Oil From Billet Tappet Cover

Y

Yotadzl

New member
This is a new engine build. P-pump 24 valve, twins, etc. When I fired up the engine to break in the cam oil was running out of the crank vent. Steady stream. Almost 6 quarts in 10 minutes at 1750-2250 rpm. This is a tappet cover very similar to what Crazy Carl sells. Both hoses use #8 JIC fittings at the cover and have 1/2" hoses on them. When I put the hoses on I used 90 degree fittings to arc the hoses up before coming down. I searched on here and didn't find a lot as far as fixing this issue. Has anyone had this issue with this style of tappet cover?
On another note, the engine was built with gapless rings, but I still seem to have a fair amount of blow bye. The short block as assembled by a reputable machine shop in my area. Those of you that have used the gapless rings, do you still see visible blow bye from the draft tubes?
 
Doesn't sound normal. Even with straight fittings I don't think it would be normal to see that much oil. We use gapless rings in most all our performance builds. There is virtually zero visible crankcase pressure at idle on new engines. Do you have plenty of oil pressure? Just curious if maybe one of the freeze plugs behind the tappet cover came out and is filling the lifter cover with oil?
 
BluegrassDiesel said:
Doesn't sound normal. Even with straight fittings I don't think it would be normal to see that much oil. We use gapless rings in most all our performance builds. There is virtually zero visible crankcase pressure at idle on new engines. Do you have plenty of oil pressure? Just curious if maybe one of the freeze plugs behind the tappet cover came out and is filling the lifter cover with oil?
Click to expand...

Ya oil pressure is good. Didn't seem right to me either. I think I'll re-position the hoses a little to loop up higher before coming down, to see if that makes a difference. I'm hoping maybe the bit of blowbye is because the rings haven't seated yet.
 
Well, routing the hoses higher didn't work. This thing is killing me. Does anyone have any ideas? I really don't want to change the tappet cover, but i'm thinking I may have to.
 
We just did a heat cycle a 3.0 SB engine with one of our tappet covers that we didn't have any hoses at all on yet and we had no more than a dribble after 15 minutes. You have something else going on.
 
zfaylor said:
We just did a heat cycle a 3.0 SB engine with one of our tappet covers that we didn't have any hoses at all on yet and we had no more than a dribble after 15 minutes. You have something else going on.
Click to expand...

What style breather is in your tappet covers? I've used a few of this style and have oil problems with all of them. I'm thinking design flaw. After a few heat cycles the engine has no visible blow bye, but I'm still getting oil from the hoses. I'm moving on to another set up I believe.
 
TheSilverBullet said:
Did the oil slow down after the blow by went away?
Click to expand...

Ya it seems to have slowed down, but the lower vent port in the tappet cover pushes oil pretty bad. I capped it and added the breather on the timing cover, which greatly reduced oil pushing out. I still get some out of the upper port on the tappet cover. I think I'm just going to cap the ones on the tappet cover and use the VP44 style breather on the gear cover. I'm running it into a breather catch can that will drain into the turbo drain lines. Hopefully this does the trick.
 
Yotadzl said:
What style breather is in your tappet covers? I've used a few of this style and have oil problems with all of them. I'm thinking design flaw. After a few heat cycles the engine has no visible blow bye, but I'm still getting oil from the hoses. I'm moving on to another set up I believe.
Click to expand...

Ours uses 50 or 60 small .100" holes that blow into a couple of boxes with passageways the oil must navigate around. The passageways have drainback holes for any residual oil that makes its way through them.
 
zfaylor said:
Ours uses 50 or 60 small .100" holes that blow into a couple of boxes with passageways the oil must navigate around. The passageways have drainback holes for any residual oil that makes its way through them.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a much better design. This cover has slots that lead directly to the fittings for the hose. Here is a picture.
 

Attachments

  • tappet cover.jpg
    tappet cover.jpg
    43.2 KB · Views: 0
I have put 3 non baffled billet tappets on and that was 3 too many lol. Plug them off and vent it from the top. I run a 03 style common rail valve cover and a 12v tappet. I’m sure the other style as mentioned above would work well also
 

Attachments

  • CF896774-030D-44BD-B9EE-BF2ABE0706C4.jpg
    CF896774-030D-44BD-B9EE-BF2ABE0706C4.jpg
    205.1 KB · Views: 0
TheSilverBullet said:
I have put 3 non baffled billet tappets on and that was 3 too many lol. Plug them off and vent it from the top. I run a 03 style common rail valve cover and a 12v tappet. I’m sure the other style as mentioned above would work well also
Click to expand...
Yep that's where I'm headed! Thanks for your input. I considered doing the '03 style valve cover setup. Maybe if my other plan doesn't work...
 
Yotadzl said:
Yep that's where I'm headed! Thanks for your input. I considered doing the '03 style valve cover setup. Maybe if my other plan doesn't work...
Click to expand...

I ran the stock breather for a while and always had a mess. I’ve also ran a mr gasket breather for the fill cap which was a lot better but still pushes some oil at 3k plus. Maybe add one in the fill cap and put the 12v style oil fill on and add one to it?

I’ll have to dig to find the part number for the breather if you want it.
 
TheSilverBullet said:
I ran the stock breather for a while and always had a mess. I’ve also ran a mr gasket breather for the fill cap which was a lot better but still pushes some oil at 3k plus. Maybe add one in the fill cap and put the 12v style oil fill on and add one to it?

I’ll have to dig to find the part number for the breather if you want it.
Click to expand...

I am running the gear cover breather into a Jegs catch can with a breather on it, then running an oil drain to the turbo drain. So far so good, but I may have to add another vent. I need to drive it a little more to be sure.
 
Yotadzl said:
I am running the gear cover breather into a Jegs catch can with a breather on it, then running an oil drain to the turbo drain. So far so good, but I may have to add another vent. I need to drive it a little more to be sure.
Click to expand...

I assume your keeping that drain going back into the turbo drain closed while it's running?
 
jasonc said:
I assume your keeping that drain going back into the turbo drain closed while it's running?
Click to expand...

No, the whole idea was to allow it to drain automatically. Its not a huge amount of oil so it won't interfere with the turbo drainage. Its also mounted much higher than the drain, so gravity has the advantage. Over a 100 miles on it now and everything is working great. A lot of those miles are between 60-80 psi of boost as well.
 
Just an update if anyone is interested. After a while I ended up getting a little oil pushing out of the catch can. I decided to change the setup a little to a 3rd gen valve cover/breather and still utilized the catch can. This setup is the best I have came across and will probably be my standard from here on. On a 900+ RWHP truck running 90+ psi of boost, not a single drop of oil. The owner pulled his drag car down to Cali and back over the Siskiyous with no issue. (Other than a blown up intercooler hose)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top