I was cleaning my K&N last night and noticed there is a place on the back of the air box that looks like a hose goes to. I can not find any hoses that are just dangling around and from past experiences with engines I would say it goes to a PCV valve somewhere. I have one PCV valve in the valve cover on the passengers side that goes to the intake and on the drivers side there is a hole that I could put one in but has a rubber plug in it that looks like it is from the factory.

Info about the truck:

1997 ram 1500
4X2
5.2
auto tranny

not sure what else my need to be known but just ask and I can tell.

Thanks,
Brad

 

You need to take the plug out and install a breather tube from that hole to the air box, or you could plug the hole on the air box and install a breather filter in the valve cover. Your pcv valve will just create a vacuum in the motor with no breather.

 

Here's how it works:


[IMG]local://upfiles/29576/DD4A06F346184D9488D35AA6FF815650.jpg[/IMG]

 

Thanks Mopwar that is exactly what I needed to know......Would this have caused any problems with the engine or gas milage?

 

Not really. It will make your oil get dirtier quicker. The system is also supposed to keep a positive pressure on the rings to keep them from wearing as fast, but this effect is minimal. If it were me I would just fix it and change the oil.

 

I personally prefer to have a breather filter on my PCV instead of a vacuum line. The reason behind it is that the vacuum line sucks oil along with the crankcase gases and all that gets deposited on the back of the throttle body, intake manifold, valves, pistons, fuel injectors, catalytic converter and so on. With the breather valve, it allows the crankcase gases to be released and have an equal pressure with the atmosphere. It gave me better gas milage. But then again I have a Chevy S10.

 

The oil and gases get sucked into your manifold through the pcv valve, so unless you have a in-line filter in that vacuum hose you're still getting that stuff in the places you mentioned. Air goes in through the breather and out the pcv. The reason you use a breather filter is to keep the pcv system from robbing intake air and upsetting the flow.

 

Thanks mopowar I went at lunch and got the stock oil breather and some hose and hooked it up right.