[mithiral67]

Originally Posted by Rob@TopGearSolutions

The stock system is definitely not efficient as you can pull anyones stock intercooler and intake tracts and find gobs of oil to drain out. That cyclone babble is another over-engineered product that is useless. If it is doing something its certainly not enough.

mine had 30k hard miles on my stock fmic, and there wasnt enough oil in it to accumulate to a drop of oil.

[dzenno]

Originally Posted by mithiral67

mine had 30k hard miles on my stock fmic, and there wasnt enough oil in it to accumulate to a drop of oil.

Same here, very dry...occ that I had never really caught much if anything...it would take a very long time to accumulate 2mm of oil at the bottom of a small cup

[dzenno]

Really really good article on the topic...I'm going for PCV setup #3...

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/arti...cv-system.html

[vasillalov]

^^^ WOW! Nice find there! That'll give me some time to read and think tomorrow after lunch...

EDIT:
dzenno, you might want to rethink going for option #3. I don't see ANY check valves at all. What's stopping the turbo from pressurizing the valve cover?

[Joshboody]

Originally Posted by dzenno

Really really good article on the topic...I'm going for PCV setup #3...

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/arti...cv-system.html

Hey Dzenno, saw some of your posts on N54Tech. Can you explain what you are doing. I take it you have located the check valve on the off boost side and can access this by just taking off the engine cover? Are you thinking of replacing the check valve with something stronger, or blocking it all together? Once you determine your direction, posting some pics, DIY would be awesome.

I'm still worried about no vacuum on the boosted side under light throttle.

didn't get through all the posts, so you may have already explained.

[Transport3r]

Originally Posted by vasillalov

^^^ WOW! Nice find there! That'll give me some time to read and think tomorrow after lunch...

EDIT:
dzenno, you might want to rethink going for option #3. I don't see ANY check valves at all. What's stopping the turbo from pressurizing the valve cover?

The fact that it's connected to the suction side of the compressor. Just like in our engine.
I don't get why everyone is freaking out about the check valve when there is no possible way the PCV tube can pressurize the crankcase, because it is hooked up to the inlet side of the turbo.

[dzenno]

Originally Posted by joshuo

The fact that it's connected to the suction side of the compressor. Just like in our engine.
I don't get why everyone is freaking out about the check valve when there is no possible way the PCV tube can pressurize the crankcase, because it is hooked up to the inlet side of the turbo.

You're looking at the WRONG checkvalve there's two of them, see post below for the best explanation I can give here, again

[dzenno]

Again, for the 10th time there are 2 freaking checkvalves in N54 PCV systems people!! lol AND unless you're running VERY high boost and upgraded turbos you probably don't even need to read this post

Here we go:

- if functional, cv#2 is open under boost (acceleration) and "vents" air out of the crankcase with any blowby, oil vapours. It is CLOSED in all other conditions. Let's call this cv the OCC checkvalve as that's what most people know about today as OCCs hook up on them.

- if functional, cv#3 is open under vacuum (idle, cruise, deceleration) and sucks air out of the crankcase, through the cyclonic BS in the valve cover and in it goes into the intake manifold, and goes right through your intake valves and gets burned off. It is CLOSED in all other conditions. Lets call this checkvalve the intake manifold checkvalve. This is THE checkvalve we've just started talking about past few days, not many people have ever discussed it and no one ever hooks anything up on it as its vacuum based.

So, the two checkvalves operate in different situations, one is under BOOST other is VACUUM.

So, to have crankcase overpressure "issues" 2 things can happen (both are possible but 2nd is much more likely):

1) You "can" get OVERpressure when/if CV#2 remains closed open under boost OR whatever is hooked up on it is restrictive (like a restrictive breather, OCC). Both of these are bad. Likelyhood of CV#2 clogging or not opening for any reason is EXTREMELY low. I know this by looking at it. So no issues with keeping it in place. What needs to be investigated here is CFM out of the crankcase under boost and compare that to how restrictive alternative setups are (OCC, breather, VTA). They might be just FINE! but given no OCC vendor has ever published ANY data, we have no idea..willing to risk it with your car? sure, your car, myself been guilty of this for 2.5 years now I'm trying to actually understand it with some data

