I have to vent about PCV valves

I will be back with more of the exciting alternator swap later. I haven't finished it yet. But for now, a little diversion based on a question I had from the last post.

One of my readers asked in an email about the function of the odd, nubbin-looking thing on the left, that seems to be leaking oil in this photo:

If you look closely, in the silver and red ribbed cover, there is a protruberance. What this is, is the end of a PCV valve that the previous owner thoughtfully plugged with a vinyl protective cap. Unfortunately, this renders it useless, and crankcase pressure is forcing oil and air out from around it. I will try to give you a simplified lesson in crankcase venting and emission controls relating to them.

-

When a combustion engine works, some combustion (power) pressure leaks into the bottom of the engine (the crankcase) where the crank spins around, the pistons go up and down, and all the oil sits, waiting to be pumped around to lubricate everything. This "blowby" is a normal, unavoidable condition, but the air pressure buildup must be relieved, or it will cause the oil gaskets to get pushed out, and you will have huge oil leaks.

-

On early cars, up until the late 50's, the venting was done with a tube that came out of the motor, and hung down under the car, and was open to the atmosphere. The air passing beneath the car in motion would help suck the pressure out, and for this reason this is called a "road draft tube". This also left oil mist all over the underside of the car, good for inhibiting rust, but bad for the environment.

-

By the 60's, the PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve was in use. This is a one way valve that came from the engine crankcase and was plumbed back into the intake, where the pressurized air would be burned up, along with the incoming fuel and air. The name comes from the idea that instead of just letting the pressure force it's way out passively, the PCV system would apply vacuum to positively pull the air/oil vapor out. This was better than just venting it out, but it does have a slight detrimental effect in that it can lead to increased deposits in the combustion chamber and on the valves. We can not make one change to the exclusion of others.

-

On modern cars, I believe this pressurized oil mist is probably run into a charcoal cannister first to filter it, then ingested into the intake, minimizing intake contamination.

-

The bottom line is that your engine makes internal pressure, and you have to let it out somehow. The owner of my car probably didn't know that the proper thing to do is to run a tube from the PCV valve into the bottom of the air cleaner, and instead just capped it off. We'll tidy this, and more, up later. Now I have to get back to that alternator install.

-

If you have any questions, please ask. I will try to explain the basics in a simple fashion.

Tech: one-wire alternator swap, part 1

I want to upgrade the charging system in the '58 to an alternator. It came with a generator. A generator makes DC voltage, which is what the car runs on. An alternator makes AC, and then inverts it to DC. I don't know why this is more efficient (I am sure my friend EV-Steve could explain it in a snap) but nonetheless, cars have been using alternators almost exclusively for the last near 50 years, so that's what we're doing. This is a one-wire alternator, so called because it has an internal regulator, so it literally needs just one wire to go from the output lug to the battery positive terminal.
Here's the existing generator in place. I only had about an hour to dedicate to this upgrade, and after taking the generator out, I thought it would be easy to swap the alternator in it's place. I don't know why I thought that. I could see I would have to do some mild modifying of brackets and such, and so the upgrade would take more than one session.

Here's a sneak preview of the new alternator. Oooooh, shiny. More soon.

THE DAYTONA 500

It goes off this Sunday. For years I've hosted a Daytona 500 party, my version of a superbowl party. Fortunately my bro picked it up this year and is hosting, as there's no way I'd have the time to do it this year. Thanks KK! While there is much about NASCAR racing I'd change, no one in power has asked, so I'll skip my laments for now.
-
While I'd prefer to see something like the photo above, I still like the competiveness of today's NASCAR, and the TV coverage is unbelieveable. A multitude of cameras shoot from viewpoints I only used to imagine. Much better than the grainy, long shot from the infield which is all I used to see watching Wide World of Sports. I admit I still get a bit of a rush watching a field of 40+ cars come zooming down the front stretch, bumper to bumper, past the green flag for the start. I hope most of you car enthusiasts feel the same, and I hope you all can spend some fun time with friends this Sunday watching.
-
As a follow-up to the radiator follies, I will tell you right out my budget fix failed miserably. Or failed fantastically, I'm not sure which. Anyway, it didn't work. I bought a new radiator and put it in Thursday morning. Yes it was over $300, but it's brand new. Also, it's physically HUGE, so at least I got a lot of radiator for my money. No wonder the truck would never overheat, even with a cracked radiator; it holds so much water it could never get hot enough. It didn't take long to change it, and I had all the tools required. I would have had it done in about an hour, but a balky lower radiator hose really gave me a fight. I never feel bad about the cost of putting a new radiator in a vehicle. Instead I feel a sense of security, like, at least I never have to worry about this again for as long as I'll own it. I often drive the truck on long trips, towing a trailer, so reliability is a primary concern. Thank goodness that awful smell of hot coolant is gone!
-
photo: Somewhere on the HAMB

