An attempt at a tech post.



This is the Valve cover before any modification. I believe they are made by Blue Thunder. They match the Blue Thunder intake.







First I drill the hole using a 1 3/16 hole saw. This gets it close to the 1.220" diameter specified for the grommet I used. It actually comes out to about 1.200" with the hole saw - rather than 1.188. They aren't the most accurate.







Next, I use a 1 1/2 grinding stone to grind the fins down and provide a smooth surface for the grommet to mount.







I hand sanded the hole to get it to the 1.220" spec. I tried a brake cylinder hone but the stones wore quite fast. Too much pressure on a small surface area.



Here are some pics of the finished product.











The cover is about 1/8" thick after the fins are ground so there is plenty of meat. I chose the center of the valve cover so that they can be swapped if there is any reason to do so in the future. It falls right in the middle of the rocker shaft so there is no interference with the rocker arms. I am using baffled grommets to prevent oil from leaking through the breather. Hopefully they will work well. If not I'll have to have some baffles installed. I may enlarge the holes another .010" because it is a b!#@* to push the breahters in and I plan to use them as oil fillers.

I don't know if two breathers are necessary. I like symmetry and it seems that too many breathers is better than too few.

Now if I could find some nice cast breathers that sort of match the valve covers! I really don't like chrome. And billet stuff is usually too plain for my taste.



There we have it. It is amazing the things that can be accomplished with simple tools.


Lawrenceville, GA

That's pretty slick - So I could swap the the stock valley cover for the aluminum one, and then instead of adding the fill there, just put in the breathers through the valve covers like you did there???  thanks for photos/step by step.

When i turn off my car, I get a bit of smoke from the stock oil fill...  Would this help?  I was thinking of adding an oil cooler.  I'm running a 160 thermostat and had the radiator gone over.  It doesn't seem to run real hot.  Any thoughts? - John

John: Lake Forest, IL



'57 Fairlane 500 - Looking better every day.

Charlie - Looks good to me - What do you think about using epoxy to put a "drip edge" around the inside like a stocker so there is some help for the gasket seal? 

The only idea I've come up with for making the breather look more like my t-bird covers is an add-on cap with screws or epoxy to hold it on

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

John,

That is exactly what I'm doing. I don't like the way the tube sticks out of the stock valley cover. I think it looks weird.



I don't know that it will help the little bit of smoke that you see. My old engine, the one from about 5 years ago did the same thing but it was old and worn out. The new engine didn't do it. I'm now on the second build of the new one. I will say that I am not too familiar with the crankcase venting part of the engine. This is new territory for me.



Steve,

Could this drip edge be what I am referring to as the baffle - a piece of sheet metal beneath the hole to prevent oil from splashing directly into the breather.

The add on cap is a good idea. That's a nice drawing.


Lawrenceville, GA

The Ford tin valve covers that were on my engine to start with, have an inner drip edge - all the way around on the inside of the valve cover gasket. Oil that runs down the inside wall of the covers is guided past the gasket seal into the basin cast on top of the head. If the depth of oil "standing" in the basin reaches the height of the gasket (shouldn't even be close) all bets are off - but the OEM idea was a good one.

Do you have a PCV port in your valley cover? If not - you might go to school on the later model set-ups where one breather is hosed to the base of the carb (to a PCV port) and the other breather provides intake air for it. In fact the other breather is usually (OEM design) hosed from the air cleaner. That way - the puff of smoke you guys were talking about - has no outside escape when the engine stops.

The same method you used for the valve covers might be used to put a PCV port into the rear of a truckers valley cover.....then hook a PCV and hose to the carb port. A functioning PCV does wonders at keeping odd engine seeps from occurring on a street engine.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Oh, I know what you are talking about now. I had some valve covers like that. I wonder what I did with them.



Is a PCV system really that much better? I had installed a pcv valve from a chevy 305 with the later valley cover.

Will it be better for a street application?

I didn't have the pcv setup on the older motor so my previous statement about the smoke can't be considered valid. It wasn't apples to apples.

My firebird's pcv works the way you say. A tube from the air cleaner to the passenger side valve cover and the pcv valve on the drivers side valve cover.



Lawrenceville, GA

I simply drilled out the area at the back of the cast valley cover and tapped it for a late model Ford screw in PCV. I'm still running the old style oil filler/breather and get smoke out of it when warmed up. Due to low compression I probably have bad rings. No telling how much it would smoke without the PCV. This method is called an open system. The one you are describing with the oil breather/fill cap vented to the air cleaner is a closed system that really limits any escaping smoke. I also blocked off the lower block breather. You can do this with an early VW fuel pump block off. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

I opened them up another .010.  Much easier to push in.  Still tight enough to stay in, without a doubt. 


Lawrenceville, GA

Ok, while on crankcase ventilation.  I've noticed a small spot of oil whenever I park the car for a long period of time somewhere, but while underneath examining the trans today I see I've got oil all over under there.  Looks like it's coming road draft outlet tube, and blowing all over when i drive.  Between that and the smoke out of the filler, I've got a bad feeling that my engine could be in rough shape.  Engine sounds good and vacume is strong (I've got about 19-20" at idle and about 16-18" at idle in gear), but I've got a bit of a tick.  Any thoughts???  I'm gonna have a LONG list of repairs this summer if I'm going to make it to the EXPO... - john

John: Lake Forest, IL



'57 Fairlane 500 - Looking better every day.

Sounds like blowby. Valves may need adjusting for the tick. I would run a compression check with all the plugs out. Then squirt oil down the cylinders and do another compression check. Watch for changes. No change = valves, change = rings.

Next, if the oil pressure is good and the engine isn't rattling, Drive IT! Those old Y's are pretty tough. You might start looking around for a 292/312 to rebuild. My 2cents, Chuck in NH

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire