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PCV Oil Seperator Mod.

Dewalt03cobra

Dewalt03Cobra
Dec 3, 2004
293
0
Question Answered "at least it sounds good"

A reputable mechanic I met explained the differance in the lines on the valve covers. The drivers side valve cover has the PCV valve and it vents the entire crank case and it's vacuum come from directly in front of the vacuum side of the supercharger where the greatest amount of vacuum is found. The passenger side is an unresticted tube connected farther down the intake path were the intake tubes are larger and the vacuum is less. Most of the time air is being sucked in this tube into the crank case and out the the PCV side into the supercharger. Under heavy acceleration crank case gases and blow by can exceed the PCV valves capacity too remove them, thats when the other tube provides the additional vacuum needed. By adding an oil/air seperator he said you could be causing a resticted PCV flow which would cause more vacuum to be pulled through the unrestricted tube on the passenger side. This could cause oil to be sucked in this tube since there is nothing to stop it, "MAYBE" even more oil than if the the system was unaltered.


Anyone have any opinions? Does this sound right? :dunno:
 

Since 1964

TCG Elite Member
May 26, 2004
6,191
0
Yikes....I have the seperator also and it get's oil in that jar pretty quickly albeit miniscule.

I thought I read that the drivers side seems to blow more oil so that's why we put it there and that the passenger side does not. If the seperator slows down the flow then I would think the passenger side would allow more and defeat the purpose.....WTF you know I hate it when mods are created just to sell something.....I think Kenny Brown did that with the forward torque brace I bent the FK out of much less the stupid aluminum bushings that go on the front of the differential. All that did is give me a whir at any speed I DON'T NEED.

Oh well, not to get off topic but I hope more responses come in here to tell the truth about the effects of the oil seperator. I like the concept.
 

Dewalt03cobra

Dewalt03Cobra
Dec 3, 2004
293
0
10th03cobra said:
I have a breather on the Pass side and left the driver side stock.

Is that ok??

any input, I am dumb.

O.k. I finally got back with that mechanic. He said, this MAY be OK, some older cars use a similar setup. The problem is this tube is used to clear excess gases under heavy acceleration. If your car is under heavy acceleration a lot, you could be at risk of contaminating your oil, causing oil break down and premature engine parts wear. Or worse, detonating the fumes in your crank case, but this is rare.

Hope this helps,
 

ChicagoMike

TCG Elite Member
Mar 4, 2004
2,229
0
I think this was covered long ago, but the breather is a bad idea because it's metered air. It needs to be turned off in your tune. Then you have to worry about the breather spitting out those hot poisonous gases that pass through to the drivers compartment. I've also heard stories of oil spilling out of the breather.

mmmm can you say... C-A-N-C-E-R ? :clap:

10th03cobra said:
I have a breather on the Pass side and left the driver side stock.

Is that ok??

any input, I am dumb.
 

ILLINI-SVT

Member at Large
Mar 4, 2004
1,993
0
Have a few days to read stuff? Run over to NLOC and run a search for PCV. You will find *TONS* of discussion, debate, input, engineering, etc. on the topic. You will have a migrane when done, and still no straight answers. Even from Ford engineers.

It could be crappy rings, it could be lack of sufficient baffling, some people think it's by design to lube the blower rotors, but whatever the reason, the PCV in our motors vents too much oil mist.

You will find pics on NLOC of intercoolers *coated* in oil, as was mine when I pulled it off this summer. I was injesting about a half quart of oil per oil change through my intake. It was leaking out of the throttle body, down my intake boot, and out of my air filter.

I took mine to Ford for diagnosis, they ran a full compression check (so they said), etc., printed me out the TSB explaining that some oil injestion was "expected" and sent me on my way.

The common fix is to install a separator on the hi pressure side (the passenger side for the 5.4) to filter most of the oil. There are some really nice ones that people are using on NLOC. The Wal-mart $20 ones do not work as well, but might be sufficient for the flow in the 4.6.

Others, like me, ripped the whole system out and use breathers. You're supposed to get a retune for the change in crankcase pressure, but it hasn't caused me any problems yet (I also made sure to seal off the system properly though). The only problem now is that the oil runs out of the breathers and down the side of the engine rather than through the intercooler.
 

ILLINI-SVT

Member at Large
Mar 4, 2004
1,993
0
ChicagoMike said:
I think this was covered long ago, but the breather is a bad idea because it's metered air. It needs to be turned off in your tune. Then you have to worry about the breather spitting out those hot poisonous gases that pass through to the drivers compartment. I've also heard stories of oil spilling out of the breather.

The metered air issue isn't an issue as long as you properly seal off the intake when using breathers. (This has been long debated - trust me - I'm using the breathers without a retune, and have yet to throw a lean code.) Although, I am supposed to reset the default crankcase pressure in the tune.

Yeah, sitting in traffic, I can smell oil/exhaust coming from the breathers. And the oil is leaking all out of the breathers. But my truck seems to be a factory freak in that sense - I leak a LOT of oil through the PCV compared to most others. Probably a sign of crappy rings (too much blowby) or the dealer beating on it (mine was a demo).

Oh well.
 
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