Captain Obvious

Wow... That's cool. I think I might have to get me one of them smoke machines!

Well let me add a little clarity to my seemingly harsh review above... If you know what it is you're getting yourself into and your plan is to buy it cheap, cut the whole rear end off, and weld on a good one from a car that had been wrecked in the front, then this might be the perfect candidate. Or if you just want to drive one, and don't really care that it has had extensive poorly done body work done in the past, then this might be the perfect candidate. If this thing is being presented as "in good condition", or "restored", or "a survivor", then I protest. I'm out of touch with Z prices, and all I know is they are going up. But I sure hope you could do better for that money.

I can guarantee that the right has had extensive work as well. Look at the bad body filler outline at the front of the bumper tip. Look at the horizontal sheet metal line above that. The center side crease line is completely smoothed out with filler. The gas filler door won't close. Uneven body filler door gap. Body filler filled rocker seam. Ten foot pole, I tell ya... I know it's somebody's baby, but I can't help imagining what that thing looks like with the paint and filler removed.

Chickenman, Those are cool. Never having messed with such entities... What keeps the Delrin from spinning in the outer aluminum shell? Just pressed in?

What kind? One that looks nice. And not too expensive.

That body is not clean and straight. It's had a crap-ton of work done to it! You can even see the rivet heads poking through the incredibly thick runny paint. There is no body crease remaining due to the thick bondo on that thing. I may be imagining the worst, but I wouldn't touch that thing with a ten foot pole. Original owner, huh? Ask him if the bodywork is due to rust or and accident.

By normalize I mean "under no stress" and n the context of the control arm bushings, I mean "the rubber is under no torque stress when the car is sitting level on the road". Wait.... Are you using poly bushings or original style rubber bushings? If you're using poly, forgot I said anything. Doesn't matter. Go ahead and tighten to full torque with the wheels off and the suspension hanging.

Looks great! You probably took care of this, but just to make sure... Did you normalize your control arm bushings and do the final tightening with weight on the suspension?

Forgot about mounting position... I theorize that gravity should have some effect, but I bet it's negligible compared to the internal spring. In other words, I haven't tried it, but I bet it won't matter much. (Famous last words?)

I'm no PCV expert, but I think I can answer some of the questions. It is my understanding that there are three "modes of operation" of the PCV valve and the little plunger (the part that rattles) inside will be in one of three general positions. First mode is under high manifold vacuum conditions like at idle or light cruise. Under this condition, the plunger will fight against the spring and be pulled towards the intake manifold until it makes contact with a valve seat inside. However, it doesn't make a perfect seal. Either the plunger or the seat will have some cuts in it to allow a known and predictable small amount of air to flow through the valve. At idle and light cruise, there is (should be) a small amount of blow-by produced and that small amount of air through the valve should be enough to keep the crankcase ventilated while not screwing up your mixture ratios. Second mode is under lower manifold vacuums when the engine is being asked to do more work. Under this condition, there is more blow-by, and less manifold vacuum. The reduced manifold vacuum is not high enough to fight the spring and the plunger will be pushed off the metering seat and allow more air to flow. The lower the vacuum, the more open the valve will become. Also in this mode, if the amount of blow-by is greater than what the PCV can deal with, the flow direction in the vent side (the side off the valve cover) will change direction and push the excess blow-by into the intake tract. Third mode is any condition that pressurizes the intake manifold, such as a front fire, Under this condition, the plunger will be pushed towards the crankcase (away from the intake manifold), and make contact against a valve seat on the other end of the valve. This seat has no cuts in it and is intended to be a full seal. So... The PCV completely closes in one direction and almost closes in the other direction, and will pass a variable amount of air between those two points depending on the differential pressure across it. Why are there so many? Because the flow rates are calibrated and known and predictable. Even if they look the same on the outside, they may flow different due to internal features. I agree, however, that there sure seems to be more than we really need. Seems to me the auto manufacturers ought to be able to standardize a little. I found a catalog or website at one point that actually listed the flow rates, but I can't find it. If it turns up, I'll make sure to post that. Since they are rated for different flow volumes, I would assume a more thorough test (more thorough than the "rattle" test) would involve measuring the flow. And about the spring, it fights the intake manifold vacuum and because of that, the spring force is important. And since you want it to close instantly in the case of a front fire, you only need a spring on the one side. For something so seemingly simple.....

Me too! The waiting is killing me! I've got this and a couple other modifications and improvements that I'm not yet able to test because of the weather and salty roads. C'mon spring!! And thanks to you @Zlost for the spur to get this bushing project done. I wouldn't have done it without you.

I'm pretty sure it's neoprene. I don't think PVC could handle the temperature. it would probably melt. Hahaha!! My work here is done.

