72 Rallye Project

[nsmall]

The Right Stuff?

[PatO]

I decided to resurrect my restoration topic to continue on with a subject that is related to my project.

Last fall, I posted about an unusual oil leak coming from the bottom of my distributor. The discussion turned to back pressure in the engine.  --  Once I had the car running and on the road I decided I wasn't happy with the idle.  1200 rpm in park. I live at an elevation of 6500 feet and have a fairly aggressive cam. Vacuum at idle is 10 inches.  After repeated attempts at tweaking the carb, I plugged the pvc port in the carburetor base and vented the pvc valve into the air filter housing.  With the help of other more knowledgeable people on this forum I began to understand the error of my thinking.  I didn't realize or understand that I needed vacuum applied to the pvc valve (a restriction) to handle the volume of the blowby in the engine.  Some reading clued me in that mopar had a couple of different pcv valves designed for different manifold vacuums. For the life of me I could not any find any part number references.

At this point I decided to purchase the ME Wagner adjustable PVC Valve.  It's a nice little unit.  I posted a picture below along side the typical parts store unit.

The unfortunate thing is that winter arrived shortly after I got this and has stayed cold and snowy since then.  11 degrees outside right now. The unit is still in the box in my frozen garage.

[PatO]

After getting this adjustable valve and reading the instructions I saw that the base of the valve needs a minimum clearance to the oil baffle in the valve cover.  I had the basic chrome valve covers installed on the engine.  The valve train in my motor has 1.6 ratio roller rockers installed, picture below.

The valve cover oil cover baffles had been clearanced using a hammer to clear the rocker arm.  This resulted in a lack of clearance for the ME Wagner adjustable valve.

Seeing this I tried to find a taller rocker arm cover for my motor and came up with an aluminum one that is a full 3 1/2" inches from the bottom of the mounting flange to the inside top of the cover. Kinda basic looking thing but I figured what the heck.  Also below is a picture of the new cover along side the old cover.

[PatO]

Below is a picture of the inside of the two covers.  I've placed an arrow to show where the chrome valve cover oil baffle was clearanced for the rocker arm resulting in a restriction for the new pcv valve.  Also made for slow oil filling at the first oil change.

I installed these new covers and ran the engine briefly and then took them off again just to check. Everything was fine.  At this point I realized that a lot of my problem was the chrome valve cover design itself.  I guess you get what you pay for.  I noticed that on the cheap chrome valve cover the oil fill / breather hole was placed right over the valve rockers. The oil baffle was then in direct conflict with anything but a stock rocker. The new aluminum unit has the filler/breather hole and baffle situated between the pairs of rocker arms so that there wouldn't be a direct interference. Just a couple of inches to one side makes all the difference in a better more thoughtful design.

[Cudajason]

got a link for those valve covers..they look nice!

I hope you get the issue fixed!

[PatO]

Those are a Mr. Gasket part 6860 G.  That's for a small block. 

You can find these at several vendors like Amazon, Holley, Summit.  I found they are a well constructed unit.

[Cudajason]

Those are a Mr. Gasket part 6860 G.  That's for a small block. 

You can find these at several vendors like Amazon, Holley, Summit.  I found they are a well constructed unit.

Thanks man!!!

[PatO]

Back again with some more progress on my oil leak problem.  I had purchased the MEWagner variable pvc unit and got it installed. Took a couple of trys and got it dialed in.  I have a much smoother idle and my engine actually idles smoothly at 800 rpm. That's pretty good considering the cam shaft.

[PatO]

So after installing the new pcv valve and after a 20 mile test drive, I still had a significant amount of oil dripping from the bottom of the distributor housing. 

I pulled the distributor and and removed the internals.  I could clearly see oil in the bottom and a few other spots.  Also noticed the remains of some black gasket sort of material in the bottom. This matched some sort of gasket where the upper distributor bushing mated with the distributor housing.   

Purchased a new distributor from Summit and I'm running fine.

[PatO]

I also had another project the past several days.  I swapped in power steering for my car.  I  had put in a firm feel 20:1 manual box as I was building the car. I did ok - I'm in my late 60's - with driving around until this past year. After a bad fall in an icy parking lot I had surgery on both shoulders, 9 months apart, for severed rotator cuffs. This was followed by carpal tunnel relief surgery on both hands last fall.  Well as thing started to warm up this spring I was able to take the car out again.  It was apparent rather quickly that the manual steering would have to go.

I went with the Borgeson power steering box. I purchased the whole install kit from Bergman Automotive including a new power steering pump, power steering fluid cooler and their custom coupler.

Everything went together real well. I removed the battery and battery tray and out can the Firm Feel unit and in went the new without any trouble on my 340 small block.

Below is one picture comparing the sizes of the manual unit with the Borgeson unit.  Another picture shows the fresh install all hooked up.

If anyone is interested I'm going to post the Firm Feel unit for sale for $130 plus shipping. It has around 700 miles on it.

[PatO]

The other picture.