I have been building this car for four years . I finished the engine three years ago and it has been sitting in my garage. I just drive the car for the first time two weeks ago only around the block a few times to work out any bugs. I removed the valve covers to adjust the valve lash and found clear liquid / moisture inside the valve covers. And some white slime. The engine is filled with antifreeze, no signs of green liguid. The drivers side cover has a push in breather cap, the passenger side cover is plugged. I dropped the engine oil and it looked fine no signs of liquid. Engine runs great and oil pressure is good . I think this is just condensation. Do i need to add a breather to the passenger side valve cover? Or a PCV valve?
I think you're correct about the condensation. Install a PCV valve and drive the hell out of it to get it good and warm so the condensation dries up and you should be fine. JMO
What temperature does the cooling system run ? the hotter you run a motor the drier the crankcase will be.
While PCV has lots of benefits, there is something else going on there. Me old Y-Block runs a draft tube, never seen anything like that under the valve covers. Insides are "Clean for Gene."
I looked at this thread last night and knew I had an engine that seemed to do the same thing often, but couldn’t remember what engine it was. It just came to me that it was back in high school when I had a tunnel ram on a sbc and don’t believe I was running a pcv valve. Not sure there is any correlation, but does seem coincidental to me. I don’t know that I have ever had other engines with the condensation problem even without pcv valves.
Easy cure! Change the motor out for a flathead, no valve covers on the heads to have condensation under them!
Something else to consider is what type of gas are you using ? if it has alcohol in it that will add to the problem.
have you ever plugged the draft tube so there's only one vent, then run the engine for a short time, and then pulled the valve covers? You might be surprised?
No, but what would be the point of that? What I'm getting at, the innards are really clean, after many years and many miles. That's why I think there's something else going on in that pic. Maybe a 160° or defective thermostat. Or a plugged vent....
Add a PCV, and check to see that your thermostat is functioning properly, and is a 180 degree minimum. Also, avoid short runs where the engine doesn’t fully warm up. It needs to be run under load long enough to boil off accumulated condensation, and that’s not going to happen idling in the shop. The pvc is a must.
Just to show you that what he's seeing is normal under the conditions, even though you've never seen it, because you don't look at the inside of your engine under those conditions.
You have moisture inside your valve covers because your engine crankcase isn't properly vented. Like others have said, put a PCV valve in that valve cover that is plugged. You need a fresh air flow through the crankcase to prevent this. When I worked for a Dodge dealer it was common for someone to come in and think they had a blown head gasket or cracked block. What they were seeing was moisture and white sludge on the dipstick. About 99% of the time it was a plugged valve cover vent cap which kept the PCV valve from doing it's job. You do have to let air into the crankcase for the PCV to do it's job.
With my Y block in the Model A, I would get water under the valve cover. It has a draft tube but no thermostat at the time, after installing a 180* thermostat .... no more water.
I'm another vote for a PCV valve system. With what you have now, you only have blowby to push out vapors in the crankcase. That's causing a somewhat stagnant condition. Adding the PCV valve will act to purge and exchange pretty near all of that. The white sludge indicates a bit of the condensation and oil are emulsifying from the vapor state into a compound liquid state. Getting your crankcase to breathe and longer trip times at full operating temp helps keep things "dry". Very short trips don't get hot enough to return condensation back to vapor. You probably know most of this. I'm also writing to our general forum population. I'm not an expert so, as always, 'eat the meat and throw away the bones'.
I have a similar problem with my roadster engine, white condensation in the oil filler tube and cap which is on the intake and is the air inlet for my PVC system. I have a 180 degree thermostat but it is slow to heat up the engine. I have changed it twice now but it still works the same. So something is not letting the engine warm up properly so I believe the 160 to 170 degrees is the cause of the condensation.
You might be surprised how often this occurs but you just don't see it. This is why we were always told "highway miles are good miles". Ever start tearing into an engine, trans, anything really, first thing in the am? Especially if it's been parked outside? Common findings. Driving around the block is just enough heat to condense damp air and not enough to burn it off. Really bad for metal machines. I don't think there is anything to be worried about. Add a PVC if you want but that need would become apparent later. You'll still get moisture under those circumstances. You just need to drive it longer each time IMO. P.S. Was watching it almost raining with moisture in a hangar and was taught that all that humidity is not just around an airplane but also inside the engine, the frame, and every other thing inside the hangar.
Yup, PCV fur sure. Short road trips or any up to temperature travel, take your time coming home. Nice engine.
For the first 8 years I had no PCV valve and never had any condensation and I looked. I have always used a 160 thermostat. It just needs to be driven and reach operating temp each time it’s driven. As I remember tunnel rams do not heat up very well since they do not have an exhaust heat crossover. Tunnel rams were made for racing and really not for the street so you make amends for that and drive accordingly. If you don’t want to plumb a PCV system I would add a second breather to help with evaporation. Do you have a road draft tube? That would also help but a SBF’s were manufactured after PCV systems were common. A hood may help also.
Yes, you need to add a PCV valve to the opposite valve cover. The early SBF used a timing cover oil fill/manifold located PCV, Ford switched away from that design after only two years precisely because of this problem, poor ventilation in the valve covers that promoted condensation. It's especially a problem if you live somewhere with high humidity. You've got half of what you need, just add the other half. The generator-equipped versions with their longer dipstick were famous for rotting the handle end of the dipstick off from condensation even with the proper PCV system, that's why the later ones were shorter. The SBF never had a road draft tube, it was designed from the git-go to use a PCV system.
It’s garbage , get rid of it. Complete junk. Get out of the hobby completely. Sell everything and get into button collecting.
Eeegads! That's a lot of moisture for condensation. I hope that's all it is, but that is a common indicator of a small coolant leak, seen it many times. Check the dipstick, is it showing moisture on it, even drops, perhaps even rust? Engine oil has detergents in it that will hold low volumes of water in suspension. Here's something you can do, collect a small amount of the oil out of the engine, and drop it onto a plate of steel you've heated up with a torch up to >212F (don't go too hot!). If there is water in the oil you will see it boil out of the oil. See my caution about getting the plate too hot, you don't want to exceed the flash point or fire point of the oil, just exceed the boiling point of water. In the lab they do this was an electric hot plate, it's called the Crackle Test.
The lack of the road draft tube was why the early race motors had two breathers per valve cover welded on.
Even the road draft systems were intended to provide "ventilation" thru the various chambers formed inside an engine. PCV should be "positive" and more sophisticated. Like air in one head, thru the block, then out the other head/valve cover. Even forced to pass thru the timing chest etc on the way. Even with real PCV some engines don't "ventilate" well enough. Pre 200? Mopar 2.7 V6, probably the Toyota sludge recalls, and others. Like others said, simple pressure relief/venting leaves a LOT of nasty stuff behind to accumulate over time.
First factory PCV system I saw in California was 1961. 1962 Factory mandatory. Not sure on the rest of the country. ^^^^^^ that does make sense as a 221-up would have been designed before 1960 and manufacturers didn’t do anything they were not forced to do by law. A penny or even less per car was to be awarded to engineering.
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