on same side. lol!

lol yeah, that’s nice! They set it up so it pulls air from the breather and then it moves a few inches and goes right back to the PCV.
 
My bad. You don’t want one with the breather/filter. You want to pull air from only one source, so the air that the PVC is pulling comes through that breather, down through the crankcase and then out the PCV valve, into the separator and then back into the engine.
OK, thanks for the clarification. Onward!
 
OK Ok , I'll tell;
There comes a time in the working of the engine, when not much vacuum exists inside the intake, and more blow-by is being created than the normal PCV route can handle. When this happens, The CC gasses, under increasing pressure, have to go somewhere, and backwards, up and out of the breather, and usually into the Air-filter housing, is the easiest route. If the pressure cannot escape in the usual way, it will make it's own way, and, you better have glued in that rear camplug! Relax, it usually blows the Mopar dipstick out first., lol.
Depending on your choice of rings and cylinder-wall prep, and at just 750 miles, your rings might just need more break-in time.

-----------------------------------------------------------
I solved my pressure problem with;
a moly Second ring
on a KB hyper piston with the gas-accumulator grooves, and
a deep-sump hi-capacity oil pan, running a lower than standard oil-level, to keep the crank from beating up the oil.
And I installed an open-cell foam separator into the baffle.
I first began to have problems when I decided to increase my top-end oiling, to provide more lube to my expensive unbushed, roller-tipped, alloy rocker arms, and more-so, to provide oil-cooling to the HD valve springs. Right away, I had to provide a better drain-back scheme, and oil-separation. The foam in the baffle was just one of the steps I took.
At one point, when I was running the Mopar 292/292/108 cam, I was running dual PCVs, for Idle-Air bypass, but after ditching that inappropriately chosen cam, I abandoned the second one. The much smaller Hughes 270/276/110 didn't need it.
 
Last edited:
-
Back
Top