What did you do to your Car today?

[Frosty]

I've kept my old rams if you need spares buddy!

[JUSTA6]

8 hours ago, Frosty said:

I've kept my old rams if you need spares buddy!

I have spare rams and another pump somewhere.  Many years ago when I stripped the caddy.  I also found a place in Orion/Oxford that rebuilds rams and a place in Waterford that makes hydraulic lines.  No idea if they are even still there.

[JUSTA6]

File this under WTF.   So my 421 has the original chrome valve covers.  One side has a plug in the breather hole.  1 inch.  This has been loose and leaking oil, dripping down and discoloring my exhaust manifold.  After sanding/repaint the exhaust, I took a small rubber band, twisted it once around the plug pulling it tight and stopping the leak.  So after arriving home after the show yesterday, I popped the hood to find oil on the bottom of the hood, and a noticeable missing plug in my valve cover. Lost it on the way home.  Question is....how much rubber material is on the backside of this plug?  Pulled the valve cover and cleaned the entire head and no trace of rubber anywhere. So did the plug pop out in one piece? or did it split leaving the backside of the plug inside my motor?  OPG sells a replacement, but only shows the top side.  Looked everywhere for the missing plug, but must have made it to the ground.  Backside of the V cover has a sharp edge the plug is suppose to seat against. I'm leaning towards a smaller LIP to hold it in VS the wider outside top of the plug.  Seems to me like anything 1 inch would have gotten stuck in a return passage in the head if it indeed split in two.

[360Rocket]

Steve you can build positive crankcase pressure and have enough of it to launch a valve cover plug if there is no other way for the crankcase gases to escape the engine thru another purge elsewhere. The crankcase pressure is usually caused by some enivetable blow by the rings. I run an oil cap on drivers side and a breather on the passenger side. I'm pretty sure on some valley pans there is a provision for a PCV valve as well. Jim Butler of Butler Performance will tell you "breathers are for tractor motors" but I'm sure you have to have some type of system to evacuate crankcase gases.

 

When I first bought the Pro Street blown Trans Am, I had a bad issue of pushing oil out of the valve covers and on to the headers at Boost and high RPM's to the point it looked like a mosquito fogger or smoke machine going down the road. I had to run  3/4" hoses from the valve cover breathers on both sides to welded bungs in the collectors of the headers to let the exhaust form a vacuum on those hoses to pull the crankcase pressure from the engine because at boost there is no vacuum to pull the noxious gases from the crankcase.

Edited June 25, 2017 by 360Rocket

[360Rocket]

http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/77425-crankcase-evacuation-vs-breather-help

 

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/crankcase-evacuation-system-opinions-126374.html

[JUSTA6]

1 hour ago, 360Rocket said:

Steve you can build positive crankcase pressure and have enough of it to launch a valve cover plug if there is no other way for the crankcase gases to escape the engine thru another purge elsewhere. The crankcase pressure is usually caused by some enivetable blow by the rings. I run an oil cap on drivers side and a breather on the passenger side. I'm pretty sure on some valley pans there is a provision for a PCV valve as well. Jim Butler of Butler Performance will tell you "breathers are for tractor motors" but I'm sure you have to have some type of system to evacuate crankcase gases.

 

When I first bought the Pro Street blown Trans Am, I had a bad issue of pushing oil out of the valve covers and on to the headers at Boost and high RPM's to the point it looked like a mosquito fogger or smoke machine going down the road. I had to run  3/4" hoses from the valve cover breathers on both sides to welded bungs in the collectors of the headers to let the exhaust form a vacuum on those hoses to pull the crankcase pressure from the engine because at boost there is no vacuum to pull the noxious gases from the crankcase.