2) You "can" get OVERpressure when/if CV#3 leaks under boost. Now, this one MUST stay CLOSED under boost which theoretically it "should". If its NOT closed as it should be, what do you think happens? It allows air to leak into the crankcase from the intake manifold (which is under positive pressure/boost). This causes 1) a boost leak 2) crankcase to pressurize with air that was meant to go into your engine instead of bypass it and enter the crankcase through this damn little checkvalve Keep in mind BMW designed this system with stock turbos in mind and much much lower boost than some of us are willing to run on these cars

How and why do I suspect checkvalve#3 to be prone to leaks under boost? Given some failures of turbo seals, various gaskets on cars especially with higher boost applications, and myself on my car noticing oil leaks all over my engine recently, ONLY when under high boost, I'm strongly suspicious of the operation of this. I washed down my engine bay, lowered boost, and no oil leaks anywhere after extended runs/pulls.

The only conclusion I can draw from all of the above is that CV#3 is leaking when under very high boost, causing crankcase overpressure which causes oil to go past various seals on the car (turbo, engine) which is B-A-D!

I've written all of this before and this time I really really tried to explain it as well as I can. If anyone has any further questions I'll refer them back to this post as I really can't explain it any better. Anyone still confused after reading this just try reading it again it'll eventually click. Referring to the diagrams posted also helps when reading it...

Now, there's no BEST solution here. There are only options. VTA is illegal and smelly but max performance is provided due to great seals under boost, and there's next to no maintenance. OCC/closed setups are legal, not smelly but maintenance is required and performance is not maximized as sealing isn't maximized.

Also, when it comes to strictly horsepower, vacuum is critical. Now, this isn't the vacuum that CV#3 provides in stock form. Its also not vacuum from cv#2 as that one doesn't have ANY in the first place. This would be a vacuum provided by an additional aftermarket vacuum pump hooked onto the valve cover somewhere (maybe that's on top of checkvalve#3, but maybe not). This vacuum needs to be applied even when accelerating/boosting, and a vacuum pump would do this job. It would ensure a good engine seal everywhere and when your engine seals really well it makes much better power. A big trick here is to "know" how much vacuum to pull as there is a thing called "too much" vacuum that can also be damaging. But this part of the story we can look at solving later...

EDIT: Actually if someone is willing to help me recommend a vacuum pump setup that'd assist in providing good seal to this engine under boost that'd be awesome...looking for pump recommnendation, how to set it up, possible mounting location, where to hook it into the valve cover, etc etc.

[dzenno]

PCV discussion thread created..sorry BSH for the mess we created here..

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9399714

[MikeVictor]

So after wading through all this, the comminuties opinion is that the current OCC available on the market aren't suitable for N54 engined cars?

[dzenno]

Originally Posted by mattyv

So after wading through all this, the comminuties opinion is that the current OCC available on the market aren't suitable for N54 engined cars?

No, that is definitely not a conclusion that was drawn...we're just looking for some data from them so we can say yay/nay...if they don't provide it "someone" will lol

What I'm really hoping is that all the discussion in this thread has put a bit of spotlight on the PCV system on this engine and that more people will have a closer look at it and we'll have even better solutions to not just removing blowby

[Transport3r]

OOPS
I didn't know about the one in the valvecover... my bad.

Whhat boost levels does this valve seem to fail at typically?

[dzenno]

Originally Posted by joshuo

OOPS
I didn't know about the one in the valvecover... my bad.

Whhat boost levels does this valve seem to fail at typically?

See other thread, we're done with this discussion in the BSH thread...sorry BSH

[Schwrtz27]

Has anybody actually tried installing the Provent 200 yet by any chance? I've isntalled it on a Jetta TDI and it worked incredibly well...i used clear tubes going to and from the system, and all of the inlet tubes to the filter were black with oil and the outlet tubes post filter and into the intake were clear as can be. any body have any experience installing this on the N54? Thanks!

Anthony

[vasillalov]

The ProVent units create too much restriction for the N54 PCV system.