that will work fine Put the pcv hole as far back as possible and run a breather cap

 

Thanks for the input! I was thinking about putting a baffle or shield of some sort to prevent oil splash too. Nothing fancy, just a piece of aluminum or stainless to shield the through hole in the intake but still allow air flow.

 

I did something different to my brother's big block. He ran the fancy GM cast valve covers without any holes for breather or pcv. Mounted the pcv at the firewall end of one valve cover and ran an elbow and line at the firewall end of the other valve cover. A small remote air filter and hose go to the elbow. Next problem was how to oil in the engine. I drilled and tapped a 3/4"(with the intake off the engine) and used an aluminum pipe plug as an access point. It was mounted behind the carb and under the air cleaner. Because the engine is fairly tight to the firewall (64 El Camino)you couldn't really see anything unless you positioned yourself just right.

 

The early engines didn't have any PCV. just the breather. The PCV valve was introduced later for emissions purposes. We now know they help keep the contaminants out of the engine, but it would work fine without one, just more oil changes.

 

The early engines had a draft tube which used a venturi effect to pull the air from the crank case, the breather was the inlet for the air. No Chevy engine has ever been entirely sealed.

 

The importance of a pcv,

http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127844

 

Thanks for the link Shane, some good info there! I definitely want to run a PCV, that's why I'm trying to think about my options now! :yes::yes:

 

Wasn't the PCV valve in the oil filler tube when it was first introduced?

 

Yep, and that's why that filler tube was capped and the breather would be in one of the valve covers.

 

GM claims to have developed the PCV in 1963 but it was invented much earlier but not widely used.

I was just reading a book* from the library that noted that crank case to manifold ventilation was actually invented prior to World War II. W.S. James of the Studebaker Corporation devised a copper tube that ran from the oil pan to the intake manifold.
It was later introduced on Cadillac models in the 40's to eliminate the messy road draft tube. PCV was also used on WWII vehicles to improve water fording capabilities.

Emission problems with the road draft tube were found during a big football game in 1949 at Berkeley Cal bears vs. the Washington Huskies. The traffic jam of cars going to the game wasn't going fast enough to get air flow across all the road draft tubes. The pressure built up in all those crankcases and engines puked oil and smoke. Sunlight causes a reaction and harmful photochemicals are produced. The amount of smog caused many people to have respiratory problems and stinging eyes.

*The book is: Auto Mechanics: Technology and expertise in the twentieth-century America.

 

looks kinda-sorta like my ol'65 engine...

 

Hey Flyer, what did you do for a breather and PCV valve on your engine?

 

if you look at the restoration suppliers, they have the front oil tube with the fitting for the PCV, mine did not... so i brazed one in. my valve covers, as you'll notice, have a set of old school "Moon" breathers. the PCV runs from the tube, to the front of the carb... the breathers are on each valve cover.

the engine & car has swapped owners a couple times but the engine is now in my possession... i can get you bigger/better images if needed.

your engine, if it's a dated engine, will have the provision at the back of the block for a road draft tube. this "i believe" can be used so you won't have to install breathers in the valve covers.

but whatever you do... a PCV is needed.

 

here, i took a better pic for ya...

i'm using a later model block, no road draft provision...

the system works great... but you will need to put some breathers in the covers...

 

You don't want to use a PCV valve with a downdraft tube used for fresh air. The downdraft tube is the blowby exit not the fresh air intake.

 

all i was considering is it's an open port which will allow the pressure inside the block to be vented... if the PCV pulls air from the front, the hole in the back will allow air in...

 

Thanks for the pic! I didn't even notice the Moon breathers until you pointed them out, too cool!

I'm still weighing options, I thought the PCV located in the intake was a good idea. I just want to make sure I put the through hole in the right position so I don't ruin the manifold! Unfortunately my block doesn't have the provision for the PCV at the back, it's too "new". If it needed to be rebuilt I would find an earlier block, but this one is actually a rebuilt motor that I did when the car was my daily driver, years ago... It just sat for 10+ years, but I got it running pretty good before I tore the car apart.

Here's a pic from when I yanked it:

 

why not just run the fill tube with PCV provision and a set of breathers...

you'll be "era" correct...

here's the tube: part number 01088 http://chevynova.com/home.php

here's the breathers: http://www.mooneyesusa.com/shop/product.php?cPath=188_191&products_id=1868

 

I dug this back up to show what I ended up doing with my manifold. I had the machine shop put in a threaded port for the PCV right into the manifold. It's a common part number that you can pick up from the parts store. I'll go down and get a 90 degree bent piece of tubing to run to the front port on my Edelbrock carb. I will also run a breather cap on the top of the oil fill tube. I was pretty excited about it! Now I can run my script covers!

 

I dug this back up to show what I ended up doing with my manifold. I had the machine shop put in a threaded port for the PCV right into the manifold. It's a common part number that you can pick up from the parts store. I'll go down and get a 90 degree bent piece of tubing to run to the front port on my Edelbrock carb. I will also run a breather cap on the top of the oil fill tube. I was pretty excited about it! Now I can run my script covers!

Thats a smart idea.. Clean looking and allows the use of PCV..


I remote mounted my PCV valve and breather in two small seperate baffled canisters. My thinking is it lets the engine oil vapor cool off some and condense in the PCV canister (so Im not in-taking oil vapors) and the breather canister does the same to keep oil vapors from entering the engine compartment. And it cleans up the top of the engine so there aren't any breathers on top.

But I really like your idea to keep the valve covers clean looking and makes the engine look like its a sealed system when it actually is a better PCV controlled vented system.

Good job making what you wanted, which was a difficult call out, WORK... JR

 

Those valve covers are slick! Very nice.

 

Thank you! I used 2 different powders, a silver base with a Chevy orange top coat. It was a pita, but I used q-tips to remove the orange powder from the cured silver.

Thats a smart idea.. Clean looking and allows the use of PCV..


I remote mounted my PCV valve and breather in two small seperate baffled canisters. My thinking is it lets the engine oil vapor cool off some and condense in the PCV canister (so Im not in-taking oil vapors) and the breather canister does the same to keep oil vapors from entering the engine compartment. And it cleans up the top of the engine so there aren't any breathers on top.

But I really like your idea to keep the valve covers clean looking and makes the engine look like its a sealed system when it actually is a better PCV controlled vented system.

Good job making what you wanted, which was a difficult call out, WORK... JR

Thank you! I was hoping to keep it clean, and I like the "old" look of those script covers!

 

Hey Gary, shouldn't you be doing something else?

 

We're just hanging out right now, I guess they're not going to give her the pitocin until 7am tomorrow! We're just watching tv for the moment

 

here is the catch can i'm using...

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/PVC-Oil-Catch-Can-Silver/dp/B002P4SCZE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339523018&sr=8-2&keywords=PCV+catch+can[/ame]