I've had an open element on my 89 TBI for years. It has a pipe out the bottom base that I keep plugged. And I've kept in a Spectre push in breather in the passenger valve cover that I tend to replace when I replace the TBI filter.

Do those Spectre push in breathers filter good?

Reason is I was thinking about putting in a plastic 90* elbow in the passenger cover, and running a hose from the pipe sticking down from the open element base to the 90* elbow and doing away with the push in filter.

But if those Spectre push in breathers filter real good, then it may be better not to fool with it as there isn't alot of room to run that line.

 

that push in filter releases air. as a matter of fact it releases crank case pressure. the filter is really there to stop oil slobber on the valve cover. i had that done on mine before i went carb. lasted for months with no oil drip.

 

I checked it out. And actually it has a slight suction on it at idle. I ran a piece of plastic over the grommet, and you could tell it had some suction on it. Though, maybe at times it lets air out as well?

But it does appear air will get into the engine from that hole. So, I figured I'd check if those Spectre push in breathers are a good filter vs. going through the trouble of running a line from the passenger valve cover to the open element base.

If those Spectre filters are good. Then I'll probably just stick with replacing it when I do the TBI filter.

 

There is supposed to be a breather in one valve cover to let air in, and a PCV valve in the other valve cover that sucks air out. The filter is to keep contaminants out of the engine. The PCV valve is connected to the TBI with a large vacuum hose (3/8 inside diameter).

 

That's exactly what I thought, the passenger side had suction. Meaning you need a filter to keep crap out of the engine.

Do you know if those Spectre push in breathers are a good filter? Or would using the TBI filter be better, or maybe not even matter?

 

The Spectre filter is fine.

There can be air exiting the filter as well - especially if you have blowby around the rings - in this case, as mentioned, the filter keeps the oil from the blowby from contaminating the entire engine bay in oily slime.

 

Thanks. I guess I'll stick with the Spectre push in filter and replace it every 12k miles or so along with the air filter. Sure wouldn't want oil getting to the intake.

I'd say the Spectre push in filter may be better than stock, since stock just used a small type filter. Though, I'd probably much rather it have a fiber type filter instead of foam.

 

Unless the motor is blown, that tiny bit of oil getting into the intake dorsn't hurt anything - that's what a PCV does, sucks in the oily gasses from the block and burns them. I have some blowby in my old tired 350, and I just run 2 PCV's - that way I'm not getting an oily engine bay to have to clean all the time - the PCV's just suck up the oily blowby smoke and it gets burnt up. Doesn't affect my performance at all - she still kicks butt and scratches wheels on 1-2 shift and 2-3 shift (auto).

 

Well, I wouldn't want oil getting to the paper air filter or oil all over the throttle plates that would have to be cleaned up. But from what you say I guess it wouldn't matter if there isn't much oil to get out. But I'll stick with the Spectre push in filter. I sure wouldn't mind getting an actual small round paper filter that presses in the valve cover vs. the foam Spectre. But I think those types are the expensive reusable K&N type of filter that I'm not interested in.

 

Well the PCV's are connected below the throttle plates and such, at the bottom just before the intake.

 

"Paper" filters were not designed to work continuously with oil vapor. Oil swells the media and then dirt and dust can clog them up rather quickly. The cotton gauze type filters actually work better in those environments.

Super fine filtration isn't required. If you look at the stock fresh air filter inside a stock air cleaner housing it's got a very coarse media. A K&N-type filter pushed into the valve cover grommet would actually be an improvement except that it's open to the engine bay (dirty environment) vs. a stock filter that's inside the relatively clean air cleaner housing. Six of one, half dozen of the other would be my assessment.

 

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