Re: PCV Anyone?

Posted by HH56 On 2010/8/1 9:27:15

In the mid to late 60's-early 70's certain parts of California required some pollution retrofits on some earlier cars. One was a PVC setup. Never saw one on a Packard so they may either have been too old by then or just not common or enough left in operation in those areas to see one yet.

As I recall, the retrofits on the cars consisted of either an oil filler cap with hose attached or the usual hole drilled in rocker cover. Some plumbing that went to the air filter where a hole was drilled and a plate with connection for the other end of hose was screwed on the side. I don't remember what if anything was specifically done to the draft tubes but they may have been blocked or restricted in some way.

It must have done some good but how much is debatable. When the engine was stopped, the blowby products really had nowhere to go except to condense. Not sure how detrimental that would be to an engine not designed for it. At least they didn't all go in the air right away which was the idea so maybe good overall.

Another retrofit was supposed to control oxides of nitrogen by installing some kind of vacuum control device which messed with the timing. That had to be done on a newer Pontiac I had brought into the state and caused lots of grief with performance, overheating, mileage and just about everything else.