Are my valvecover breathers in the wrong place?

[Heavyjp]

I put them right in the middle on both the driver and passenger sides. I notice oil leakage and an occasional smell. Did I do this wrong?
I also expirience occasional smoke after spirited driving. Could it be that I don't have adequate ventilation. I deleted my PVC when I chucked my stock carb. I now have a Edlebrock 850.
Another question: Does anyone have or know where I can get a 4 barrel intake to go with the 4-barrel carb?
I got air leaks from all the gaskets and such...

[Cliff]

An 850 is too much carb for any AMC V-8, except for a serious 401. Edelbrock and Offy make 4-barrel manifolds. Stock ones are pretty common among AMC classifieds (check this site or www.ep.com). (http://www.ep.com).)

AMC valve covers are very small, and breathers installed in the valve covers in a higher mileage engine (with blow-by) will produce some leakage. Some of it is dripping onto the exhaust manifolds causing the smoke.

Do you have the breather on your intake manifold? The factory setup worked pretty good - PCV in the back, breather in the front.

[Bob Barry]

Yeah, you're leaking oil because the AMC needs the PCV setup to run. Hook that PCV back up, delete the valve-cover breathers, and keep an opening in the oil-fill cap (that's the inlet for the PCV system).

[Heavyjp]

So, you guys are saying that you can't make the breathers work? There has to be a way around this. I know that the carb is too big, but when my old 2-barrel carb went that or a Holley 750 were my only free options. It's really not too bad. Just at times when I go to punch it it hesitates like there's a vacuum or air leak. I really want to throw a 4-barrel intake on there and I think that would solve that problem. I think I'm gonna have to gerry rig something up to get that PCV back on there. I don't even remember how everything goes. I still may put this used 2-barrel carb in that I got from a 86 grand at the junkyard. It's just that the 4-barrel ROCKS! I just walk away from people on the highway!
Oh yeah, the valvecover thing I forgot about. I have a idea of using taller valvecovers with the breathers. That should work, right?
Next question: Where exactly can I get these taller valvecovers?

[dnixon]

Originally posted by Heavyjp:
Next question: Where exactly can I get these taller valvecovers?Its an AMC so probably no where. Try summit. You should just get rid of them. More trouble then they are worth.

[Heavyjp]

You mean to tell me that nobody on the forum has valvecover breathers?

[Wesdog]

Originally posted by Heavyjp:
You mean to tell me that nobody on the forum has valvecover breathers?You might find some info here:

http://cgi.amcforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Engine;action=display;num=1057121394

http://cgi.amcforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Engine;action=display;num=1058895987

Wesdog

http://www.fullsizejeeps.com/jeeps/files/Misc-Pictures/wesdog_avitar1.jpg

[Bob Barry]

Originally posted by Heavyjp:
You mean to tell me that nobody on the forum has valvecover breathers?Exactly. Don't need them. That's what the stock PCV system is for. Removing it improves nothing.

You can run a 750cfm Holley on an AMC360 motor (I have), but it's not optimal. You've already experienced the lack of vacuum signal for transition from idle to cruise or power. You need a big pump cam on that carb to fatten that up. Increasing the rate of mechanical advance also helps dramatically; upping the initial ignition advance helps on the bottom-end, but will make it ping on the top-end.

Of course, you're making the problem worse by running an oversize 4-bbl on a stock 2-bbl intake. Forget about decent mixture distribution.

Good luck!

[SpruceMoose]

ditto what has been said before. you can make the valve cover breathers work, but you gotta get the pcv system working again. you are pressurizing the crankcase, and oil will blow out along with the excess pressure wherever it can.

and the carb is about double, in terms of air flow, of what the engine actually requires. these things, unless really modded up, only use about 350-400 cfm. at low rpms (low air flow through the carb) there is not enough vacuum to quickly draw fuel out of the main jets when you accelerate. doesnt matter with the efi setup i'm using, even though its 670 cfm, 'cause the system calculates what the engine needs and forces it out of the injectors. instant throttle response, no matter what!

sm.