When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I recently drilled my AP1 cover, but and now I have a problem. I'm pulling oil during regular driving. All holes are placed as shown in the picture on the first page. I am using a Radium can on PCV only. I still have the stock pcv valve.
Before I drilled it, I was only pulling raw oil into the can on the track. On highway, I'd get maybe a tablespoon every 500 miles. Now after drilling, I'll pull almost an ounce in 15 miles of highway driving, without turns. There's no smoke screen. Car runs strong. Goes into VTEC fine. I noticed when I look through the pcv grommet, the drill hole on the indentation is right there, straight through. I suspect this hole is allowing oil directly through and it's a bad placement, but I really don't know for sure what's happening. I don't want to cap off the pcv and go to an open set-up. I regret doing this modification at this point.
I recently drilled my AP1 cover, but and now I have a problem. I'm pulling oil during regular driving. All holes are placed as shown in the picture on the first page. I am using a Radium can on PCV only. I still have the stock pcv valve.
Before I drilled it, I was only pulling raw oil into the can on the track. On highway, I'd get maybe a tablespoon every 500 miles. Now after drilling, I'll pull almost an ounce in 15 miles of highway driving, without turns. There's no smoke screen. Car runs strong. Goes into VTEC fine. I noticed when I look through the pcv grommet, the drill hole on the indentation is right there, straight through. I suspect this hole is allowing oil directly through and it's a bad placement, but I really don't know for sure what's happening. I don't want to cap off the pcv and go to an open set-up. I regret doing this modification at this point.
Any ideas what's happening here?
I will look into adjusting the holes and where they are drilled for all year covers. This is the first complaint I have heard of.
I recently drilled my AP1 cover, but and now I have a problem. I'm pulling oil during regular driving. All holes are placed as shown in the picture on the first page. I am using a Radium can on PCV only. I still have the stock pcv valve.
Before I drilled it, I was only pulling raw oil into the can on the track. On highway, I'd get maybe a tablespoon every 500 miles. Now after drilling, I'll pull almost an ounce in 15 miles of highway driving, without turns. There's no smoke screen. Car runs strong. Goes into VTEC fine. I noticed when I look through the pcv grommet, the drill hole on the indentation is right there, straight through. I suspect this hole is allowing oil directly through and it's a bad placement, but I really don't know for sure what's happening. I don't want to cap off the pcv and go to an open set-up. I regret doing this modification at this point.
Any ideas what's happening here?
I really doubt this has anything to do with the holes being drilled. My guess is that your motor is just developing more blow by now, and I am the king of blow by.
I will second that it's just noticing the blowby more now. My car also started acting a bit weird after capping the PCV, punching the valve cover holes, and routing the front outlet into an open air catch can.
I think part of it was in my head, the other part was that a leakdown test tells me 10% / 10% / 2% / 3% through the rings. I have not had a chance to put a trackday on the car as-is, but I have not collected any oil in my catch can across roughly 200mi. I will know more when I get a set of injectors and a new o2 sensor in the mail this week.
King Tut - what are your leakdown numbers like? I assume through the rings, as well?
I just want to give Justin a shoutout for being super professional, courteous, and prompt with the service he provides. He is a true class act and I’m glad he’s apart of the s2 community. Thanks again!
Well, now that I have replaced my valve cover, I can confirm the issue is the hole drilled in the bump, directly below the PCV. If you intend on keeping the pcv/ccv intact, do not drill the hole in the bump.
Current set-up: AP2 valve cover with six holes drilled in the baffle (I skipped the pcv bump), dual closed-loop catch cans. Closed- loop keeps the car DOT/ STR compliant. My car is NA, no downforce, 200TW tires. I don’t exceed 1.3 G’s.
I could not not be happier with this set up. I now have several thousand miles of both daily driving and a few track days and Autocross. I pull maybe a couple tablespoons / 1000 miles in the PCV can; light film in the CCV can. This includes track time. No smoke screen. No crazy oil collection in the cans. To reiterate: if you plan to keep a closed-loop system, skip the hole on the PCV bump on the baffle if you plan to keep vacuum on it. If you run open to atmosphere, it won’t matter and you can drill it.
Also, to comment about compression, it’s not the issue. Leakdown shows no indication of excessive blow-by.
This is has been an issue in the past. I have since talked to one other person this happened to, as well as there is mention of it on this forum back in 2012 about Macr88 initial drilling of 7 holes. It can be found in this thread, about post #150 or so. Looks like the user deleted most of the comments, but his experience was exactly like mine.
Well, now that I have replaced my valve cover, I can confirm the issue is the hole drilled in the bump, directly below the PCV. If you intend on keeping the pcv/ccv intact, do not drill the hole in the bump.
Current set-up: AP2 valve cover with six holes drilled in the baffle (I skipped the pcv bump), dual closed-loop catch cans. Closed- loop keeps the car DOT/ STR compliant. My car is NA, no downforce, 200TW tires. I don’t exceed 1.3 G’s.
I could not not be happier with this set up. I now have several thousand miles of both daily driving and a few track days and Autocross. I pull maybe a couple tablespoons / 1000 miles in the PCV can; light film in the CCV can. This includes track time. No smoke screen. No crazy oil collection in the cans. To reiterate: if you plan to keep a closed-loop system, skip the hole on the PCV bump on the baffle if you plan to keep vacuum on it. If you run open to atmosphere, it won’t matter and you can drill it.
Originally Posted by JHN89
Also, to comment about compression, it’s not the issue. Leakdown shows no indication of excessive blow-by.
This is has been an issue in the past. I have since talked to one other person this happened to, as well as there is mention of it on this forum back in 2012 about Macr88 initial drilling of 7 holes. It can be found in this thread, about post #150 or so. Looks like the user deleted most of the comments, but his experience was exactly like mine.
I appreciate your feedback and diagnosis through your challenges. I have revised the hole locations for AP1 and AP2 covers due to your findings. I will have updated pictures for both covers after tomorrow and I will update the thread accordingly.
For the people who have already had the modification done to their cover, I would not worry too much about the troubles described by JHN89 and the posted thread. I am not dismissing his findings by any means, but with less than 5 posted complaints out of hundreds (possibly 1,000+) of valve covers modified I feel it is safe to say it is an isolated incident. If you had issues you would know within a few hundred miles after installing a modified valve cover.
As of Spring 2018, the configuration of holes drilled has been changed. The hole under the PCV valve was moved/eliminated. A small sample of people experienced excessive oil being pulled from the PCV valve during normal driving (not at the track) on AP1 valve covers with a hole drilled in the baffle plate directly under the PCV location. The individuals ran the stock configuration of the valve cover vents to the intake manifold and intake arm when this issue was discovered. To avoid future issues, I updated the layout of where the holes should be drilled. For people who have an AP1 cover with the vacuum hoses hooked up to the intake manifold/intake arm and experience excessive oil consuming from just normal daily driving habits, options to resolve this issue will require the baffle plate to be removed again and welded shut at the hole where the PCV location is, or a new baffle plate is needed. The baffle plate cannot be bought from Honda, so a used valve cover could be used, or a new valve cover could be bought. Another option is to setup both VC vents to atmosphere with a catch can system. Again, I have read that only 3 people had this issue.
11-14-2017, 07:22 PM
