Tons of oil in breather...

[paradox11235]

So I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death but I'm hoping to get the most relevant info. Just replaced the stock k24 with the volvo setup and vems (on my 3b), and I'm getting tons of oil in the intake and out of the breather. I left the PCV puck open to atmosphere as I ran out of time to do anything with it, but I'm leaving sizable clouds of smoke everywhere and dumping oil all over the downpipe. For short term I'm thinking I'll run the PCV vent up high to a check valve then back down below the car, but I want to do a Mann provent and maybe drain the oil back to the sump with a check valve. I'm not 100% sure if this oil is from sloshing or blowby, my leakdown numbers were pretty good so I'm hoping for the sloshing bit. Is there anything else I should be considering here? I may add a valve cover vent as well when I have it off.

[araipilot]

Hello,

My name is Nathan, I have come up with a very good breather system that is closed looped,oil drains back into your oil pan but it does require some modification. First off the 3B valve cover does not have any vent on it. This is the way I approached the problem to solve my issue of copious amounts of oil coming out of my vent pipe. The block breather spits so much oil under hard acceleration so this is the first item to take care of. If you have access to a welder or know someone who welds, connect the block vent to the back of the valve cover, (you can maintain your oem pcv so it still draws vacuum on the block under partial throttle conditions) weld an a/n fitting or attach by other means (back of valve cover)then on the top of the valve cover weld two more -10a/n fittings in between your cam lobes,( very important) with two 120 degree -10a/n fittings run those two lines run under your fuel rail/ intake manifold, into a swirl pot with a drain line on the bottom of the swirl pot draining into your oil sump below your oil level(very important). You'll need to look at space available for your swirl pot location so the lines can be cut to proper length. The 3B oil pan has this little "wing" (next to oil filter) on it for extra oil capacity that you can remove without having to remove the oil pan and provides a great drain location for the swirl pot. The one way -10a/n check valve needs to be installed on your drain line so the motor does not pressurize the can and fill up with oil under boost conditions. I machined a one way check valve that was open statically. This allows oil to drain when not under boost but while under boost the pressure simply closes the valve. This needs to be placed on your drain line. My 3B motor is pushing 650 hp with very little oiling issues. I have performed these modifications on two cars with very good results. I can machine the one way check valve for you for $135. There is no one way valve on the market that would meet these design requirements, believe me I checked everywhere, after an exhaustive search I realized I would have to design and machine the part myself. Either way you deside you now have a tried and tested way to sort your pcv situation permanently. Let me know if you need more help. I don't have an established business I just want to help others in the community.

[varia]

Many of us knows Nathan personally and seen his build. If you know the words: quality, precise, clean thats his motto

Nathan, can you post a few pictures? I think that would help a lot.
Thank you!

[Wheeljack]

Alex took this pic...you can see the ports on the valve cover and the machined swirl pot over by the coolant reservoir...



Quality with a capital 'Q'...this is probaably the cleanest CQ in the states and putting down big time power levels...

[paradox11235]

Sounds fairly on par with what I'm planning on doing, I'm going to be using the Mann Provent as it seems to do a nice job separating the oil from the air. I'm not sure if I'll be draining back to the sump or not, I'll likely drain to a reservoir first to see what's coming out before putting it back in the system.

I'm also playing with the idea of using a vacuum pump on a pressure switch to draw vacuum on the provent under boost, instead of running it to the turbo inlet. My stock PCV system is toast so i'm not going to use any of it. I will be welding some ports on the valve cover when I have it off next. What's the purpose of the port on the rear of the cover? Just to integrate to the stock system? I was just going to do the two top ports and tee them into the block breather before the oil separator.

I'll let you know on the check valve, like I said, I may not drain back to the sump at all. Mann also sells a check valve specifically for this purpose so I may try that one first.

[araipilot]

The port on the rear of the valve cover is to tie the block crank vent to the head, due to the massive amounts of oil that will spit out of the crank vent under hard acceleration. As I said before that this was my approach to solving the issue but it gives you a guide line as to what needs to be addressed. Many ways to skin a cat. The pic that wheel jack posted is a good shot of my engine bay with supporting modifications. I'm not sure if I could get any better shots of said modifications due to it being so "deep" in the engine bay. Hope all goes well for you

[SEStone]

Another thing I've found that helps is putting your catch can on the passenger side of the engine bay. The mere act of making flow coming out of the crankcase port do a 180* turn before it hits the catch can is an effective oil separator on its own. Giving blowby a second location to evacuate the engine prevents crankcase pressure from forcing the oil trapped in the breather or this elbow from innundating the catchcan as well.

My breather goes as follows:

Crankcase port ->180* 1" ID radiator hose ->Tee w/ vent from valve cover -> Catch Can

Using large diameter plumbing is important too. The larger the diameter, the slower the air flow, and the more difficult it is for oil to stay suspended in the gases far beyond the crankcase.

Edit: I would also recommend draining back to the crankcase. If you do 20min of hard driving in my car, and then pull the catch can drain (which I have going to the turbo drain flange using a piece 034 sells), you'll get 1/2-1 cup of oil out of it. Over extended hard driving, it could add up to either a full can or a loss of oil in the engine.

Sam

[araipilot]

Good post Sam.

[paradox11235]

I don't think 034 sells that adapter anymore, I looked for it the other day