/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif Heh heh.......I just love Pete's perspective on British machinery. Yep......they are a LOT safer than American cars......and that includes motorcycles as well. The reason that they are safer is this: You arise early in your manor house in Southampton, and ring down to the garages to talk to your chauffer "Alf". You tell Alf that today you would like to drive the Aston Martin YOURSELF, and to get it ready. So while you have tea and crumpets for breakfast, Alf rolls the AM out of the garage and into the sun-washed courtyard of the manor. He greases the water pump shaft, rolls under and checks the oil level in the differential, the tranny, the crankcase, and that little thing that nobody really knows WHAT it is. Then Alf adjusts the brakes, and ATTEMPTS to start the engine. Finally, by dinking with the side-draft carbs long enough, he gets the engine started, then spends the next hour synchronizing the carbs. By that time it is late morning, and you have had three more cups of tea, and a not-so-good conversation with your spouse. You storm out of the house, only to discover that you only have 30 minutes left to enjoy driving your car before you have to be back and get changed to go visit Lord and Lady Crumpet. So you see, it's SAFER because the dinking around that you must do gives automobile-based satisfaction in some yet-unexplainable way, without burning expensive fuel and endangering your life on those narrow British roads./wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif /wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gifHISTORICALLY......the crankcase on most Detroit-built engines was vented via a ROAD DRAFT TUBE, and it was not a bit uncommon to see a car pull up to a stop sign at night and a HUGE cloud of blue smoke drift forward into the headlights. The ARMY was the first to use closed crankcases in WWII in the waterproof Jeeps and trucks. MUCH LATER ON, Detroit closed up the engines and pulled a slight vacuum on them to re-burn the fumes by sucking them into the intake manifold. When engines get real loose, there is more blow-by than the normal PVC system can handle, so extreme measures need to be taken. As DORFS pointed out, the PCV valve is sized for the engine displacement, and the valve itself is vacuum sensitive such that it will meter when the intake manifold vacuum is real high to prevent leaning out at idle. MANY engines....especially indistrial....have catch-and-return oil scavenger setups to separate and get that elusive oil back from the blow-by. /wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif
CJDave
Quadra-Tracs modified While-U-Wait by the crack moonguy/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif Quadra-Trac Team./wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif