oil leak :(

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72ElCamino

72ElCamino

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well after driving the el camino, yes it has an oil leak. It recently occured after putting on new valve covers. It seems to be leaking out around the gromet that the breather is in. I inspected the old valve covers and they had metal panels(baffles?) right below the hole the breather goes in. The new ones I have dont have them, could that be my problem? Is there a special type of breather? By they way, its a 1972 small block, 350. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
 
You have a fairly high crank case pressure so the oil is pushing out the breather. The lack of the metal plates is the problem.
 
the weird thing is I could rev the engine and all and not a drop of oil would come out of the breather, but then while we drive it and then come home the headers seem to be covered in oil. My dad and I even taped up the breather thinking no oil would come out, yet it did while we drove it.
 
Oil squirts out of your push rods, thru the rockers at a high pressure to oil the top of the heads. Thats how your valve springs, rockers, and pushrods stay oiled. Without the metal piece in there it will definetly come out of the breather hole. All you will need to do is get rid of the breather up there and put a PCV piece up there. They are only about a dollar and you can route the vented air anywhere you want. You could ever run it up into the air cleaner if you wanted. Feel free to answer any engine questions. Most of the vehicles I have owned had a small block chevy in them so I feel quite comfortable with talking about the engine. I might even have some parts you could use. :)
Do you have any other plans for your car?
 
Here is a pic of the rockers from my engine in the Camaro its a 383 stroker but its basically the same as a 350 small block. If you look at the end of the yellow arrows you see where the little holes are. Under those holes are the pushrods. Under the push rods are the lifters. And under the lifters is the cam. When the lifters compress from the cam this forces oil to squirt thru the push rods then out of the top of where the arrrows are.
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alright, so you saying to put another PCV connection on them and run it to the air cleaner?
sadly this engine is getting low oil pressure :( So we tried to save it for a while putting a high volume oil pump in it. The bottom half really needs to be redone, the whole top half was done right before we got the car, in 1989-1990. So we will end up getting a crate engine for it when that time comes. But for now, it runs perfect except this darn oil leak
 
You could also try some clear silicone around the grommet first where it meets the valve cover. There are also valve cover breathers that set up a little higher and some of them have the metal baffle under them. You could even put a "T" handle between the 2 PCV tubes like this. You can get rid of that breather that I have the arrow pointing at.
Edit: You should pic up a "K & N" air filter while your at it. 👍
PCV.jpg
 
alright I will try the silicone this weekend and if that doesnt work I might go with that PCV line your talking about. Thanks alot for the suggestions :). also, whats the engine look like under the hood of your camaro?

And yes, I need to get around to picking up the filter for it, its one of the first things on my list of things to do, just never had the time to pick one up yet.
 
also, whats the engine look like under the hood of your camaro
Click to expand...
Very ugly. I have a high rise aluminum air gap intake, 750 dbl pumper holley carb, Polished aluminum valve covers and pulleys. But despite those items, it is very ugly under the hood of my Camaro thats why I don't show anyone!! :yuck: So far most of the car is for function and mock up. I will put more attention towards the engine compartment and other details next year.
 
I hear ya, well let me tell you, the stance of that car is perfect, I love how it sits. When you go to the engine compartment take a picture before you take it apart so we can see a before and after :)
 

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