PCV routing, open to air vs. routed to intake

[Guest bastaad525]

A poll of sorts, I guess.

 

I've tried both ways... can't really decide which I like better, and don't have the tech knowledge to say with certainty that one works better than the other.

 

Setup 1: Basically stock. Well for me personally, a little different than stock, but for the purpose of this 'poll' just consider it a stock setup. I use a '75 intake manifold on my turbo motor, and the stock location of the PCV valve wouldn't work. Didn't think enough of it to have another hole tapped for it, thinking I'd just run open filters. Later decided to try slightly different routing. The valve cover is vented back into the stock location, on the rubber hose that connects the AFM to the turbo. The block breather is now vented into the same place, well actually, a little in front of that, but on that same rubber hose. Only disadvantages I can see are that oily air now finds its way into the AFM to Turbo boot, and I worry that this may eat the rubber away after time. I also dont like the thought of oil in droplet form being sucked into the turbo forcefully, and generally dont like the idea of oil getting into my intake at all... dirties things up and can cause detonation. Oh and I do worry about possible vacuum leaks since any air that can now enter the engine (say, an oil dipstick that doesn't seal well in it's recepticle) can cause unmetered air to enter the system.

 

Setup 2: Putting a small K&N filter on both the valve cover breather and the crankcase breather. Disadvantages? Oil can still come out of either breather... when i used to run it this way, there was some wet oil on the side of the valve cover, also some oil on the AFM to Turbo boot, which the crankcase breathers opens directly above. Another possible side effect, though one that is very inconsistent (and which whenever I've suspected as the problem have always tracked down to something else) is that blowby exiting thru these breathers sometimes leads to a burnt oil or exhaust smell inside the car.

 

So for me it comes down to... do I want that oil to dirty up the outside of the motor or inside of my intake?? And if I want to deal with the smell... which again, I suspect may not be an issue at all. The last time I thought that open-to-air breathers was causing oily smell inside the car it actually ended up being oil leaking from my oil pan onto my exhaust that was creating the lovely smell!

 

So which do you guys prefer?? I know I've seen plenty of pics with both setups... can't decide which I'd rather run!