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Negative pressure system

Aron Gleason

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So after 30 years of running 2 breathers with hoses that run out to the atmosphere i decided to add a pcv valve and oil catch. The in port on the can goes to the pcv valve, and the out port goes to the vacuum port on the carburetor. With a breather and hose running out to the atmosphere on the drivers side my oil leak was worse. I put a breather with the holes on the bottom on and the oil leak didnt leak out nearly as bad just a couple drips. But when I shut it off, there was a small spot of oil on the k member. My question is, should I keep the breather with the holes on the bottom, or get a different setup? Im not going to run a hose to the air cleaner.
 
My 2-cents? Fix your oil leak & maybe replace the PCV valve??? You’ve got the catch can installed correctly
 
So after 30 years of running 2 breathers with hoses that run out to the atmosphere i decided to add a pcv valve and oil catch. The in port on the can goes to the pcv valve, and the out port goes to the vacuum port on the carburetor. With a breather and hose running out to the atmosphere on the drivers side my oil leak was worse. I put a breather with the holes on the bottom on and the oil leak didnt leak out nearly as bad just a couple drips. But when I shut it off, there was a small spot of oil on the k member. My question is, should I keep the breather with the holes on the bottom, or get a different setup? Im not going to run a hose to the air cleaner.
How much blow-by do you have? Sounds like you have leaks to fix first. What type of oil catch system did you buy?
 
So it sounds like the pcv is restricting and therefore pressure in the crankcase is building - increasing the leakage.

If all you did was add the pcv I can't say I'm surprised. Have you seen the size of the hole in a pcv? Its easy to see how it would be restrictive compared to what is essentially an "open" system.
 
The breather should be the flow path entrance into the crankcase. Then the low pressure area in the intake creates a flow path through a restriction (PCV). The catch can allows droplets of any oil picked up to drop into the can. If the crankcase pressure exceeds the capabilty of the flow path, then pressure will back up being discharged by the breather inlet. This can also be aggravated by insuffcient baffling under the breather. The bottom line is if there is excessive crankcase pressure it will back up and leak.
Doug
 
The breather should be the flow path entrance into the crankcase. Then the low pressure area in the intake creates a flow path through a restriction (PCV). The catch can allows droplets of any oil picked up to drop into the can. If the crankcase pressure exceeds the capabilty of the flow path, then pressure will back up being discharged by the breather inlet. This can also be aggravated by insuffcient baffling under the breather. The bottom line is if there is excessive crankcase pressure it will back up and leak.
Doug
The leak down between the timing chain cover and oil pan on the passenger side all started after I tore the front of the motor off to replace the cam, lifters and timing chain. Before that, I didnt have any problems with oil leaks when I ran the 2 breathers with hoses that ran out to the atmosphere.
 
So it sounds like the pcv is restricting and therefore pressure in the crankcase is building - increasing the leakage.

If all you did was add the pcv I can't say I'm surprised. Have you seen the size of the hole in a pcv? Its easy to see how it would be restrictive compared to what is essentially an "open" system.
Before I added the pcv valve my leak between the timing chain cover and oil pan on the passenger side was bad enough to where i can watch oil seeping out. After putting the pcv valve and oil catch can with the breather on the drivers side the leak slowed down. So how can pressure be building up if the leak slowed down? Enlighten me
 
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