Crankcase vent after K&N fit?

[Kramer]

Put in a K&N pod type unit today and was wondering where to plumb the CCV Air Intake to??

1. You don't want too much vacuum on it because I understand it should be delivering air TO the valvecover, not the other way.

2. I think it should be filtered air, right?

3. how about a small auxiliary filter??

[TJPete]

The port you are referring to provides outgoing ventilation from the motor in the event of too much crankcase pressure. It is one way only (outgoing) and by AU EPA regulations must not vent to the atmosphere.

It should be routed per the OE configuration, back into the air intake before the tBody. Review you OE configuration and you will see what I mean.

In other words, this port does not suck, it blows and releases unwanted crankcase pressure.

[Kramer]

Peter, thanks for that.

I'm a bit confused because the manual does say "CCV Air In" for the front pipe and "CCV Air Out" for the rear one.

The front pipe is sucking air in - slowly. You can put you thumb on the end and it slowly builds up vacuun under your thumb.

So I can only assume that it is making up air for the sump as the CCV scavenges.

Perhaps this is "Normal" operation and the situation you described above is "abnormal" (i.e excessive blowby - CCV can't handle - so the makeup pipe becomes a relief?

[TJPete]

Kramer,

Please PM me the details on your compliance plate. I need to know manufacture date & engine number. I will review these, the advice I have given you and once validated I will post back on here to ensure I have given you the correct advice.

We do a standard cold air induction setup for the Four Oh and the steps I have relayed are those I have installed many times. However, I acknowledge everything you are saying and I will review all the data and respond soon.

Thankyou for replying with detail, I reckon we all benefit from such things.

BTW, when you say front, you do mean the one closest to the radiator yes?

[Kramer]

Thanks Peter.

I will PM you tonight re the info.

In the meantime, here is what I did to get the car legal.

After doing a couple of tests on the "CCV Air In" line (near the front / radiator end of the engine), I have found that this line sucks when all is normal and blows only when the vacuum line on the CCV Air Out (other end) is disconnected. In other words, the blowby in the engine is normally taken care of (and then some) by the CCV valve pulsing away under vacuum like it should - but when this vacuum source is taken away, the CCV valve does not open, and as a result the CCV Air In line blows.

The CCV Air In line is fed from the air box but not under direct full vacuum because the place that the OEM feeds it from is somewhere between full vacuum (this would be the trottle body itself) and normal atmosphere - somewhere in between. This means that the CCV isn't sucking against itself, and the circuit can "work". Moreover, if the CCV malfunctions, the sump is evacuated by returning the blowby through the CCV Air In line back to the front of the engine, to be safely consumed and passed through the cat converter, etc.

This is my understanding of the dual purpose of the set-up. I might be wrong?

TJPete, what I did to get the car legal (you can't just drive around with this stuff disconnected, as you say) is I plumbed the CCV Air In into the flat front face of the pod element using a brass fitting and hardware. This fitting gives tight seal so that all air is still passing through the filter element. Then I used heater hose to run up to the CCV AIr In point on the valve cover.

For anyone interested, I re-used part of the OEM airbox as a splashguard / heatshield (the pod sits cradled towards the front of the engine next to the computer). I will remove the plastic plate behind the headlight as well to get some air flowing in through there. I used 90 mm PVC fittings to plumb to the throttle body, using the OEM black rubber elbow.

All in all, the car was rather astmatic before and now "breathes" much better and still has reasonable protection against the elements.

Next week I am putting the vents in the bonnet - Gojeep will do the full writeup on his site on my behalf (he doesn't want to cut his bonnet up!) so I'll let you know the results on that.

Cheers,
Markus Kramer