Today, I decided to perform a total and complete inspection of the engine and engine compartment and discovered that my PCV valve was done for.

I also rerouted spark plug wires that were too close to the driver side exhaust manifold, found that my plenum plate had been replaced with a proper aluminum piece, found the engine has been consuming none of its oil, rear main seal leak has ceased since introduction of Mobil Super 5000/Marvel Mystery Oil, air filter looks good as the day I put it in, began dishwasher detergent "trucker flush" to adress rusty coolant system, replaced OEM radiator cap with Lev-R-Vent, re-installed OEM battery hold-downs that I found under the driver's seat, removed defunct and improperly installed electric A/C helper fan, added correct caps to A/C system's charge ports, added a hose to direct A/C drip water past the blower motor and frame directly to the ground, Added 1 quart of ATF+4 to the trans due to low fluid level, and of course, added an electric crankcase evac system, rather than deal with the PCV system anymore.

The system I added is not one of those professional units used by racing teams. I used a Mustang Cobra electric smog pump connected to a new OEM style breather, drawing air out of it, rather than air going into the crankcase. I have this system on all of my high performance vehicles, but decided to pull the trigger on it for my van too, because it eliminates any possibility of oily messes in the intake system from the PCV valve, removes any blowby gases from the crankcase, and stops oil leaks caused by crankcase pressure forcing non-pressurized oil out through the seals. Vacuum gauge reads between 4-4.5" of mercury. There is definitely a difference in the way she drives now. Feels smoother and has a bit more pickup. Next step is to add a second one in series, like on my Charger, to bump the vacuum up to 9-10". Anything 10 inches and above is where the real power is made.

Going to use the Mopar CCC to do a ring soak and intake cleaning on Saturday, before I put this baby on an oil cleaning interval with Kreen and Pennzoil Yellow Bottle. We'll see how much better she does then.

I will have pics tomorrow. My cell phone takes real bad ones at night time.

 

Interesting, would like to see the pictures of this setup.

 

I am curious you are removing air from your crankcase, how is the air getting sucked back in to replace it? Don't you need a flow of air in so that you can remove the gases that build up? if so is this air that's sucked in filtered or ambient? if ambient and unfiltered it's going to be dirty I would imagine.

 

Sorry i haven't gotten any pics yet. By the time I get home from work, it's always dark.

When you have a space held under vacuum, any gas that enters that space is removed by the vacuum source.

I have no point for fresh air to enter. Just pure suction, holding a vacuum.

 

That is not a good setup. The vacuum increases piston ring blow-by, reducing the amount of oil on the cylinder walls and increasing the amount of contaminates in the oil. All in all, this setup will cause premature engine wear.

 

Vacuum crankcase evacuation is nothing new. Holding a vacuum has never been shown to increase blowby, and at high enough vacuum, blowby is decreased.

Never been any information showing a decrease in cylinder oil film,either. Lots of engines out there running vacuum pump on the street and track. No engine wear issues yet. And those pumps run 4-5 times the constant vacuum. This includes engines that were not built with the pump in mind. My charger is approaching 47000 miles running 21 inches of mercury .