My 482 used oil. Lots of oil. Stupid amounts of oil. Like a quart every 70 miles! No smoke, no leaks, but always a quart or two low it seemed. I changed the intake gaskets, I changed the pcv valve, put a baffle in the valve cover. Nothing worked. I thought maybe the rings didn’t seat or the valve guides were bad but either of those scenarios meant pulling the engine and starting over and the symptoms just didn’t add up. I still suspected the pcv.
One day while researching alternative pcv valves, I read the online instructions for a very expensive adjustable pcv valve:
http://mewagner.com/?p=444 The guys at Wagner did their research on pcv systems in developing their product and concluded that, first, off the shelf pcv valves are basically junk, poorly calibrated generic replacements for items specifically tuned by the OEMs, and second, there are two scenarios for a pcv valve related to engine idle vacuum. Stock and lightly modified engines produce vacuum >7 inHg at idle. High rpm cams with big overlap produce <7 inHg at idle. For the second scenario they recommend running their pcv valve in “fixed orifice” mode.
So GM had a problem with some LS engines burning lots of oil a few years back. Their solution was also a fixed orifice pcv valve. Autozone sells p/n PCV1009DL which is the GM replacement part for 99 cents! It looks like a pcv valve but hollow with a single hole for air flow. Buy a handful of them then drill and swap to suit your engine.
But pcv valves serve a second function as well. They prevent backfires from igniting gasses in the crankcase by acting as a check valve. So any fixed orifice pcv must have a baffle to prevent this. Part number BF618DL + a little fabrication worked in my case.
What does all this mean? Well, my engine pulls 6-7 inHg at idle, then 15-19 inHg at cruise (big displacement+high rpm+nearly closed throttle). This sends all the wrong signals to a “stock” pcv valve resulting in a buildup of crankcase pressure when that pcv closes at high vacuum/high rpm cruise. The oil is then forced wherever it can go - out the seals, back through the breather, past the rings, but most likely into the intake stream through gaskets or valve guides since that is where the greatest pressure/vacuum gradient is. Hence the high oil consumption.
The fixed orifice pcv is like a permanent vacuum leak with flow that varies slightly with changing vacuum levels. Here is the equation:
https://www.tlv.com/global/US/calculator/air-flow-rate-through-orifice.htmlThe trick is to use the largest orifice you can without disrupting your idle. I drilled mine to 0.109” (7/64). This way I get max flow at high vacuum therefore relieving the pressure in the crankcase and eliminating excessive oil consumption.
One caveat: a carburetor will likely need jetting to prevent lean conditions when you start monkeying around with downstream air flow. My self learning efi automatically corrects for this making it easy.
The takeaway from all of this rambling is that an improperly tuned pcv system can have profound effects on an engine and high lift big overlap cams are not always compatible with generic pcv valves. A fixed orifice pcv valve or pill may be the best solution when dealing with pcv problems, even if it’s just used as a baseline.
Please weigh in on this topic as I am no expert, but it did work for me!