Hi Folks, I have a '61 401 nailhead which has standard valve covers, running a breather on each side. I have just bought Offenhauser finned ally covers, but here's the thing... They have a breather on one side, but a blank on the other. Do I need to open this up and put a breather on - basicly, is there any risk to just running the one breather?
if you remember in the 60's all cars had one breather and one PCV, do you have a road draft tube? or PCV ?
There's no PCV set up at the moment. I'm running an Offenhauser triple intake with 3 Rochester 2Gs. I suppose I could put a PCV line in, but I really don't want to. The question was whether I can run safely with a breather on one side only?
If you don't run a PCV you will need to run the "draft" tube..............Only one breather is needed but I have two and a draft tube on my 401.
I don't see a problem using a vent on one side only since both covers vent to the crankcase area. I'm sure there was a reason the factory had 2 vents, but who knows what it was.
The engine and the car will be dryer if you run a pcv out of one cover to the center carb base and a hose from the other cover into the center carb air cleaner base. That pretty much stops all oil seepage at the gaskets. That's basically the way most of the OEM's did it after draft tubes went away in '62 or therabouts. Charlie
Thanks Charlie, the info about oil seepage is the kind of thing I was wondering about. As I run an open engine, dry is not really an issue, but oil seepage is oil seepage, so I'll probably look at some kind of connection back into the carb. I will wait till the covers arrive now and see how it all looks on the engine. Thanks to all who contributed their wisdom.
With both covers vented, there will be no acid/moisture buildup in the covers. Do away with any vent in one side and you're going to get crud building up and draining back to the pan.
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