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Windage baffles in sbc valve covers

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by brianangus, Apr 25, 2010.

  1. Six years ago when I built the "Wild Canary" (my avatar) I bought a set of cast aluminum Edelbrock valve covers. These came with a pair of sheet metal baffles and spiral drive screws to attach them with. I threw the baffles and screws into a drawer and promptly forgot about them. As the car was completed, and all the shiny bits installed on the engine, I never thought about those baffle plates again. The hole in the valve cover on the passenger side head has a rubber grommet for a pcv valve and line and has never given me a problem. However, the one on the drivers side head has a rubber grommet and a "push in" chrome oil filler cap. Ever since I built the car, if I drive it at sustained high speeds on the freeway, the damn thing has sucked engine oil out of the breather holes in the underside of the oil filler cap and blown it down the side of my bright yellow car. I have always carried a rag with me, and upon arriving anywhere after a long drive have promptly leaped out with my rag and wiped all the oil goobers off the side of my car.----The other day, while searching for something completely unrelated, damned if I didn't find the oil baffles and drive screws---and even the instructions that came with them. Long story short---I installed the baffle in the drivers side valve cover. I haven't had it on a long high speed drive yet, and the weather here today is cool and rainy, so its not going out today. but---I hope that has fixed the problem.---Brian
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2010
  2. historynw
    Joined: May 26, 2008
    Posts: 806

    historynw
    Member

    Buddy had a new high boy with Brodix heads and valve covers, the builder left them out too. It was a mess on his first trip out and then we discovered the missing baffles...baffling isn't it.;)
     
  3. I made the mistake punch holes in a pair of M/T valve covers for my SBC for the breathers and pcv.Oil spit out of them and created an awful mess. I had no baffels in them and I couldn't install any either.The hole was directly over a rocker arm and it was squirting right in the opening. I pulled them off and bought another set with baffels.
    After comparing the new set. I realized the the M/T vc were intended for the early SBC 283-327's with breather on the intake.
     
  4. Topless Ford
    Joined: Feb 10, 2007
    Posts: 560

    Topless Ford
    Member

    Brian, take yourself down to the nearest box store and buy yourself a bunch of wrist sweat bands. Slip one over the breather before the long trip and you won't need the to wipe down the side of the car. Throw the band away at your destination and put on a new one for the trip home.
    Even with the baffles it helps eliminate that fine oil mist.
     

  5. burnout2614
    Joined: Sep 21, 2009
    Posts: 612

    burnout2614
    Member

    old underwear works too! peace
     
  6. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    Anybody have pics. Of baffles for old m/t coversthat were successful ? Dave
     
  7. hotrod40coupe
    Joined: Apr 8, 2007
    Posts: 2,561

    hotrod40coupe
    Member

    If you are running a closed crankcase system with a functioning PVC valve you need to run the breathers without the holes.
     
  8. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    huh? breathers without holes wouldn't be breathers, would they? dave
     
  9. hotrod40coupe
    Joined: Apr 8, 2007
    Posts: 2,561

    hotrod40coupe
    Member

    You don't need breathers on a closed system.
     
  10. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    where would the air come from that is being drawn in by the pcv valve ? dave
     
  11. The way I have always understood it to work is that the drivers side valve cover has a ventilated filler cap. Thats the filler cap with a row of breather holes around the underside, where they can not be seen. Often the filler cap is stuffed full of coarse steel wool, kind of like a Brilo pad. The Positive Crankcase Vent is in the valve cover on the passenger side and is connected to the intake manifold or the carburetor itself. While the engine is running at high vacuum, the PVC valve allows fresh air to be sucked in through the vented filler cap, down thru the drivers side head into the crankcase, where it picks up any funk in the oilpan and then up through the passenger side head to the passenger side valve cover where it is sucked into the carburetor and burned. At low engine vacuum, as in idling, the PVC valve has a spring that keeps it closed so the loss of vacuum won't cause a stumbling idle. This pre-dates a lot of the environmentaly mandated "closed crankcase" set-ups.
     
  12. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    thanks brian that's always been my understanding as well dave
     
  13. On the old flatheads and very early small blocks, they had a "road draft" tube that hung down at the rear of the engine from the intake manifold. The slight vacuum created as the car moved down the road at 60 MPH sucked all the blow by from the engine out of the road draft tube and sent it unburned into the atmosphere. (Choke-Choke!!!)
    Then they come out with the PVC valve as I described earlier. Then they come up with totally closed systems to prevent any of the engine funk and blow by from being blown out, either burned or unburned into the air.-----------Of course, now nobody is intended to keep a car long enough for the rings to get bad and allow a lot of unburned hydrocarbons to get down into the oilpan and then escape into the air. Your environmentaly responsible citizen is expected to buy a new car every 3 years.:eek::eek::eek:
     
  14. I'm having the same problem with my ZZ4 crate engine. I'll try the sweat band remedy, but there's got to be a more elegant, permanent, solution. Where dore one buy these windage baffles of which you speak?
     
  15. Mine came with the aftermarket Edelbrock cast aluminum valve covers when I bought them. Stock valve covers as supplied from the factory may or may not have them, depending on what type of crankcase ventilation the car was intended to have. On older motors like mine, that have a gazillion miles on them, and the rings are going bad, sometimes there is so much blow by escaping into the pan that it overwhelms the PVC system and will blow out through the holes in the filler cap no matter what you do.----Sometimes a new crate engine will do it if the rings aren't seating properly. I am a firm believer in cast iron rings, so they seat quickly. Many engine builders supply hard faced rings that will last virtually forever, but they are a bitch to "wear in" properly, because they are so hard.
     
  16. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    so..... I'll ask again, anyone have any pictures of baffles that worked?
     
  17. roddin-shack
    Joined: Apr 12, 2006
    Posts: 2,512

    roddin-shack
    Member

    Brian, Cool and Rainy. I just came back from a 2 hour cruise baflles and all. You must be getting old. Larry :D
     
  18. Baffels can be had from Jeg's. Look hard theirs a small picture.
     
  19. Larry---I AM getting old.!!!:mad::mad: Shit---Now that I think about it, you're a year older than me I think.----But you got windows.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2010
  20. roddin-shack
    Joined: Apr 12, 2006
    Posts: 2,512

    roddin-shack
    Member

    What I did was remove the baffles from on old stock set of Chevy valve covers then placed them in the aluminum covers in the appropriate spots, then make sure you have enough clearance for the rubber gromlet, I then applied the old JB weld to secure them and they work great. Very little expense just make sre you clean the baffles for the adhesion.
    . Good Luck.:cool:
     
  21. knotheads
    Joined: Jan 4, 2007
    Posts: 499

    knotheads
    Member

    if possible instead of an open breather in the driver side valve cover,try running a closed system breather that has a nipple for a hose.run the hose to the underside of your air cleaner.
     

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