Technical UH OH, FLATHEAD ATE MY PCV VALVE

My roadster has been running a bit rough, stalling at lights, erratic idle, you know, that old chestnut. I was tracking the source, and I pulled the PCV Valve to replace it. To my surprise the end was missing as were the check ball and spring, it was basically a vacuum elbow. Now for the $10,000,000 question, where did those bits go?

The engine in question is my 49 8BA. Somewhere in there is a ticking timebomb.

I drained the oil and used a screen to catch debris, there was none. I stuck a borescope in the pan and it's too dark to see anything. My wife suggested going fishing in the pan with a magnet, so far that hasn't turned up anything.

Could the bits have been ****ed up the vacuum hose into the carb adapter? Is there enough vacuum to do that? If so, there is a screen under the adapter (above the blower) to catch foreign objects before they cause havoc in the rotors. Perhaps use the magnet and go fishing through the carb plates and remove and blow out the vacuum line?

Next up is removal of the pan I guess. And then the blower and intake? What a complete PITA!

Thoughts? Suggestions? Advice? Prayers? I'm headed to the garage so I may not answer right away but I'll be checking back.

 

Where did you have it plumbed into?

 

You got to open that beast up and take a good look inside, but you already know that!
Good luck on finding the lost bits!

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I second wanting to know how/where it’s plumbed

 

The vacuum source is the carb adapter. You can see it here The PCV is in the road draft hole

 

I'll say a prayer for ya, and some good thoughts, but you've covered where I woulda searched, so advice?IDK

 

Oh looky what i found in the pan. I used the flexible shaft magnet and snagged the ball.
Still looking for the spring. It’s gotta be in there as well I would think. Yeah?

 

Bravo brave magnet fisherman, you snagged a "Ballfish"

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Pull that elbow off the adaptor and look at the screen with your borescope if you can, or push your magnet in there and fish around. I've never checked, but PCV balls may be stainless to retard corrosion ,which could add to your woes.

 

I bought several valves at the same time so I would have them on hand. This is the culprit.
Made in China, duh.
I cut a new one open, there’s a spring

i have more fishing to do

 

That’s definitely the ball. The spring is magnetic but I think it’s cheap stainless. The magnet doesn’t get a great grip like it did the check ball.

 

I hate treasure hunts....

 

You cut a new one apart, verified what is in there and what you do not have and those parts are magnetic. Keep fishing. Worst thing is you will have to tear it apart to find one stupid lousy $0.15 spring. Still better than the worst outcome of running it. Praying that you can find it without tearing it apart.

 

The spring could be in the lifter valley, just bouncing around. Or maybe snagged in the block holes with the tin shields over them. I’d do more magnet fishing, from the front and rear ends.

 

Glad you found the ball. Good luck spring fishing!

 

Nothing in the pan. I was hoping. There is a lot of metal in there. But this the first pan off since it was built

 

Hi Bill, I was going to ask if you had a pcv valve, and where you put it. I have one that I put right behind the fan mount on the intake. We are fighting a high idle that I thought was pcv, was not but I did notice it quite smoking with it unhooked. As for metal in the pan, we have that too. It's got metallic look and cutting the filter open shows nothing going wrong. I will be pulling our pan off soon to see why we have low oil pressure. But none ot that helps you!
How much boost do you see? I have seen 10 pounds several times now.

 

I’m thinking what alchemy said may be right. Hung up somewhere in the valley. Can you pull the fuel pump stand off and search from that end?

 

Too bad you didn't have a truck pan on there with the big circular cleanout.

 

Stuck in the hose?

 

If you haven't, pull the hose/elbow off. I can see how the ball snuck through, I'm hoping for your sake the spring is caught or hung up somewhere.

 

If it’s not in the hose pulling the intake is no big deal, right?

 

You lucky SOB.
Good for you. Thats usually a very small and thin spring. Some PCV don’t use a spring.
I wouldn’t think a fine spring like that would cause much of an issue.

 

Does the blower complicate things?

 

Man there’s no telling where that spring is. Just look at a blow up of a flathead block and see what p***ages it could’ve run down. I’m with you I’d hate to have to tear all the way into the motor but I would not want a penny part tearing up a $10K+ motor.

 

Sorry, my $0.02 is that there is TOO much metal in the pan in any case (ie, irrespective of any alleged causes).

 

What are the odds the spring got ****ed up in the vacuum elbow above? Might be jammed in there.

I ***uming you looked in the old PCV and its gone.

 

My question is how in the hell the ball and spring get ****ed out of PCV ?
Dan

 

Defective plastic body that has thermo-plastic characteristics?

I'm thinking IF I used a new-but-same pcv again, I'd make an adjoining part with a bar across the hole so that the ball and spring couldn't get by...

 

Great concept ..... I was originally going to machine a straight through parallel sleeve type adapter that fits the PCV into the 8BA OEM road draft tube hole.
After seeing this misfortune I'm now thinking about making it a longer blind type sleeve with a mul***ude of small cross drilled holes to provide ventilation yet still capture a faulty PCV.