Which battery model did you end up using?

 

hey Harry, it was the ATX-20-HD. I'm loving it so far!

 

I finally had some time get back at some of the car projects and noticed something a little concerning.

I am adding an oil cooler through a thermostatic sandwich plate form Chase Bays. I can pretty much only orient it this way. I am also adding a dual sensor for oil temp and pressure that is rather chunky and also hard to fit. Here is the test fit of everything. I will need to run 90* AN fittings coming towards the passenger side of the car and mounting the 13 row mishi oil cooler off the steering rack on the passenger side with a custom bracket.

Issues I see already... I don't think I can run my turbo oil feed line off the sandwich plate since I don't think oil would flow through there until it reaches 180*. But I can't fit the sensor in that NPT port and I can't spin the sandwich plate since the AN bungs contact the alternator or the block castings below it. Maybe I can clearance those protrusions on the block below the plate. Or I need to find another oil feed location. **EDIT** There is another NPT port on the other side so I'll put my sensor there and run the turbo feed from the T with the stock sender.



Now the concerning part...As I was looking at this stuff I noticed my block was covered in oil at cylinder 4. I had just driven the car and it drives fine. Even found a small pool on the undertray. Some oil coming out of the valve cover gasket in the same place too.

So now I'm back to being paranoid about this motor and the root issues I've had for years now. I still think the cylinders are oval shaped. Those black marks on the walls just aren't normal. But I think the symptom is just a lot of crankcase pressure.







Considering my options:
1. Add a check valve and return crankcase ventilation to the stock-ish scenario with a PCV to intake manifold and a closed air/oil separator on the other side to the pre-turbo pipe. https://www.jegs.com/i/Moroso/710/85496/10002/-1

Maybe I can do a swappable setup where I run the PCV on the street and just run the current system for track days.

2. Get an electric vacuum pump and just power it to pull vacuum at all times and plumb it into the valve cover. Maybe throw the air/oil separator in between VC and the pump. https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/63019/10002/-1

Some random big block guy said this to me at a meet that he uses electric vacuums to deal with excessive crankcase pressure. More research is needed.

3. Torque head bolts more... unlikely to do anything.


4. Add another catch can from the oil fill cap. https://level7performance.com/produc...-silver-black/

Helps evacuate the pressure more but doesn't provide and actual vacuum to pull it out.

5. Start saving money and building my spare 1.8 block since this one seems cursed.

On top of trying to address the ridiculous amount of blowby, I am also going to replace all the turbo lines with PTFE lines. Fab up a custom bracket for that oil cooler and get the lines made for that. Maybe I can get a pressure gauge on the dipstick to monitor actual crankcase pressure and see if thats really the culprit. I was also planning on a big brake kit this year and maybe even stiffer coilovers for the track but unless I can get this oil blowout under control that stuff might need to wait.

'til next time,
Matt

 

Alright, I've done a bit of research and have a plan. First off, since the car is already a bit apart, I have to wire up the new sensor, create the bracket for the cooler and the lines. I'm replacing the turbo lines from regular AN rubber to PTFE for temp reasons; I should've done this initially but was ignorant to their usage. Then I will measure crankcase pressure by capping the valve cover breathers. Assuming its not an extreme amount that requires a better block, I will move forward with my plan to evacuate those gases. This is what I came up with:




Basically, two sealed air/oil separators. Passenger side will go to the intake manifold via this cool AN10 check valve I found - https://www.racetronix.biz/p/one-way...black/ckv-1010
This will provide vacuum to the crankcase under decel and idle conditions and will close when boost is entering the manifold and engine.

The driver side will go to another air/oil separator that is sealed. It will then split to two lines, one to the intake pipe between the air filter and turbo. And one to the exhaust. They both will have the same check valve between them. This should allow for slight vacuum scavenging when in boost and throttle conditions. This requires a kit that use a bung welded in to take advantage of the venturi effect. Faster air creates a low pressure zone and that in turn creates a small amount of vacuum.
If I understand fluid dynamics correctly (I don't), then the intake portion will be practically useless since the exhaust will have a stronger flow, especially in boost. But the way I see it, is redundancy at the cost of complexity and every little bit helps. I will apply the same bung on the intake, welded in at an angle and appropriately facing direction.

I will need to move my oxygen sensor on my exhaust so that the scavenge bung is downstream to avoid oil contamination and replace my cat with the test pipe. I might need to retune idle a little bit as well. Once these are all installed I will have to do another pressure check. In the case its not evacuating enough crankcase pressure, I will look more into electric or pulley driven vacuum pumps. Dry sump would be sweet but may as well pay for a new engine at that cost level. I know how ridiculous this is but part of me is kind of looking forward to the engineering of it and the other part really is tired of oil getting blown through the valve cover gasket or worse.

 

I've found the intake port provides sufficient vacuum in boost, is there a scenario where you'd like more? The exhaust port might be unnecessary.

 

Running a passive VTA breather with two AN10 lines out of the valve cover doesn't seem to evac enough pressure for my motor. So I'm looking at maximizing it to limit the oil getting pushed out (presumably) my valve cover and cam seals.

Have you measured it by chance? I know the exhaust evac is big in the v8 world and Moroso sells a kit for it with a check valve. I'm leaning towards exhaust evac just due to engine bay space and lack of emissions requirements for me. I think I'll probably weld some bungs on both and test them and just see whats better.

 

assuming you have the usual pcv and exhaust vents using 10AN VTA, whats stopping you from just adding another huge breather system by installing a quickvent cap and another VTA 10an can? Though you must have some pretty bad blowby if the single 10an setup isnt working. My motor is tired as hell with loose rings and was puking from everywhere before i installed those and it fixed that issue very quickly.

Adding the quickvent system would be just another giant place for extra blowby to go, slowing the speed of all the other air even more. just an idea

 

The stock outlets are too small for our engines when boosted, plus other things.