My car makes me smell bad. The 383 in the '57 has a ton of miles on it, and the are rings bad, resulting in excessive blow-by and crankcase pressure. I have a PCV system on it now, which consists of a PCV valve in one valve cover and a breather in the other. Even still, the motor creates blow-by at a higher rate than the PCV can evacuate it. As a result, I'm blowing oil vapor and exhaust out of the breather, some of which eventually makes it's way into the car and causes me to smell. Obviously the correct solution is to rebuild the engine, but with school taking all my time and money, it's just not going to happen. Plus the car runs good and I'm finally enjoying it by just driving it not giving a shit. The question I have is can I have 2 PCV valves? Could I plumb the breather to the exhaust to create some crankcase ventilation? The oil consumption isn't at a critical rate, only a quart every 200 or so miles. I really just want to keep the car and myself from smelling like burned oil and exhaust when I drive somewhere
just remove the PCV valve and add an oil catch can. you can get them on ebay really cheap. it will take care of most of the problem, and it will keep you from burning a good portion of that oil.
I dont think there would be a problem with two crankcase vents going to the breather. Do you have a stock style enclosed air cleaner?
Air cleaner is an O'Brien Truckers cast aluminum piece. I have the PCV currently plumbed to the intake vacuum port in the base of my Holley 4 bbl. RacerRick, what you're saying is let the engine suck down the rest of the blow-by by running it up to a closed air cleaner? Could I achieve the same result by adding a 2nd PCV valve, and plumbing it to the intake vacuum port I currently have plugged? It's all going to the same place right? Or will this screw up my air/fuel ratio?
you need the closed system ...a hose to the air cleaner and the pcv to manifold vacuum .. check to make sure your pcv is opening in the direction of the vacuum source .the pcv works at idle and part throttle but your manifold vacuum drops during w.o.t but vacuum increases in the air horn of the carb.
A couple more ways to do something about that, Joe. If you DO add a second PCV valve, in the other valve cover, it will run OK< but you still need a point to add fresh air into the crankcase. It should be large enough to 'feed' the 2 PCV's, just in case. A sealed system is a good idea, run the fresh air tube into the air cleaner. Pulls in clean filtered air, and any excess blowby just goes up into the air filter housing, and back into the engine through the carb. Another way to handle excess blowby...we did it on my 57 Chevy, with it's 12 1/2 to 1 compression, back in the day.... is to use Chrysler breathers. They're baffled, and have a large outlet ( 1/2", I think) on them. Plumb the outlet, with tubing, into the header collector, at about a 45* angle. The exhaust will help pull out the excess gasses, and can handle about ANY volume! One on each valve cover. I don't remember having to have a fresh air port open on this system, but it was a long time ago. Seems the race cars used to use this system.
It's the breather side that gets piped into the aircleaner. Normally the air enters through the white breather element goes down the tube and out through the PCV. If the PCV can't handle the volume it backs up in the aircleaner and gets sucked back into the engine leaving the engine clean and no stink. This is not a new idea. This was sold in the late 40s to carry away the fumes from worn out old Fords.
Its already been explained above why you would run the diplomat breater (closed system, a nice baffled breather, and it fits the mopar valve covers) and you can run it to a spot on the underside of the air cleaner so it doesn't ruin the look.
For a cheap and dirty way out, try running a piece of hose from the pipe that would go to the air cleaner, to somewhere under the car. It would function like the old draft tube set up, and not send a lot of blow by oil into your air cleaner. And make sure your pcv valve isn't filled with sludge. I run my 350 with one of these pipe and hose combinations, on both heads as there no provision for a pcv valve on my intake manafold, nor on the air filter housing (K+N circle track). It works fine.
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