Tech; radiator fix, maybe

So I've been driving the big white truck, and it's been going great. It actually has a very comfortable ride. I've been noticing a faint coolant smell from time to time though. Man I hate that smell. That is the worst car smell, in my opinion. Then I found the coolant leaking yesterday. I took the upper radiator hose off at the radiator end and inspected it. It looked ok, and the radiator didn't appear to be leaking, so I put the hose back on and suspected that the hose clamp had just not been on completely.
-
Today I found the radiator leaking again, and a closer inspection in good light revealed that the plastic radiator tank was cracked. Not right at the hose outlet to tank junction like I expected, but right next to that on the tank proper. You see that little curving vertical black line to the right of the hose outlet? That's the crack. I could not get a new radiator same day, so I tried plan B: fix it myself.

I drained the radiator so the coolant level would be below the crack, so it might seal better. I have this siphon pump I use. Get one of these, it's way better than siphoning stuff with your mouth.

I had picked up this pack of epoxy one day at a store for possible future use. I don't remember how long it's been hanging on my garage wall. Today's your day, big guy. I am using the epoxy for 3 reasons: 1. A new radiator costs about $300, and I can't get it today anyway. 2. The coolant system only goes to about 16psi, not a very high pressure. 3. I already have the epoxy.

I sprayed the cracked area with brake cleaner, then sanded it lightly to give it some tooth, again to promote the epoxy adhesion. This is what sanding looks like, in case you somehow could never visualize it. Epoxy. Epoxy. Epoxy, epoxy, epoxy. What an odd word.

After nearly destroying the epoxy pack trying to get the 2 parts out, I finally squeezed some on to this lid and mixed it well with this craft stick. The epoxy had that great chemical smell I remember from when I was kid and my dad would mix up some epoxy for some repair job. Mixing the epoxy up made it look like that nice shiny, pearlescent salt water taffy you can see mixing at the store on the boardwalk.

I applied it liberally to the cracked area, and most of the area around it as well. Mmmm, smells nice. Why did I use so much? Because that's how much I mixed up. Actually, I used the old drag racer's motto: If some is good, more is better, and too much is just right.

-

I'll put the hose on, refill the radiator, and give it a road test tonight. We'll see it it makes it to Newburgh and back, about a 20 mile round trip.

The King is dead...

...long live the King. My Dodge died. The transmission went. Again. The original transmission died 2 years ago, and I had it replaced with a used one at a shop for $1500. Now this one's dead, and I don't think we're going to have it fixed. Too complicated to do it myself. It's problems like this that have kept me from blogging lately.


The car had a tick less than 150,000 miles on it, and I wanted to get at least 200k out of it. It was pretty good to me though, overall. It was the right thing to have at the time.

The engine compartment. I am told there is a transmission in there. I have never seen it. Perhaps the sticker on the engine should be "Doh!"

-

I'll definitely steal the battery out of it, that's only 9 months old. I'll probably give the winter tires on rims to a friend that has a PT Cruiser, and if he wants the 9 month old regular tires, they are his for the cost of changing them to his rims. If any of y'all want any parts, please let me know.

-

For now I am using the white truck. Doesn't get good gas mileage, but it's cheaper than another car right now. My plan is to get the Chevy up and running and on the road, and hopefully use that for the near term. How cool will that be, using a classic car as a daily driver? Can it be done? What is it really like to drive a 50-year old car day-to-day? I haven't done it in 25 years. Back then, I was driving my '68 Impala convertible, and the shift linkage fell off two mornings in a row as I was leaving for work. I was living in an apartment, and only owned a little tool box, so I was unprepared to keep on with it. I bought a brand new S-10 the next week. I am better equipped now, but do I have the patience and time?

If I had to change the transmission in this car, I could do it myself in about half a day. Maybe a full day if everything went wrong. That's old school way; under the car, on the ground, using a couple of floor jacks.
-

On the positive side, I am taking a full load of classes back at college. If any of you need a new accountant, please give me a call in about a year.