ALL ENGINES have some blowby past the rings.  I have a PCV and the oil fill is also vented.  Never had that much pressure, plug was so loose you could move it around in the hole. Just enough to get the area wet around the plug and would eventually drip on my exhaust manifold.  I'm thinkin it wore out the inside of the plug after all these years and when I added the rubber band it was just enough to pull the plug up tight to the bottom of the valve cover.  LIL extra pressure and bye bye.  Glad it did it on the way home. Took the engine pic at the show.  I was worried about how much rubber might have come off N in my engine, but looking at OPG, Ames had a better pic of the plug, they showed me at the local parts store. As it's only 1 inch hole, it was never ment for a breather. Breather was my option going to the parts store, if they didn't have my plug. They had a correct 1 in plug, but its plastic.  They gave it to me to get me through til I can get a rubber one.  Once the plastic gets good N hot, can't see this lasting long so I put a thin layer of peratex to help hold it in for now. Shipping would be waaay more than the cost of the plug, so I need to make an order and knock some more stuff off the wish list.

Know whatcha mean on the blower motor.....Melted the pistons outta the bird a couple times and people thought I was on fire driving home. Whatta mess.  Pistons now hang in my hall of fame!

[360Rocket]

Its funny how we collect catastrophic failure trophies. lol I've got spider gears saved with only 3 of the  or so teeth remaining on the gears from a 4 gear to a second gear drop in a race against a blown Mustang. I was owning that ass until the rear gave up the ghost. ha ha good times.

[Frosty]

So JUSTA -- what's your next step?

I suspect I have an issue with my PCV valve with Lucy as well. I suspect my valley cover is getting filled up with oil on long distance trips thus causing my oil consumption issue on long distance trips but next to nothing when I drive locally. I plan to remove the intake and valley pan later this summer or fall and inspect/repair it. I have a new PCV valve already. Lucy also needs a good tune up with distributor cap, rotor and plugs.

[Last Indian]

Steve, a couple things if I may? I’m not clear how you have the motor setup, but in general pcv systems like to breathe through both heads, I.E. valve covers. Such as pcv valve in one cover, air cleaner hose setup in the other or preferably air cleaner hose and breather in the other. In the older engines were the pcv was in the intake manifold both covers would have breathers. 

The one inch hole usually was for a pcv valve or the air cleaner hose, I have some if you need one I could get it to you if you like? 

In the attached picture of my 302 engine the left side has a front breather back is an oil cap. Right side is front and rear are both breathes, no pcv at all. I did away with it. Pcv was kind of worthless in the Z sine it only pulled 4 inches of vacuum in an idle. This setup really breathed very well, but I would have to clean them every 5 to 6 hundred miles. 

If you want one of the grommets let me know which one, they all fit a 1 inch hole. If you don’t want to run a breather in it I’ll send a nice looking SS plug to fill it! 

[JUSTA6]

23 hours ago, Frosty said:

So JUSTA -- what's your next step?

I suspect I have an issue with my PCV valve with Lucy as well. I suspect my valley cover is getting filled up with oil on long distance trips thus causing my oil consumption issue on long distance trips but next to nothing when I drive locally. I plan to remove the intake and valley pan later this summer or fall and inspect/repair it. I have a new PCV valve already. Lucy also needs a good tune up with distributor cap, rotor and plugs.

Fairly certain I don't have a large hunk of rubber floating around in my engine. Will order a new one, but need a couple more things to make the order worth the shipping cost.  Ames seems to blow away OPG on everything!

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Fairly certain I don't have a large hunk of rubber floating around in my engine. Will order a new one, but need a couple more things to make the order worth the shipping cost.  Ames seems to blow away OPG on everything!

Local run to NPD in Canton worthwhile?

Edited June 27, 2017 by Frosty

[Last Indian]

Did you by any chance try NAPA?

[JUSTA6]

21 hours ago, Last Indian said:

Steve, a couple things if I may? I’m not clear how you have the motor setup, but in general pcv systems like to breathe through both heads, I.E. valve covers. Such as pcv valve in one cover, air cleaner hose setup in the other or preferably air cleaner hose and breather in the other. In the older engines were the pcv was in the intake manifold both covers would have breathers. 

The one inch hole usually was for a pcv valve or the air cleaner hose, I have some if you need one I could get it to you if you like? 

