Hey all, been MIA for a while as I'm about to get my BA in psych, and with corona and all, it's getting pretty stressful. Sadly, I haven't had much time to work on the car other than making sure she's healthy. Now it pains me to say it but I did a whoopsie.

I was racing the car and since I still have the auto that doesn't work well with the AEM v1, and I also don't have the money to upgrade it or do a swap yet I sorta "money shifted". "How do you money shift an auto??" I hear you ask, trust me I have no idea either other than being idiotic lol. But when I did this, my heart raced as I saw oil smoke everywhere! I panicked like crazy, quickly parked it somewhere safe, and quickly looked around to see if I could find out what happened.

First, I quickly looked to see if I had any leaks to see if shutting down the engine was required, but thankfully no so I didn't have to risk hurting the turbo. Then I looked near the head gasket to see if that went boom, thankfully nada. I then smelt and felt where it came from, the PCV breather. I'm not sure if I have pics but it's just a filter on the stock 90 PCV valve, and on the driver side PCV I have running back into the intake.

So, the breather on the passenger side spews out oil, but at idle it sucks up the oil we had going to a lil bottle to see how much it was spitting out. Now, what I'm thinking may have happened is maybe the driver side PCV valve is busted? I don't want to say it's blowby just yet (mainly because wishful thinking) so I want to see what may be going on. As I'm still running super low boost I was just thinking of maybe having 2 filters going off the PCV valves? If I must, I am willing to do a set up like Ali where the holes for the PCV valves get tapped and slap on 2 filters pointing up. Catch can is also looking like a good option as well.

Thoughts?

 

Breather changes for now. Not permanent
(Also new phone camera!)

 

Got a catch can from real street! Looks great, how do you guys recommend doing the lines? I see the norm is to just run to run lines off the valve cover straight to the can and that's it. Opinions?

 

the way i have mine is with 1 hose from the catch can going to the intake of the turbo (fresh air no boost) so its got suction all the time and no boost. The the other line from the catch can, you Tee into your valve covers.

basically air is being sucked out of your valve covers through the catch can and into your turbo. The catch can should remove and store all the oil in your crankcase(blow by) before it goes back into the engine

 

Is it possible to have it go into the intake post throttle body for vacuum? That's what we had originally as we went through diy set ups. Also what's the harm in just having both lines go to the catch can straight from the valve covers?

Edited

 

If you do post throttle body or post turbo at all without a pcv in there you will pressurize your crank case when you boost, which is bad and sounds like what maybe happened.
If that happens all your boost will enter the crank case and puke oil out and its not good for the engine.
Normally, the pcv has a check valve to prevent this, but the pcv does not flow very much is the issue.

You can do 2 things.
1) basic setup is to leave the PCV (drivers side) going to the intake manifold like stock.
the passenger side remove that 90 degree barb and tap it for a fitting, and run that to a catch can.
You can leave the can vented with a big filter on top or run it to the front of the turbo pipe
*This is good for basic na-t setups on low boost.

2)same as 1 but you also remove the pcv and tap it for a fitting that will also go to the catch can (now 2 lines running to catch can).
You can leave the can vented with a big filter on top or run it to the front of the turbo pipe (you will need 3 connections to your can for this since you have 2 lines coming in now).

If you leave it just vented you will have to drain the can periodically depending on amount of blow by, it will start to fill up depending on engine health / amount of blow by.

If you run a line to the front of the turbo pipe, you won't see the vacuum like at the intake manifold, but it will pull the air/oil mist from the can to some degree.
less will stay in your can (depending on how its baffled), but it will enter the intake piping, intercooler, and intake manifold and over time can make a bit of a mess.
I will note that oil is not good and can lead to detonation in larger amounts, it is effectively lowering your octane, so alot of people just vent the can for that reason to keep things clean and running well.
The factory pcv setup will also get oil into the intake manifold and engine, but it wont get it in the intercooler piping like putting it in front of the turbo does.

Everyone does it a different way, but some ways are worse than others as you can see. See what your motor likes best. on low boost I would go with 1 vented, and if you are filling up cans then go with 2 vented.
You can even just use the stock 90 degree barb on the passenger side at first, it is only a little more restrictive than tapping it for a hose barb. if you are pushing lots of oil then start doing the other stuff.
If you always push a large amount of oil, then a compression test might be a good idea to see if the engine has any issues going on causing the blow by. good luck!

 

Hey Ali! So we actually have a bigger PCV that's aftermarket and have it teed into the line that runs to the intake. Sadly there's no piping to tap into preturbo because it's just the air filter attached to the inlet due to space. So right now we have the two lines coming off the throttle body but have a pcv on the line coming off the driver side line as close as possible to the original pcv set up. Will post pics soon

 

Not sure what you mean 2 lines coming off the throttle body, maybe valve covers? I don't see a can in the picture.
You are probably ok with what you have in the picture which is a filter turned up on the passenger side and I am guessing the larger PCV going to the stock intake manifold spot on the drivers side.
If you are still pushing oil then you will probably need to run a can off the passenger side.

 

This is just a mock up. Won't drive it like this but it gives you an idea of how it's set up. It's a real street catch can connected to it
The little silver thing on the T is a aftermarket PCV

 

This is bad.
This is boosting your crankcase when your in boost.
Drill a hole in the bottom of the air filter and put a fitting there. that's how i have mine.

I am also wondering where the vacuum line u have zipped tied to the intake manifold is going? its suppose to go to the barb you have a black cap on.
Check out how i have mine routed in the picture of my engine bay. The 2 valve covers T together u cant exactly see it but you can see how 2 hoses become 1 going into the Catch Can. Then i have the other line going out of the catch can all the way around to my intake of the turbo

 

The way the pcv is set up (lil silver thingy) prevents boost from going into the intake, as when I get on it the PCV shuts and no boost is entering via the line. The zip tied line? That's just for the BOV actually if it's the line I'm thinking of lol
​​​also it's good to see you're also using rubber lines for a catch can set up, I was worried it was a bad idea

 

That is a bit backwards. You want boost to enter your intake, but you DO NOT want boost to go into your crank case via the valve cover.

 

My bad I keep getting intake and valve cover confused in my mind Odd I know. When I'm in boost the PCV closes causing no boost to enter the valve cover via the line off the intake. When not in boost or idling the PCV is open due to vacuum.

 

ok good. the reason for using the air-filter location for vacuum into the catch can is because it’s the only spot that has constant vacuum. all other areas have boost at some point.

 

Ah I see. I might go to that later but since I'm still on 6psi it's not too bad plus I plan on redoing the IC piping soon so I'll be able to get a more clean set up in the turbo. Also the whole idea of getting oil in the IC piping and IC itself seems very iffy to me. There any other spots that maybe won't get oil in the IC and its piping?