• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Venting alloy valve cover

Share this page

C

ceedub

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
I have just purchased a new non vented aluminum alloy valve cover. Does anyone have an ingenious method of providing venting from the carbon cannister. One of our club members drilled a hole in the back of the cover and then installed a nut and bolt with the bolt head inside the cover. The bolt had been drilled out through its length with the 5/64" hole and then the hose attached to the end of the bolt. I was worried that this method might allow oil spray to be drawn through this tiny hole back to the carbon cannister. Any comments on this method or ideas?
 
Heres one of my early designs before I found an alloy valve cover with a proper vent.

valve_cover.jpg


I used a PCV valve that I punched out and inserted some steel wool & with some metal mesh to hold it in place. Basically just used a hole saw to the diameter of the grommet and it worked like a charm.

Good luck,
Bret
 
Thanks Bret, looks interesting. How do you control the amount of air entering the cover? Is this 5/64" hole in the original vent significant?

Bill
 
I didn't notice any oil loss or any other problems. But I didn't want it wide open so that’s why I installed the steelwool & metal screen.

Another option I guess would be to install a restrictor of some sort – like a washer or a blanking plug with the appropriately sized hole drilled in it - to fit inside the 90 deg hollowed out PCV valve. You’d probably have to secure it so it doesn’t fall into the rocker gallery, with some permanent epoxy like JB weld or something like it.
 
I drilled a hole in the back of my alloy cover and fitted a 90 elbow gas line fitting into the cover with a barbed fitting on the other end of the elbow. I then sealed the fitting surfaces with blue Permatex on the inside of the cover. I didn't think about loss of oil. I haven't really noticed any either after ~6K miles. If some oil does escape into the ventilation, I don't expect it to go too far because the carbon canister sits higher than the cover fitting.
 
Or you could just get some aluminum tubing, drill a hole and have someone nicely tig weld it on for you.
 
That Hap cuts right to the chase dosne't he.
 
I used the 90 degree pipe fitting on the rear end of the cover after drilling the hole in it. A small enamel MG logo pin , with the pin filed off was JB welded over the hole in the chrome cap. Works great with no oil loss and a nice logo on the cap too!
 
Good call Ralph, I forgot about the pin hole in the top of the oil filler cap. I just put a screw in mine with some JB weld too. But I think like your idea of the enamel MG logo better.

Might have to rethink mine. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
 
Bret said:
Good call Ralph, I forgot about the pin hole in the top of the oil filler cap. I just put a screw in mine with some JB weld too. But I think like your idea of the enamel MG logo better.

Might have to rethink mine. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
Click to expand...
yup... I did the same thing... I put a self tapping sheet metal screw in the oil fill cap....
 
Back
Top