In the attached picture of my 302 engine the left side has a front breather back is an oil cap. Right side is front and rear are both breathes, no pcv at all. I did away with it. Pcv was kind of worthless in the Z sine it only pulled 4 inches of vacuum in an idle. This setup really breathed very well, but I would have to clean them every 5 to 6 hundred miles. 

If you want one of the grommets let me know which one, they all fit a 1 inch hole. If you don’t want to run a breather in it I’ll send a nice looking SS plug to fill it! 

My PCV is in the back of the intake, the oil fill is also a breather.  Nobody seems to make a 1 inch breather. Was my alternative choice going in)  All Pontiac listings have an original or aftermarket (rubber) plug.  Can't see this plastic working for very long, but don't have plans to take the car out til after the holiday.  Thank you for the offer bro.

3 hours ago, Last Indian said:

Did you by any chance try NAPA?

Our local NAPA was so worthless they went out of business.  

[Last Indian]

Justa6, just to clarify, is the hole in the valve cover 1” or would the I.D. of the grommet for a breather be 1”? Because if you would like to use a breather on that side Summit Racing has quite a few different style breathers in various stem sizes, 1.25, 1, .750 etc. or if you like I could make you one, depending on what you wanted. Just food for thought!

[notallthere]

-6 AN fittings.  Pain in the ass but oh so worth it.

[JUSTA6]

17 hours ago, Last Indian said:

Justa6, just to clarify, is the hole in the valve cover 1” or would the I.D. of the grommet for a breather be 1”? Because if you would like to use a breather on that side Summit Racing has quite a few different style breathers in various stem sizes, 1.25, 1, .750 etc. or if you like I could make you one, depending on what you wanted. Just food for thought!

The ID of the hole is 1 inch. There are no 3/4in breathers, like you said, on some setups maybe a PCV would fit in there.  Here's a pic of the oil fill and vented cap. I put a wrist sweatband on it to soak up the oily air that leaves a film on the cover after driving. I ordered the correct plug from Ames.  Thats what it has always been in it.  With the Tri power small filters adding something else is JUSTA clutter.  Wouldn't be clean and even like your motor pic with all the beautiful goodies. That air filter is so cool.

Edited June 28, 2017 by JUSTA6

[Last Indian]

Justa, thanks about the air cleaner, the actual surface area was 1 ½ times larger than the stock piece as it was open all the way around and on top too.
Attached in a link to summit’s page for ¾ stem diameter breathers if you wanted to consider that route. 
https://www.summitracing.com/search/part-type/valve-cover-breathers?N=4294916373

That said the offer still stands, I’d be happy to cobble up an oil cap breather & a breather for the other side to match. I usually do polished aluminum. It wouldn't be till winter when things slow down a bit so you would still need something in the interim.

[Frosty]

I had an interesting problem develop last night with the Black Beast, my 2008 Envoy Denali. I was visiting a buddy of mine. It got late, I jumped in the Envoy and started the thing up and I noticed I had no low beam  headlights. I had high beams but no low beams. Hmmm....odd. It's not impossible to blow both headlight lamps at the same time but it is highly unlikely too. I just replaced a burned out tail light earlier last week too.

So I run up to Autozone this morning and purchase two new 9006 bulbs. I install the first new buib and tested  it and it's not working either. Oh oh, it's not necessarily the bulb then. Something else is probably wrong.

I opened the fuse panel, which is in the engine bay. There are 4 fuses for the front high and low beam headlights. I circled them in red in the picture below. I pull and check each one. They were all good.

The fuses were all good - sorry for the fuzzy picture!

I remember reading something about Trailblazers and Envoys using solid state relays (SSR) to manage the Daytime Running Lights (DRL) with the BCM. I checked the panel. There is only one SSR listed in the fuse panel legend. Its located at the green circle. One panel legend is says it is the HDM relay.

 

While there are several relays in the fuse panel, you cannot interchange the gray relays with the SSR ones. They have a different pin layout as you can see below.

