Hi Scotty, Hope you don't mind me asking your advice being that I live on the other side of the the globe in Australia. Unfortunately we don't have that many YouTubers over here as yet. I get mixed responses when talking to mechanics or car enthusiasts over here but watching your videos I recognise someone who is down to earth and knows their trade. in the USA you have the same engine in a few of your cars, Chevy I think. All that said, I have a Holden Berlina VE Series II (Commodore) International Sportwagon V6 3.0 liter alloytec with about 130,000 km on the clock and have owned it for about five years. It runs like a dream, I look after it using Penrite full synthetic oil which I change every 6-8 months. I'm pretty sure I missed the bad timing chain issue in my model, but I believe they have breathing problems on the right hand side bank and wanted to do some preventive maintenance. Do you advise drilling the PCV valve holes a little larger and would an oil catch can also help? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance. Bruce
Can anyone help with this one please?
Hello fellow aussie.
The answer is no do not drill anything.
Go to supercheapauto or repco or autobarn.
Find the hose size you need
I think on that car it a 19mm .
Hose -10 bucks.
Next buy a catch can from ebay with baffles. 35 buck.
You have two options-
Either go to bunning and buy a reducer from 19mm to 13mm in the housing poly section. 50 cents or pay 12 bucks at super cheap
or
you can pay 10 bucks for the 19mm barb to scew into your catch can at super cheap auto 10 bucks.
Then begin to fit and cut.
Easy as that and find a good mount point.
I prefer to use an braided style hose but it cost 40 bucks a meter. An16 is the size to use for your car I think.
Hope this helps and good luck.
@klob
Thanks fellow Aussie, do you know how often the can needs emptying?
Depends- only holden i have owned is a hx 308. Used clean out the catch can once a month and drove it 1000km per month.
I would would be more interested in the what the catch can is holding.
Black it all oil
Light brown coffee looking mixture moisture and oil.
But for engine you have it will get burnt off because the inject are located before the intake valve.
U wont get to much carbon build up but u are allowing a true mixture of fuel and air without the crank crud.
Hope this helps and good luck. Let me know how you go.
@klob
Mine is sidi direct injection which sprays fuel direct into the chamber and does not spray onto the valve.
They catch can may be the way go to help the valve .. I always thinking holden engine are backwards
Apologies I got this wrong
Points to holden now gm 🙁
I'm a proponent of oil catch can's on everything. Any petroleum hydrocarbon (oil) that can be prevented from being burned will improve cat life, improve emissions and other things like wear due to all the plastic components these days. With that said, I have no knowledge on your vehicle and there may not be a real need and any theoretical improvement impossible to measure/quantify.
No on drilling out the pvc. It was discovered that putting a vacuum in the crankcase can improve efficiency my reducing air friction/resistance inside the engine of moving components plus not venting oil-by-products-outgases from polluting the atmosphere. This vacuum comes from the intake of course. Now it you increase the size of the pvc passage, flow and thus vacuum should increase... too much to the point it can suck gasket seals to failure. Engineers should have this adjusted for the best size based on the operating range of the vehicle. Doesn't mean you can't make it better at a particular range tho. Do you see the problem? Splitting hairs already and obviously all engineers don't achieve the same level of "goodness" designing the many different engines and environment they operate in.
Again, ignorant on your vehicle though ; )
@hillbilly
Hi and thx for your reply, this motor has a bad design for rh the bank - doesn’t breathe properly- see vid https://youtu.be/5QLPU1Qh2oo
I read where you stated that. Are you correlating info on catch can and pvc to improving airflow in that bank somehow? If so, I'm at a loss on that...
@hillbilly
Did you watch the video? The larger holes draw the air out faster creating a better breathing environment.
@hillbilly
I’m not talking about drilling the cover but the PCV valve itself, see vid - https://youtu.be/yL0DIBV1hck
No I didn't watch it.
The amount of air coming from the crankcase thru pcv valve is very little after start up (crankcase get emptied of the 10ish liters of air pretty quick). Where's the air coming from? And if holes are drilled to the outside air somewhere, it ain't filtered.
Breathing (induction) is via intake/runners, TB, filter box, filter, induction pipe routing design etc.
hillbob does not know about this engine and neither do, I am an aussie. so it appear from the video they have design and their some gasket in the way creating a problem from pcv.
A couple of things from video which make sense.
Do 5000km oil change.
Make sure u use a good oil.
This will prevent sludge.
Hey give it a try and see how u go.
Turner usually have larger mm on crank and smaller mm on intake to create slower air section on crank to let the oil cool down and not atomizer.
My point could be true..
But I do not recommend putting an open air breather.. the highway cops look for this if you suspect to a modified car and if you get a ticket you can smell an open air breather.
Good luck mate
Ok, first my apologies for not watching the vidy but been busy... anyway, just watched the first minute. This is a fix to stop the pcv from getting stopped up with sludge, which if it does would seal the engine crankcase which is really bad/won't work. And I could argue a poor fix but a cheap one. But I promise you, this will not change induction, good or bad, on just 1 or both banks.
And ditto, no open air vents/breathers on valve covers today as it decreases engine efficiency and pollutes and smells and....
edit and Klob's advice on oil etc 100% thumbs up : )
@hillbilly
Hi Hillbilly, I don’t agree either leaving it vent to atmosphere. Basically just wanted to know if any benefits could be gained from bigger holes in the pvc valve. But if you guys think it would be of no benefit I will bow to your knowledge and not do it 🙂
The advice from you guys has been great and it is much appreciated.
To me what is more important is, does our explanations make sense to you? I'm more interesting in teaching fishing personally ; ) I may have come up with a correlation... Where does the pcv hose plug into the intake? On one side?... same side that's asthmatic? Did it always have breathing issues on one side?
Don't think the catch can is necessary but it can prevent too much oil from getting into the intake if there was a blowby issue or something like that. Pretty sure this is the same motor they put in the lumina and stuff if I'm not mistaken
@cjbman
Hi Cjbman, thx for your reply, no blowby issue but due to a bad design the rh side of motor looking from inside the car does not breathe properly and overheats. Watch- https://youtu.be/5QLPU1Qh2oo
Looks like its different from those lumina engines. Guessing yours is 2000 or newer? It does look like there is horrible oil starvation on that one side in the video. I say find a valve cover at a junk yard and try your pcv fix and worse case scenario you put your original on and run it as is.
@cjbman
I think he engine was in the Cadillac.
@cjbman
Yeah it’s 2010 model and yes Caddy had the 3.6 lt mine is a 3lt. No need for a valve cover, the holes to drill are on the PCV valve itself, see vid - https://youtu.be/yL0DIBV1hck