Mark, So when I said I had never seen one with the baffle removed, I was mistaken. Thanks for the great pics and the reminder. And you're right... Relocating the vent fitting to the side would allow you to hide the system even more. Nice idea! So was there anything else inside the baffle area, or is it just covered by the plate? Using your idea, one could plumb straight out the side of the valve cover. About one foot long straight tube, right into the PCV relocated to the side of the intake manifold. And then hide the other connection completely under the intake tract. I've recently replaced my rubber intact duct with an alternative from another car (yet another off season project), and I've got a (currently capped and unused) nipple connection on the underbelly side of the duct. Then if I could come up with a way to get rid of the AAR hoses. I could get rid of one of them by using a newer AAR with the hole in the bottom... and then I could... Oh look! Shiny!

Haha! Well of course it has a purpose. It helps positively ventilate your crankcase.

Basically, what I was thinking was that if you were to relocate the PCV valve to the inner face of the intake manifold (kinda above the exhaust manifold), then you could use a short tube that looks like just the first piece of your orange reroute. Short hose from the valve cover to the PCV valve. And the other hose that goes from the block to the stock PCV would go from the block to the intake duct instead. You still wouldn't see it.

Nice work!

Wow... I can still see floor. Clearly I need a bigger storage area.

You're a Space Cowboy, huh? I wasn't ready for that. Welcome aboard. You know your carb is on the wrong side of the engine, don't you?

Did you check the PCV hose on the underside of the intake manifold? If you've never seen it, you might not even know it's there.

Zed, I agree that both connections should see pretty much about the same thing. What I don't know is if maybe the system was optimized for one direction or the other. I'm pretty sure it will "work under most conditions" in either direction, but not sure about the optimization. If my understanding of how PCV works is correct, then there will already be flow in both directions depending on engine conditions and loading, but the reverse flow might be less common than the default direction. As for the oil separator, I believe there is also supposed to be one stuffed into the hose that comes off the valve cover. Problem is, however, that most people have had to replace that hose because their originals cracked, and they probably didn't know about the separator and chucked it in the trash with the old hose. How effective is the baffling inside the valve cover? I've never seen one with the cover removed. JSM, Just musing at this point... The thought was that if I could connect the rubber nipple on the duct between the AFM and the throttle body to the lower PCV connection (on the block), and then relocate my PCV to a new drilled and tapped hole on the top of the manifold, I could connect the valve cover hose to that. Would eliminate some of the long hoses draped across the intake system and might look cleaner. But the default flow direction would be reversed.

Is there anything magical about the direction of the flow through the PCV system? I think I could clean up the engine compartment and hose scheme if I were to reverse the flow direction of the system. So do we have any engine vent experts in our midst? Currently, under low flow conditions (low blow by and high manifold vacuum), it pulls from the tube in the block, through the PCV and refreshes clean air into the nipple on the top of the valve cover. This direction already reverses under high flow conditions, so is there any issue with reversing this direction for the low flow (default) condition?

Thanks for the pic. So it looks like the sticker is just centered on the top of the booster. I can do that! Really looking forward to this coming spring after all the salt is off the roads. I've made a couple improvements and customizations this off season that I'm anxious to test!

So another project during this off season was to do something better with my brake booster. I took both the newly purchased "rebuilt" unit, and my old failed original boosters apart and reassembled one unit using the best parts from the two, plus a couple new parts I made to replace some rusty bits. Here's the final unit. Reassembled, painted, and ready to put back in the car: Some of the internal parts were really crappy, so I made some stainless replacements. I used stainless steel for everything with the exception of the threaded output shaft tip. I reused the original tip because it's hardened and I didn't feel like dealing with the heat treating. Besides, it doesn't ride against the vacuum seal, so even if it's not perfect, it doesn't affect operation. Here's what I made: Here's a pic of the smooth stainless output shaft sticking through the vacuum seal. This has GOT to seal better than the rusty crusty versions I had from both the boosters. My idle will thank me: As a bonus... My PO had painted the booster that came with the car, and I found the original sticker hiding under a thick coat of paint. Thankfully the paint didn't stick too well to the plastic sticker, and I was able to chip most of it off. It's not perfect, but it looks "appropriate" for the rest of the car. I haven't put it back on yet. Anyone have a good reference pic showing the location of where the sticker should go?

Something else quick. You probably know this already, but just to make sure there's no misunderstanding... All the AAR does is allow air to bypass around the butterfly plate in the throttle body. With the exception that the AAR doesn't affect the TPS switch, it's exactly the same thing as sitting there with your foot on the gas pedal. It has no effect on mixture. So the only difference between opening the throttle plate by pushing the gas pedal down a little and having an opening through the AAR is that if you push the gas pedal down far enough, you will open the TPS idle switch (which would raise the A/F ratio a little). Other than that... No difference. It's just convenient because you don't have to sit there with your foot on the gas as the engine warms up.

Something to think about is that by pulling the hose off the AAR and letting air in, what you are doing is leaning out your mixture more than anything else. So if it sputters and struggles at 400 RPM when cold, but it runs great if you let in some unmetered air (air that did not go through the AFM), I would be looking for a mixture problem, not an AAR problem. It sounds like you're running way rich at idle and drowning the motor. By opening the hose and that letting air in, you're raising your A/F mixture, and apparently your engine likes that.