EPA system for 1961 vette Oil vapor smell
 

What do you need and how do you install the EPA valve and where exactly do you connect the appropriate hose and fittings, to delete the oil breather tube from the rear of the engine block. The vapors become overwheleming when hot.

Thanks John

Its the PCV valve (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) system...

You will need a PCV valve, a right hand spark plug loom from a 63 car (repros are around) to hold the plug wires when the road draft tube is removed, a vented oil filler cap and a means to convert the road draft tube to support a pipe or hose attachment. You will also need the rear base of the carb drilled to accept the brass fitting.

Search for RPO-242 on here and/or refer to your AIM (Assembly Instruction Manual). If you can't find the crankcase hole conversion fitting shown (expensive but Paragon had them) a grommet with a hole as used in 63 works just as well.

Frankie,

Much thanks. Black and white, picture says a 1000 words!

John

Calling anything smog related on a car the "EPA system" isn't too far off.

Its a more environmentally friendly setup but moreover scavenges corrosive and explosive crankcase vapors out more efficiently than a road draft tube.

Once I installed mine the same oil I'd used for years maintained its honey color at the next oil change instead of being black...

I am working on an article about PCV valves which I hope to have completed soon.
Here are a couple of pictures of a way to eliminate the draft tube and install a PCV system.
Joe

Here is the adapter that Frankie is talking about attached to the back of the engine.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...ff8e5bfb9c.jpg

This where it connects to the back of the carburetor. The PCV valve in the picture is a Standard Ignition V-112 which fits many 60's and 70' GM V-8's.
One side is 3/8" and the other is 1/2". Note, do not use fuel line as it will soften over time. For the 3/8" side I use power steering return line, also great for power booster lines, and 1/2" emission hose.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...71c5e6fb90.jpg

Another way to do it would be to use a V-100 Standard, 6421934, CV590C valve that you can thread directly into a street ell off the back of the carburetor eliminating the 3/8" hose.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...f7d1f41930.jpg

All 1962 corvettes sold new in California required it. Not sure about the earlier years.

Thanks for the additional information. I am putting together list to go to parts store.

John

It was required beginning in 1961 in CA.

A minor point to consider......................

A 1961 PCV system can't be called an "EPA System" as the EPA wasn't founded until 1970.

Thinking the California Air Resouces Board might have been the instigator to using the valve on all new California cars in 1961, I looked it up and CARB didn't come into existence until 1967.

Something I had forgotten about. New York made it mandatory on all new vehicles in 1964.

A further point, all US manufacturers voluntarily installed the valve starting in 1963 so it looks like the FEDS had nothing at all to do with this feature.

The PCV system was much better at removing water vapor and corrosive compounds from the crankcase and oil, than the road draft tube, it helped with engine longevity, and probably also helped make warranties of 12 months and 12,000 miles possible compared to the 3 mo/3,000 miles that were typical of 1960.

Doug

That is one of the best features ever added to the IC engine.

I can remember in 1963, the word was going around the smart thing to do was to unhook them and put the draft tube back on as the PCV was costing power.:D

Yeah, I was off one year.

I've owned and worked on flat head and overhead engines with the road draft tube set-up, and the PCV makes for a much cleaner and happier engine. Unbelievable how much crud was in some of those engines at teardown, even the maintained ones. PCV is a good thing!

I can remember pulling valve covers that were almost completely filled with sludge. Just enough room left for the rockers to rocker. Oil pans that you could scoop the sludge out with your hand. Rocker valleys full of it. Used to have to take the oil separator can out (after you dug for it) and set fire to it to burn the sludge out of it.

This, even with detergent oils of the time but still lacking some of the additives that prevented sludge.

Did I mention rod/main and cam bearings pitted and eaten by corrosion as well. Don't see much of this anymore at all.

Cadillac's maintenance regimen in pre-PCV days was to annually pull the oil pan & clean it out.

Look at old photographs of roadways with the black stripe down the middle of both lanes. I agree, draft tubes were the automotive equivalent of piping raw sewage into rivers. Out of sight - out of mind, until it isn't.

Cars with draft tubes can stink, especially among tired engines with copious blow-by. Some manufacturers employed a breathable cap filled with steel wool, much like a valve cover breather on the road end of the draft tube to mitigate this but it was tantamount to pissing through a screen door.

Dan

Any motorcycle rider in bygone eras remembers when they were told to avoid the middle of the lane...that was where all the road draft goo would get sprayed down and when it rained that greasy stuff would rise up and be dangerous to ride across...

Yep! My '47 Chrysler Highlander had a serious blow-by issue and it would blow oil smoke out of the bottom of the draft tube like a freight train. Right about dead-center of the car. I knew and old guy at a long-ago junkyard who had a flathead powered 'yard car' that had so much blowby that he had a little tin cup hanging under the road draft tube. I was talking to him one day, with it sitting there idling and sounding like it was swapping rods, puffing away, and he casually lifted the little cup off of its hook, removed the breather cap, and poured the oil right back into the engine....an 80 year old guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He ended up passing away and that yard car was still running.....puffing and belching away....

