35d: adding crankcase breather oil separator

[sgrice]

ZetaTre - So far, so good with the hose from Patrick Motorsports - though these are early days, of course. I'll be sure to update how it holds up. It seems good quality (and they are using it on a bunch of their custom kits), so I'm hopeful. The 24 mm ID fits without any adapters on the ProVent, the size -16 AN elbow from Summit, and the CCV hose end.

Yes, I have the ProVent set up to drain back into the dipstick. I agree that the lower bolt is at the bottom of a bottomless pit! I was sprawled over the engine compartment (both feet off the ground) to get into a position where my fingers could reach down there. Looked like I was doing something obscene to the radiator!

[sgrice]

Just came across this video on YouTube discussing/demonstrating how the ProVent works. Might be of interest to people reading this thread.

[J.Belknap]

The 200 is huge. HUGE. The 1" inlet/outlets killed that idea for me. Good work to you guys for getting them installed. I have installed a ProVent 100 on my M62 motor, very happy with the results.

FYI: Vortech uses Gates 4319-0114 for thier hot oil drain hose (Gates LOC), it is rated to 250F.





I am using Eaton Aeroquip FC332 Hose (part number FBN0800) for my supercharger and ProVent drains. It is rated to 300F.



All of my other CCV hoses are NAPA / Boston Weatherhead Hose H101. They are rated to 212F.




For what it's worth...

[sgrice]

Update:

It's been approximately 6,500 miles with the Provent installed (see post #20 above), and it seemed like a good time to check and see how things were working. Details are below, but the short answer is that everything looks great! Be aware that I had cleaned up EGR valve, intake manifold, swirl flaps, etc approximately 2,500 miles before putting in the Provent (the link to that post is here), so some of the (quite minimal) carbon build up (CBU) that you will see on the EGR valve may be the result of those earlier 2,500 miles.

First, here is a view of the throttle body after the charge hose has been removed. In times past there has always a teaspoon or so of oil puddled up in front of the throttle body valve (discussed by ZetaTre and myself in posts # 5 and 6 in the link above), but now it is essentially dry. A tiny amount of dried oil/soot residue, but much, much less than in times past.



Next up was to take a look through the throttle body at the EGR valve. First I used a Ryobi borescope from Home Depot, but I actually got a better view with the trusty iphone:



Really only a light coating of CBU/soot. One can even see a couple of spots where the aforementioned borescope had bumped into the EGR valve and scraped some of the light soot off - revealing the clean metal in three places.

ZetaTre has tried a couple of different hose types during different iterations. As I mentioned in post #20 of this link, I used hoses from Patrick Motorsports to go to (red arrow) and from (yellow arrow) the Provent. The hoses look great, with no weeping or anything:



One additional side note - I've seen a couple of postings of MAP sensors being clogged and causing CELs/codes (here is the link to one). So I went ahead and checked mine (I had replaced the grommet to the intake manifold when I was doing the CBU cleanup, but I never looked at or cleaned the sensor. I suspect I would have soon been having similar issues to noodle654 in his link. Here is a pic of the sensor before cleaning (very similar to his sensor pic on post #12 of his posting):



And here it is after some cleanup with MAF cleaner:



Like I said, I think I saved myself from a soon to be CEL. And hopefully, the Provent system will prevent future sensor CBU.

Hope the above is helpful.

[ZetaTre]

Thanks for the update!!! I've put close 30k miles on mine and everything is still performing good.

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[seattle]

Why don't you guys offer a paid service for this? Similarly to the valve stem guy.
The process and equipment obviously works. How many hours of labor are we talking ? : )

[ZetaTre]

Originally Posted by seattle

Why don't you guys offer a paid service for this? Similarly to the valve stem guy.
The process and equipment obviously works. How many hours of labor are we talking ? : )

I said it before that I am entirely uninterested in any effort to commercialize this as I do not think there's absolutely any money to be made.

I couldn't even line up 10 people around the country for an additional batch of plates...

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[ZetaTre]

After 30,000 and some miles I decided to replace the filter/separator element.

After the car was left unused for a couple of weeks, the filter was fairly dry of oil. However you could feel soot deposits on the surface of the coaelescent element: that's why it has to be replaced on a regular basis. As the filter shed oil, some solid particles are left behind and eventually clog it.

Mann-Hummel says the replacement interval depends on the application; on the Cummins is every 67,000 miles; one could also monitor crankcase pressure and see how it is affected. I decided to replace when the service reminder with the car on the lift is due (roughly every 26,000) so I have a reminder. That's the same time I do the air and diesel filter.

On other news, the hoses are seeping oil again. I'll replace them with a different type over the weekend and show you then...

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[Deftronix]

Thanks for the well documented info guys! Zeta, are you still using just the 3 holes drilled into the provent housing for relief during high pressures or has that changed at all since? SGrice, did you end up drilling the relief holes as well? Thanks again guys..

[ZetaTre]

Originally Posted by Deftronix

Thanks for the well documented info guys! Zeta, are you still using just the 3 holes drilled into the provent housing for relief during high pressures or has that changed at all since? SGrice, did you end up drilling the relief holes as well? Thanks again guys..

Yes, I haven't changed it.

I since replaced the hoses once again since coolant hoses get attacked by the oil and start seeping. I'm using some softer hoses made of oil resistant Buna-N I got from McMaster (I may have talked about them either here or on the other forum). I didn't installed them in the past since they are squished, not round and I thought it would affect flow. The ones that sgrice proposed are very nice, but expensive so I figured I would just give the McMaster hoses a try before.
I tested again the cranckase pressure using the water column instrument and everything looks good and crankcase pressure stay within reasonable ranges. The most I see is 200-300 mm of H2O (that 1/4 to 1/2 PSI) which occurs when you go WOT in 6th at low RPM: under these conditions you get some blowby but the turbos don't generate enough depression in the intake. As soon as RPM gets in the 2500 range there's enough depression to balance blowby and crankcase pressure gets back to practically 0 or a slight vacuum of 100mm of H20.

Under normal driving condition with the transmission in D the car downshifts when you go WOT so it's hard to replicate the extreme scenario described above. While driving the crankcase remains neutral.

I'm really impressed how well this system works!!!! Intake is very dry and oil is absolutely constant between the 10k-12K oil changes interval.

I made a note to replace the filter whenever I do the air and fuel filter; for them I use the "Service" reminder that has the car on the lift. I think it comes up every 25K miles or so.