All Small Six HELP! Oil blow-by with non-baffled valve cover

This relates to all small sixes
Goldie

Goldie

Well-known member
Looking for help from anyone who may have experienced a similar problem. Any of you who have followed our build, know that we have a hi-perf 200 w/ Aussie head, mild performance Clay Smith Cam, Yella Terra Roller Rockers, etc. The car runs like a dream. Tons of power (very similar to a 289). We are running a Classic Inlines finned aluminum non-baffled valve cover (for clearance of the YT Roller Rockers). At first we tried chrome push-in breather elements. Tons of blow-by that soaked the entire engine compartment. Cleaned up that mess and tried another set of breather elements from Speedway Motors. Custom polished aluminum breathers with one being a true PCV valve. They come with closed grommets that we put a small 3/16" hole in the side for inside pressure release. After 5 miles, we had another mess on our hands and smoke pouring out the exhaust because the PCV valve sucked in engine oil. I received a tip from Matt Cox of Vintage Inlines to purchase grommets that have a built in baffle in the rubber and a small sponge like filter at the top. Unfortunately, the inner diameter of those grommets is too small to accommodate any of our breather elements. Also, we are running oil through push rods and have the restrictor in the block that has been recommended for use with oil-thru push rods.

As much as I hate this for any of us, I am hoping that some of you may have experienced this before and might have a resolution to this problem. The way things stand, we can't drive the car. Ugh!!

Appreciate your help, as always.
 
You can use these.

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Moroso 68772 Moroso PCV Grommets with Integral Baffles | Summit Racing

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Or this PCV valve.
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone! After speaking with forum member, PMuller, we think we may have figured out the problem. It appears the oil pump may be a high volume pump and is sucking the pan dry... hence all the oil filling up the valve cover and pushing out the grommets and sucking through the PCV valve. At idle, we have about 45psi. Too high. We did run to Advance Auto and picked up more of the PCV Grommets with internal baffles that had the right internal ID to fit our breather and PCV elements. This helps the leaks, but not the PCV valve sucking up the excess oil that is filling the valve cover.

So, off to NAPA in the morning to pick up a standard oil pump. Hopefully this will lower the pressure and the excess oil in the valve cover. Fingers crossed!

Once again you guys in this forum have been a huge help. Many thanks to you all!
 
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There is not a high-volume pump that I know of for a 200. I do not think that is your problem. It sounds like an oil control issue. I am sure the roller rocker adds more oil than the stock shaft system to the valve cover area. Maybe fab a baffle inside the valve cover to direct the oil away from the breathers. There is three small oil drain back holes in the lifter galley that that drains all the oil from the head and whatever leaks out the top of the lifters, I open those up, also oil draining back has to compete with crank case blowby which keep oil from draining back. Some boosted guys have been fabing up a crank case breather at the unused fuel pump boss to bypass the blowby away from the valve cover. A thinner oil could help.
It may be worth the time to fab up an old cover with some clear windows to see what is happening.
 
drag-200stang said:
There is not a high-volume pump that I know of for a 200. I do not think that is your problem. It sounds like an oil control issue. I am sure the roller rocker adds more oil than the stock shaft system to the valve cover area. Maybe fab a baffle inside the valve cover to direct the oil away from the breathers. There is three small oil drain back holes in the lifter galley that that drains all the oil from the head and whatever leaks out the top of the lifters, I open those up, also oil draining back has to compete with crank case blowby which keep oil from draining back. Some boosted guys have been fabing up a crank case breather at the unused fuel pump boss to bypass the blowby away from the valve cover. A thinner oil could help.
It may be worth the time to fab up an old cover with some clear windows to see what is happening.
Click to expand...
Thank you! Sending you a private msg.
 
Forced induction oil return from compressor and blowby with boost are a concern and my simple help is to add breather capacity and the aforementioned catch-can if severe. If oil-thru PR's are adding overflow amount in VC, a different approach is needed.


have fun

the SC'd 250 uses big tubes to multiple breathers on stacks from OEM valve cover and unused fuel pump location.

. .
 
The situation is that there is more oil being pumped to the head than can be returned to the oil pan and the valve cover is completely filling up with oil.
If you run the engine with the valve cover off, at idle the oil squirts up to the hood and out of the engine compartment.

