dune333racing Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 I have a basic street/strip 383 SBC with vortec heads. I recently bought some die cast aluminum valve covers for it and I put breathers on each side. I took a picture of it and showed to a guy a work with and he said that I need to put a pcv valve on the engine or would start blowing oil ou the dipstick tube or blow ever seal in the engine. I did not think that made any sense at all. How would the crankcase build up any kind of pressure if the engine was vented to out side atomoshpere. His argument has that the pcv was very important. what do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjhafa Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 I'd be interested also, I put the rectangle edelbrocks on mine too, both sides. Never heard that before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danc Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 I'm running a GM PP Crate ZZ430 with the Vortec Fastburn 385 heads and had the same problem with the Bowtie Aluminum valve covers. Big time oil blow-by using ONE vented valve cover. Put the PVC valve in and the problem totally went away. Before that, I regularly "raised' the Dipstick on high RPM runs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dune333racing Posted April 30, 2006 Author Share Posted April 30, 2006 Yeah but both of my valve covers are vented I don't know maybe he was right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deMideon Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 I have cast valve covers as well and both sides are vented. I have no pressure problems at all. The only issue I have is oil blowing out my breathers! Especially on hard cornering. I am working on fixing that though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted May 2, 2006 Share Posted May 2, 2006 I think that if you have a PCV in both valve covers and no breather it will blow oil out the dipstick. Something similar yet not documented happend to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 I have seen cars where the PCV valve got clogged with oil and they most definitely did blow oil out the dipstick tube. The car had a few miles on it, so might only happen with an older engine. There is really no reason not to use a PCV valve. Better to have a slight vaccum in the crankcase then a positive overpressure from ring blowby. The vaccum will help seal the rings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dune333racing Posted May 3, 2006 Author Share Posted May 3, 2006 my question was if needed a pcv valve if i have a breather in each valve cover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 my question was if needed a pcv valve if i have a breather in each valve cover And my answer is yes, otherwise you will not draw a vacuum on the crankcase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Scott Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 my question was if needed a pcv valve if i have a breather in each valve cover How can you draw a vacuum on the cranckcase when the breather and pcv is in the same valve cover? Each valve cover? IMO No, PCV on one side, breather on the other. I run a pcv on one side and a "restricted" breather on the other to create vacuum, but still allow flow, but that's another story. If you were asking if you need a pvc with breathers in each cover, no, but it helps to rid the crankcase of fumes/blowby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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