I ended up back at Autozone and ask the guy for a new SSR relay. His computer tells him that he has to special order this relay and its going to be 2-3 days before he gets it in, and its a $40 part. This angered me a little. I said "Look up Duralast part # 20601". He did, he had two in stock. It shows for a 05-06 Trailblazer radiator clutch fan relay. Guess what, it is the same relay. The Trailblazer used two SSRs, one for the low beams and one to manage the operation of the radiator clutch fan. The Envoy only has one for the low beams.

The attendant said he was going to have to remember that part number.

Oh, and the best thing was the part cost $26, not $40. I put it in the relay slot outside Autozone and. voila, I have low beams again!!!!

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Frosty

[Last Indian]

Frosty, good job! Kill all the electrical engineers! Four generations later and we still have pretty much the same functions with 20 times the cost, 50 times the diagnostics work and cars still weigh the same despite all the talk of reducing weight through electrical wire and component mass!

[JUSTA6]

You da man!  I would have been waiting for the $40 part to come in.

[Ringo64]

Dang, nice thinking!

[Last Indian]

Justa, question? Could you please take a couple of pictures of the oil fill cap/breather & the valve cover with that piece out so I can see how it is fitted together, I assume just a push in piece, but I can’t tell for sure. Also could you tell me the diameter of the stem part of the oil fill cap, I need that for fitment purposes, that is if you want me to make you a matched set of breathers? If not that cool too! 

[JUSTA6]

On 6/30/2017 at 10:11 AM, Last Indian said:

Justa, question? Could you please take a couple of pictures of the oil fill cap/breather & the valve cover with that piece out so I can see how it is fitted together, I assume just a push in piece, but I can’t tell for sure. Also could you tell me the diameter of the stem part of the oil fill cap, I need that for fitment purposes, that is if you want me to make you a matched set of breathers? If not that cool too! 

Sorry last Indian, been a crazy week of travel N hangin with the family. My correct plug arrived in the mail.  As long as it seals right and stop's the oil from staining my exhaust (what started this whole mess) I'm thinkin I'll keep it the way it is.  Would like to keep the clutter down (even though matching breathers would be very cool from all the work we have seen of yours)  Now, if you keep the offer open,,,,, I'll be starting on the Sunbird soon (Would like to have it on the road for Dream Cruise in Aug) Have run into a problem on a project I started years ago and could work out so we could install on both of our cars if you were interested.   

[Last Indian]

Justa, yes, the offer is open, not quite sure what you are looking for or what both cars are but we can figure that out. If you need an email to talk to me through copy and past this link into the send link. 

Edited July 11, 2017 by Last Indian

[JUSTA6]

So after sitting for the last couple years, I pulled the trans on the Sunbird and took the bellhousing in to have a helicoil installed to repair the stripped out shifter fork pivot/adjuster that left me with no clutch after JUSTA installing the custom made flywheel and "accessible" clutch and pressure plate. Coil was waaay cheaper than welding and tapping and could get the coil installed same day V 2 weeks on welding.  (cuttin it too close to Dream Cruise in 2 weeks) They will not guarantee  the helicoil to hold.  So I put a nut on the inside where all the pressure is and JB welded the sucker in place.  That, with the new helicoil I've doubled the thead contact and eliminated any chance of this pushing out again.  While waiting for the JB to dry enough for a 2nd coat, I pulled the steering wheel on the GTO to find the correct parts needed to replace the turnsig activator and new switch including the wiring harness.  It works, but you have to manually turn off after completing a turn. I did not realize how bad it was busted up and even the horn wire was missing. LMAO  Horn was never a priority and shuffled to the back burner.  It will be next on my list now that I'll have a working setup.  Always wondered and forgot what it went to when I started rewiring the car the winter after I got it.  Also ordered the new veneer for the dash so I can stain it myself and match the console that was installed last year and the rest of the freakin AWESOME  interior upgrades that will soon be happening.  I've tried to put the interior back together stock (or period correct mods like my Grant steering wheel) But a chance has come up to display some work by a MASTER craftsman!!!!  What has been completed so far has blown my mind.