Question for those w/o PCV system - fumes

[jhv48]

First of all, those heat shields won’t do much to insulate your carbs from engine heat. If you have the hood clearance, try a 1/2” phenolic spacer under each carb. Should help quite a bit with the percolation problem. Also, open the hood after a long ride and leave it open if you can. All that heat can really build up after a run if you leave the hood closed.

Also, I believe the larger of the two capped nipples on the base of your carb will accommodate a pcv hose from one of the valve covers if you choose to install a pcv valve.

Now, as for the acrid smell, do your eyes burn too?

[Ron61]

Mine came from the factory with the PVC going to the intake manifold and it has never given me any trouble. But back in 1969 they didn't have all of the good stuff they do now.

Ron

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Mine came from the factory with the PVC going to the intake manifold and it has never given me any trouble. But back in 1969 they didn't have all of the good stuff they do now.

Ron

Hey Ron - yeah my 427/425 vette has PCV and my 67 GTX also. My first car I owned - 64 Ply Sport Fury even did. But my ERA engine is basically very close to a 63 427/425 and I think they ran a road draft tube or something off of the back of the intake. PCV has always seemed to work well for me. Except for when a PCV valve on the Sport Fury did go bad and I complained about oil consumption. Plymouth rebuilt the engine without checking it. When I complained it still used oil they decided to check it and said - Uhhh, the valve was stuck and we changed it. No more oil use.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by jhv48

First of all, those heat shields won’t do much to insulate your carbs from engine heat. If you have the hood clearance, try a 1/2” phenolic spacer under each carb. Should help quite a bit with the percolation problem. Also, open the hood after a long ride and leave it open if you can. All that heat can really build up after a run if you leave the hood closed.

Also, I believe the larger of the two capped nipples on the base of your carb will accommodate a pcv hose from one of the valve covers if you choose to install a pcv valve.

Now, as for the acrid smell, do your eyes burn too?

Jim - the heat shields were mostly for keeping radiant heat from the intake off of the accelerator pump covers and it's a system that works with a series of alternate aluminum gaskets/gasket material gaskets. I ran a stack of as many of them as I could and still maintain clearance to my hood - I have a smooth hood so a 1/2 inch (or even 3/8 in) insulator gasket is out of the question. Worked pretty well actually. I still boil a couple of drops of fuel out of the rear accelerator pump discharge after some heat soak but it's now a fraction of what it was.

I do open the hood as soon as I pull into the garage. I usually shut the engine off first and although I sometimes pick up the odor slowly pulling into the garage and the fan comes on, I don't really smell it when I open the hood - but the engine is off.

No fittings on my 63 intake except for the breather port at the rear where I have a custom Survivor Motorsports breather installed. I think people have taken a blank off plate for that and installed a PVC valve in it. I would have to change to different valve covers to plumb anything there.

I wouldn't say the odor is concentrated enough to bother my eyes. The odor is not really a major issue as it's very intermittent (no one likes sitting at stop lights anyway). I've just been curious as to what it was as my engine does not appear to be an oil consumer or smoker. I can't smell it back at the tail pipes. It was more a curiosity than anything as I don't remember having a similar odor in any other old car. I think it just must be crankcase fumes. My motor doesn't have many miles and probably does have a bit of ring leakage like most engines set up for performance with modern low tension rings and loose clearances. I probably need to pull the front breather/oil cap off after a drive and take a sniff inside - suspect it will smell the same.

Thanks