Top end oiling is through the pushrods.
There is 45 psi of oil pressure at idle.
 
a simple solution would include a large enough bypass port / hose from low on VC to crankcase like turbo oil return dump.


pan oil return from SC and fuel pump blockoff used for crankcase vent.



earlier Draw-Thru BOP turbo setup returned oil to the VC which did have foaming problem.



have fun
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. We have also spoken to a couple of you via phone and appreciate your recommendations too. Pan is coming off later tonight so we can get a good look at what might be occurring at the lower-end. New oil pump is also coming in the morning. Praying we can find the answer to what is causing the excess oil pressure and/or what might be blocking the oil return passages... and then fix accordingly. You've given us some great suggestions, and we appreciate all!
 
Please do a compression test and or a leakdown test to find out if you have a lot of blow by. If thats ok, then proceed onto to oil baffles in the rocker cover under the PCV hole and engine breather. The PCV system should take its inlet air from the engine air filter area. As to oil pumps, here in Australia we can get a local HV pump, its NOT needed, i run a stock flow pump with 10w-30 mineral oil, I have put a shim behind the relief valve spring, i get around 60psi running cold, and down to about 15psi idling hot. It runs at 50psi hot 2000rpm, which is exactly the spec form Ford, 35-55psi hot@2000rpm. High viscosity oil does not mean better lubrication, but it does mean power losses trying to pump it. I put up a picture of mine, its blown and I get NO problems. You can see the PCV valve down the back and the PCv inlet at the front, connected to the air intake for the engine.RIMG0044.JPG
 
Throw the aluminium valve cover out.
You have excessive ring gap causing blow by.
In stall a stock Ford valve cover with proper baffles for the pcv & oil breather.
Use a Spectre oil breather cap which will handle excessive blow-by.
 
Here's where we are tonight. We suspect the chromoly rings most likely aren't seated in yet (we have less than 150 miles on this new engine). We changed out the oil pump and it's still putting out 45-ish at cold idle. After talking to a few of you and brainstorming, we called Comp Cams about oil restricting pushrods. They put us in touch with Smith Bros pushrods in Oregon. We had a set of 60% restricted 5/16 x 8.20 pushrods overnighted. Installed today and we no longer have oil filling up the valve cover and not draining properly. Smith Bros. claimed they have seen this problem before. We also change oil to 10W-30 vs. the 10W-40 Brad Penn we were using. We ran the car again. The valve cover is no longer filling up with oil, but it started smoking after 10 min or so. Removed the aftermarket PCV valve and put a stock one on. Smoking stopped, car ran smooth, and we took it for a quick spin until severe storms came into the area. Going to do a much longer trip tomorrow to ensure we really have this fixed. We are hopeful and also grateful for all of the tips, calls, and discussions we've had with all of you. You've been a great help! Thanks for following along on our journey!
 
wsa111 said:
Throw the aluminium valve cover out.
You have excessive ring gap causing blow by.
In stall a stock Ford valve cover with proper baffles for the pcv & oil breather.
Use a Spectre oil breather cap which will handle excessive blow-by.
Click to expand...
Thanks wsa111. I had given that some thought but was concerned with clearance of the stock valve cover because of our Yella Terra Roller Rockers. Wasn't sure they'd clear the baffles. Still might be an option if you think they might.
 
aussie7mains said:
Please do a compression test and or a leakdown test to find out if you have a lot of blow by. If thats ok, then proceed onto to oil baffles in the rocker cover under the PCV hole and engine breather. The PCV system should take its inlet air from the engine air filter area. As to oil pumps, here in Australia we can get a local HV pump, its NOT needed, i run a stock flow pump with 10w-30 mineral oil, I have put a shim behind the relief valve spring, i get around 60psi running cold, and down to about 15psi idling hot. It runs at 50psi hot 2000rpm, which is exactly the spec form Ford, 35-55psi hot@2000rpm. High viscosity oil does not mean better lubrication, but it does mean power losses trying to pump it. I put up a picture of mine, its blown and I get NO problems. You can see the PCV valve down the back and the PCv inlet at the front, connected to the air intake for the engine.
Click to expand...
Thanks aussie7mains! That's quite a set-up you have there! We are certain that you are right... we have excessive blow by at the rings. Pretty sure they aren't seated in yet. This engine was built with 10:1 JE forged pistons with chromoly rings. We put a new stock oil pump on, in case the original one was a HV pump. After removing it, we found out it was also a stock pump. We believe we have the problem resolved (see above post). Fingers crossed. Thanks again!
 
Good news on the progress.
Stock cover is probably the easiest way to baffle the valve cover. A spacer could be made, or weld two covers cut right to give the most height you can make work. I think that some covers only has one end baffled, you want both ends baffled.
Keep in mind that you may still need to vent some blowby out of the crankcase for 100% fix.
There are some south am. 200 u-tube vids that can give some good ideas.
 
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