Hi all ,
I posted this over at pelican but am not getting much of a response so I figured I would give my esteemed colleagues here a try.

I currently have a bunch of hoses connected to different parts of the engine and from reading responses of different people I noticed that no one else's is like mine. So I have to ask, is mine set up wrong? I got the engine like this and am still learning all the ins and outs of engine maintenance/operation and would hate to continue running the engine like it is if it is wrong.

The issues are:
1) Valve covers are connected to each other via a hose that is routed throught the engine bay. The hose connects to nothing else besides the valve covers.

2) The Oil filler is connected directly to a Oil Catch tank and is again connected to nothing else (does a PCV valve go somewhere here? or worse yet do you see one in the pics and I don't know what it is?)

3) I have a hose the looks like it is coming from the gas tank and it is not even terminating anywhere (flappin in the breeze as it were)

4) I have this plug that I was told was a "head vent port" but it is only on one side and I was told that there are two of them on both sides of the engine

So if you all know if this is correct or just so completely screwed up that it should be the 8th wonder of modern man that it can even make a spark or hasn't caused a fire ball, let me know!

I am still learning how to post a picture to this board, so I will try post some pictures to clarify soon.

The above was a picture of the "head vent port"

This here is a picture of the oil catch and gas line that was flapin in the breeze

Last picture... do you guys see a PCV valve here? Should there be? Thanks in advance. I gotta admit. I probably never would have endevoured on the 914 hobby if it wasn't for all the huge support base that you guys generate. That and if I didn't get a huge sh!t eatin grin every time a take turn.

ok, where to start ...

- the hose that comes from the gas tank is coming from the charcoal canister.
on a stock FI setup, that hose is connected to the air-intake. it's supposed to filter (charcoal) and then burn any gas-vapors you might have.

- the head vents. well, i have mine plugged for now, BUT what you really should do is route the 2 head vents into you oil catch can, just like the main vent on the oil filler cap. the head vent on the drivers side is towards the front of the car, the vent on the pass. side is towards the rear of the car.

- clean the damm thing first! you got so much oil all over the engine, hard to tell where it's coming from

- eventually, you should think about replacing the catch can with a system that recycles the oil vapors back into the intake (to have 'em burned), that's what the FI does.

hope this helps,
Andy

Outstanding Sir!

I figured that the oil was factory rust proofing

Last question well perhaps not last how about next question...My valve cover vents are connected to each other. Should they be?

Oh yea, almost forgot, what about this PCV valve I hear so much about. I know it stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation but beyond that... what do you do with it and do I need one?

NO! they both should run into the catch can as well ...

so, you have valve cover vents AND head vents? 4 total? what i see in your pic is a head vent. they do essentially the same, kinda overkill to vent it twice on each side.



the PCV valve is build into the oil filler cap. you already have one.
from there through the big hose going to the catch can ...

Andy

Yea I see what your saying but in reality nothing is getting vented. The valve covers are connected to each other and the head vents are plugged!

My car is full of paradoxes. I guess I just don't understand the guy who built the engine sometimes (I never met him). The engine has blue anodized roller rockers (which I'm told is good) and yet when I bought the car, cut up street signs were used to hold the air filters down (this got reflective crap all over the velocity stacks). People in the know tell me that they can tell by the sound of the engine that it has a "big cam" and that it must have high compression, yet there are hoses just hanging out and seemingly misconnected. The guy was like Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde. Thanks for the help by the way.

One more thought, would any of these issues contribute to making the engine leaky? I tried cleaning the engine and checking for leaks but I swear that if a joint exists on the engine then it leaks.