I had a similar deal on one of my little red cars that had 250,000 miles on it. I recoverd the blowby oil the same way. If you didn't dump the oi on a timely basis, the excess would collect in the hose to the air cleaner and then when you nailed the gas pedal, the smoke would roll out the back like a crop duster.l

Still applies due to cars that have oil leaks.
Doug

I see very few modern cars with really bad oil leaks or even smoking much...
And you don't see that black streak down the center of the lanes nowadays...

But then my motorcycle days are over so I'm unaffected.

Here's one for all you smog historians. Required by the State of California. Was on a 1961 Corvette I purchased that had a harness short in the early 1980's, and it was parked. Did more harm than good.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...f213e2227c.jpg

You see the streak in some of the more economically challenged areas of L.A. The parking places in the shopping centers and at the curb in residential areas are an oily mess, as well. My job takes me there, and I have to remind myself to watch where I step when getting out of my JGC.

Lots of slow leakers out there....they just need a dip in the road to let 'er fly. Just look at the black mark in the middle of the road after a dip or imperfection in the road. :willy:

I have always said the best two things the government forced on the auto companies were emissions and safety.

You're lucky if you see a car over 8 years old on the road in central Florida between the tourists, the rentals, the lease cars and the yuppies I guess.

Streets are pretty clean and most drivers can't even stay in the center of the lane (texting), let alone make an oil slick there...

My parents had a 1955 Cadillac that received all of its recommended maintenance. I vividly remember having some occasion to remove
a valve cover and being amazed by the amount of black gunk inside. It looked as if the car had never had an oil change.

Yes.
I used to commute into Southgate via Imperial and Firestone from north OC on my Motorcycle on nice days, back when i lived in SoCal.

Any freeway was iffy in the center, also.

PHX is bad also, there are a lot of unmaintained vehicles, and it doesn't rain that often, so when it does, it can get pretty greasy.

Doug

I remember going to people's homes as a kid and it was very common to see either kitty litter, cardboard, or a drip pan wet with oil in the garage. Now we get one drip under a new car and we're looking for lemon law attorneys.


.

That's mostly due to the demise of the domestic British car industry :yesnod:

If you parked a Triumph or MG and it left no oil puddle, that meant it was out of oil. It was easier to look under the car than to check the dipstick.

Some folks liked to say that it was self-installing undercoating as you drove. :lol:

Pretty much why the Brits don't build computers......they can't get them to leak oil.

After dealing with everything from Renaults to Porches to the American "Big Three" back in the 60s I can tell you that they all leaked given enough time or abuse..

On the Brit-mobiles I worried much more about the wiring. Lucas was my personal favorite...

No intention of hijacking this thread but curious whether I could share or tee off of the WCFB threaded connection that goes to the windshield washer canister?

Yes. You can "T" into the back of the carb any way you can think of...on this original 63 carb once side of the brass fitting is for a power brake hose and the other is to screw in the PCV valve...

For my 61 dual quad car (second pic) I 'rolled my own' connector.

Thanks FTF. I'm going to figure out how to "roll my own" as well and get rid of my road draft tube. I always wondered why my oil turned so dark when only driving a few miles after a fresh oil change. I want my honey back!

Is there a generic draft tube fitting that can be used as I don't need a 63 specific part on my 57?

No, the fittings are all the same, pretty much. On my '61, I simply used a rubber grommet and it fit in the hole in the block nicely. Plugged the PCV into that and ran it to the back of the REAR carb, for a cleaner install.

Just do an ebay search for "GM PCV Conversion kit" and you'll come up with a dozen...any will work as the road draft tube hole is generic across GM cars and this is just one example (although the PCV valve may not be optimal - you'll have to figure that out):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/55-56-57-Che...5Tj-aV&vxp=mtr

Got a picture or know the grommet application so I know what to ask for at the parts store?

Oil turning dark a short time after an oil change is a sign that the detergents in the oil are doing their job. Amongst other things.

After reading this thread, I'm surprised at how may people are positively referring to the government forcing design choices into cars.

If you watch the old films from the different auto manufacturers, you'd find that they have spent lots on the R&D to get vehicles that are more safe and better performing.

Here is a film from the industry that discusses (in a light hearted way) the innovations:


Governments distort markets and force on the public features that are not necessarily desired with money they extract from your wallet by force. This is especially true in California, where a vehicle can produce far cleaner emissions, but it fails a visual test.

As was mentioned, the PCV system was an industry innovation. The original patent by Bendix was in 1949 under US 2489230.

https://www.google.com/patents/US2489230

Well before government involvement.

:cheers:

-- Joe

Don't know about the patent date but US military vehicles used a PCV on vehicles used for fording deep water.

Measure the diameter of the hole in the block and get a grommet that is slightly bigger. I forget what I used, but it was snug with the PCV valve pressed into the middle of it. It was sitting in my toolbox from my tune-up days. Many auto parts stores sell PCV valve grommets in various sizes. You'll have to size one up. :thumbs: