Bingo......as soon as I hooked it back up, the light went off. So what set off the code was the amount of "extra air" going into the blower....

Thanks ....still trying to learn as much as I can about this S/C stuff.

Also, on the JDM site, it says that if you have the breather cap, it relieves crank case pressure (?) and a reburn is needed...(?)

Is this true?


Mike

 

on some trucks yes.... but remember, if you just add a breather to your cam cover its the same as opening your intake system to the atmosphere, pulling a line loose, drilling a hole in the boot etc...it lets air in that did not pass through the filter and over the MAF. .....understand...so some tuners tune for that.



think of it like this -
your intakes major components consist of a filter, maf, crankcase, rubber boot, T/B, plenum, SC, intake galley.


you do not want to add a hole in any of the components after the MAF......just adding a breather opens the closed intake system on a truck using the factory PCV.


.

 

Hey TampaBlack99 good questions...

no retune is required ....and plugging the intake boot and rear of the plenum by no way stops an extra source of air....its impossible. ....MAF... its just the same air that crossed your MAF....now it just dose not go through the crankcase on the way to your cylinders.




fords tune is the same with the PCV or breathers.....


How does the blower relieve pressure now?....the rear of the plenum is only designed as an PCV system outlet..... it has nothing to do with relieveing blower psi.....you still have a big plenum if air/psi going back towards the plenum is something your concerned with ...this is a problem with the PCV in place...not with it removed.


Ford installed a 2-way PCV on the passenger side valve cover. FOR THE PCV system.....Ford installed a 2-way PCV on the passenger side valve cover... trying to slow the amount of oil being brought up into the intake under engine deceleration, and various other load conditions....the PCV system is now removed...


dont mix apples and oranges...... meaning dont mix the closed PCV air intake system with open CV breathers, by evaluating/including problems that happen as a result of the PCV system.....they cease to exist when you remove the PCV system.

 

No retune required. You are not stopping any "extra" air to the engine. The blower doesn't relieve pressure in any way at all except through the boost bypass system.

 

Good stuff

 

I've always been inclined to keep my pcv system simply for the added benifits it brings to the engine. This is true for NA cars, but not sure about S/C cars like the L. My logic says it would be more important on a s/c engine, but I don't have much experience with them. Anyway, the increased vacume in the crankcase from the pcv system helps the rings to seal tighter, primarily the bottom rings. This helps stop blow by, which I figure would be a greater problem when using s/c.
The only think I could see as a benifit of no PCV system is you wouldn't have the hot PCV air entering your intake.
Oh and I hate the oil smell I get with breathers.

 

For my part, I have read how many people are getting ulcers with the oil in their plenum which is probably not ideal but most likely not a bad as some pretend.

My solution is very simple. I will make sure that I change my oil a little more frequently with a good synthetic oil. Synt. oil has lower volatility. Every 50K, I will clean the intake, blower and intercooler. That's it!

My vehicle will be emission compliant and I can just forget about the whole thing. No bowl to empty and no long term surprises.

Isn't it interesting that the 4 big Lightning tuners don't even sell oil seperators or kits. What does that say?

TB

 

interesting..... I disagree that there any benfits to the PCV system on a 5.4 supercharged motor...only negatives concerning engine performance. Oil on the intercooler robbs power mainly.

I have read that older motors, 4 cly motors.....pcv system helps the rings to seal tighter and I would get ulcers trying establish this as fact. ... .., not on the supercharged two way PCV valve motor under various pressure loads during different throttle positions.....the vacuum pales in comparison to the varying pressure in the crankcase of the PCV on a 5.4.

On the other side of the coin, there is no reason that I can think of to have more gas pressure behind the ring than the precise amount that it takes to keep the ring in contact with the liner. Any more pressure than the bare minimum to maintain contact will just result in more friction (less power) and wear.
The OEMs spec out what they believe to be the best gap combination for the conditions they expect their engine to see, and hot-rodders do the same.......It is my experience that OEMs spec a larger cold nominal second gap than first gap.... In general, you want the hot second ring gap to be larger than the hot first ring gap, so that the gases that escape past the top ring mostly escape past the second ring., so Im not familiar with "primarily the bottom rings" getting an added benifit of PCV for sealing.....on a 5.4....but Im no expert. ..I've never really been satisified with " positive twist on the top ring, negative twist on the second ring, scrape oil downward and avoid blow-back, have a nice day" but i think PCV dose nothing ring seal on a 5.4 ..................I'll let you know as the miles accumulate...

PCV is not the 'Holy Grail' of "helps stop blowback"....



TrackBeast, their are few guys here locally that dont bother with the oil in the intake problem also. They want to stay emission compliant and are apprehensive to touch their new trucks. Steele was just to lazy to do anything about it and his truck still made good power 426/517 and ran 12.3 ....but it came apart because of detonation recently....so we were unable to do any before and after comparisions on his truck.

I know some tuners running breathers

 

Cool. I really don't know much about the 5.4L. That's why i'm here...

Like I stated before, I'm in the market for a L, and I know this is a problem. I'll probably try to stop it in the same way that I've stopped it in my mustang. I really don't want to delete the PCV system, I did that on my stang and it stunk!
I posted this someplace else here... but on my stang I put steel wool in the pcv baffle in the valve cover. Then I put a glass fuel filter inline with the PCV sytem (to act as an oil separator).

Assuming that you could stop the oil on the intercooler, the pcv system really shouldn't rob you of much power.

 

Will these trucks idle with the mass air disconnected? Reason for asking is, I'm wondering if carburator cleaner sprayed liberally into the throttle body while running would clean the intercooler w/out having to take the blower off.

 

That's an interesting question. The vehicle will run but will be rough with the boot off and MAF connected. I would be concerned with carburator cleanser wich could damage the coating on the rotors in the blower. ( I don't know but wouldn't do it). What I was thinking is shooting alcool in the intake. That would clean the oil and I don't think it would harm anything. What do you guys thinK?

TB

 

Will these trucks idle with the mass air disconnected......dont do that.

Well,....... even if the truck only has a small amount of oil coating the intercooler fins spraying carb cleaner into the T/B wont clean the intercooler enough to make a difference......then all that cleaner and oil mix will just pool up in the intake galley and stay there for days....weeks...and if the line to the intake galley is still in place ..longer.

29K 2003 L..this is not the norm !!! alot of rotor flake..also




Your oil will be instantly contaminated and you would never know when the pool of cleaner in the galley would completely work its way out through the cylinders....so I wouldnt trust my crankcase oil if I cleaned it the way you suggest.....besides, even the worst mechanic could remove the supercharger and intercooler for cleaning in 4 hrs start to finish.

MY truck at 5K 2002

 

Any non-reusable gaskets that I should buy first?

Removal/cleaning looks straight-forward... any gotchas?

 

My philosophy has always been that a gasket that was installed and torqued, needs replaced. I don't re-use gaskets on anything. They have a tendency to leak for me.

 

no gotchas......... bolts can be reused.
no they are metal reusable gaskets and its straight fwd.

do a search on R&R. of the supercharger.

two tips I have.
1. when removing the intercooler, take the band clamps loose at the rubber lines to hard lines...then have plugs ready and pop the line off and quickly plug them and you wont loose any coolant., remove 4 bolts and lift the intercooler out.
2. the passenger side aft blower bolt will contact the fire wall as you try to lift the bolt out ...so leave it place and lift it out with the blower. When you install the aft bolt, set the blower in place about an inch fwd of its final location and put the aft bolt in the blower hole ...simply lift the blower up and into position while you guide the bolt in ....adds about 5 seconds to the install.