Ozelle the '55 Ford that my parents bought new still has the 272 Y-block with the crankcase breather and downdraft tube. I'd like to get rid of that in favor of a PCV system. What works? I was thinking of just welding a fitting onto the filler tube to put in a PCV valve, don't want to drill one of the rocker arm covers.
get all the stuff off a 1962-64 engine? (or whenever they started using it) Search can be your friend https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/pcv-on-a-y-block-ford.1032373/
That should work, but you'd need to close off the end of the road end of the tube for it to be effective. And you'll need some kind of baffle to keep from ****ing oil out of the motor. Does it breathe in through the oil filler cap like the early small Chevy?
Yes, it has a breather cap like early small block Chevys. The Ford cap is bigger than the Chevy one but it works the same way, has a filter element so air can enter through the breather cap. Anybody got a junk '62-'64 Y block I can pull the parts off of?
That raises another question--did all '62-'64 292s have a PCV system or just the ones with California emissions?
I used a 64 Ford Pickup valley and a V100 PCV valve screwed to the back of the carb. It works in that direction and is the replacement. . I also used a breather cap with a hose connection with the hose to the inside of the air cleaner. Correct way. The side road draft tube needs to be plugged or removed and capped; the 55-57 Thunderbird came with a cap and the vent was in the back. The 55-57 Thunderbird valley cover will work with a grommet and a PCV valve that works in that direction. If you want to spend some bucks $$$$$ Blue Thundersell new rocker arm covers with proper holes and oil deflectors. You still need to remove the road tube and cover the hole. John Mummert in Escondido Ca sell a valley cover with a defector built in. Your engine stink will go away but if you have a lot of blow by it might run like ****… the yblocksforever.com has a lot on the subject..
i think you'll find that 62 and up they all used it, and California required it a bit earlier. But that's just a guess, based on messing with 61 Chevys a long time ago. Also, you might find that PCV was an extra cost option back into the 50s. I know it was on Chevys. Pretty rare, useful for fleet vehicles mostly.
If he were to put the valve in the filler tube, block off the road draft tube and use a breather cap on filler tube, won't it just pull outside air in, instead of engine air, as in having the breather in one valve cover and valve in the other?
I'm still running the road draft tube and a breather cap on my '56 Chevy. I was getting some smell inside, mostly under deceleration. I replaced the breather cap with one with a hose fitting, ran 3/4" hose down to the clutch area. Big improvement but I guess it means under certain conditions I was getting more crankcase pressure than the road draft tube could pull out, and it was coming out the breather instead of fresh air coming in the breather.
Putting a PCV valve in the filler tube would not accomplish what you want. It would just pull air in the cap and then immediately out via the PCV. The whole idea behind a PCV is to draw fresh air in and then p*** through the engine to where it pulls out the PCV. Like when the PCV is in one valve cover and the breather is on the other in a V8 setup. Pulls air across the engine. Or if the PCV is in the back of the valley pan and breather is in the filler up front, it pulls fresh air from front of engine to the rear. In any of these setups, the downdraft tube needs to be plugged or capped. Also need some way for filtered air to be let into the engine. I'm not directly familiar with Y-blocks, but it seems the valley pan solution for the PCV would work since you want to keep your valve covers without holes.
I am planning on using the 60s truck pcv parts and making a block off plate to put behind the original road draft tube on my 55.
You can modify your valley pan just weld in a pipe fitting with a simple flat baffle under it .You do not need a canister like a Chevy Y blocks put way less oil the top end so less oil in the valley. Be sure to remove and block off the block unit.
Air enters thru the breather as long as the vehicle is moving. The 45* cut angle on all road draft tubes were made this way for that reason. When stopped with a warn out engine vapor come out both top and bottom. Today that’s not probably going to happen. Guys know what they have. I had to pay $75 for the valley cover I found and was lucky to get the right fitting for the hose. A T-bird draft tube can be cut off, a washer welded on for a grommet and used at a 90* back angle. Your stock valley can also be used by using a hole saw for the grommet and constructing a oil deflector/drain like the 62-64 and Thunderbird. Photos of it can be found on the net. There is one person here on the HAMB that postedphotos of his y-black that had the PCV valve attached to the top of the road draft side filter canister and the bottom capped off. Not advisable because there is more oil splashing there but it does have a drainbackto the crankcase. Y-blocks have very little oil in the lifter area.
I would do the valley cover on a Y- the FE was pretty simple, just use the port at the back of the intake so you can run the ventless early valve covers
Keep it simple, remove the road draft tube and put a grommet in the hole that a PCV fits into. Hook up the PCV to the intake manifold and done. Plus it still works like the manufacture designed it. Air in the oil fill breather and the fumes out of the old road draft hole. Just burning the fumes now, instead of releasing them under the car.
Here's a picture I have posted before, it's the way the PCV was done on the Y Blocks in Ford pickup trucks in the 60s. This is a Factory Ford diagram.
What's the difference? I said IF it had a filler tube up FRONT like a SBC, the air would be pulled in and be pulled out through the PCV IN THE DRAFT TUBE.. I didn't say anything about putting a BREATHER on the DRAFT TUBE, for sure that wouldn't work unless the PCV was in the valley pan or valve cover. Either way, with a breather in a valve cover or in the OIL FILL tube, air will be pulled into the engine, and fumes will be pulled out by the PCV. The diagram BlueOne posted shows putting the PCV line directly into the draft tube location with a factory adapter, there still has to be a inlet breather somewhere not shown on the diagram. He stated in the next post that it does have the front oil fill tube with the breather cap, so the PCV can go in either the DRAFT tube that has been closed off on the road end, or in the valley or valve cover.
Third post, links from Ted Eaton on fitting PCV to y blocks. Probably more than you want to know. http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic159705.aspx
My interpretation of that drawing for a dual quad y-block. 1-1/2” of vacuum at idle as recommended by the factory.
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