Reply to "Valve cover breathers / PCV advice"

An owner can substantially 'dry up' excessive 351-C top end oiling by running restrictor pushrods, or restricting top end oil supply through roller rocker with smaller holes, or by using lifter bushings. All will vastly reduce oil fed to the top end. Once this is done, some racers then add spray-bars above the springs to cool them, using small external lines off the oil pressure boss. This does the job without filling the rocker covers up.

The need for oil cooling of the springs is ONLY if you run high rpms and dual or triple valve springs that achieve their damping by actively rubbing against each other. Stock 351-C springs were single, and beehive springs both single and dual are also non-contacting. Running non-contacting springs- especially when combined with full-roller rocker arms, has the advantage of significantly lower oil temperatures under very high load, from the much lessened friction.

But a GOOD 10-quart oil pan is essential regardless, as Mike Cook's experiment showed. Won't take much cornering force at high rpms in 1st or 2nd gear to cause the pump to suck air. One owner who should have known better proved this in club-level competition; a single day with his stock Pantera pan caused terminal rod bearing failure from oil starvation. I repeat: a GOOD pan. There are cheap 10-qt drag-race 'buckets' available that have no baffling, scrapers or swinging doors, and Panteras with such pans have also lost rods and crankshafts during 'spirited' driving. "Economy" and high rpm running do not work well together.

My combination of A-3 heads, 6500 max rpms, full-roller rockers and restrictor pushrods allows me to NOT run baffles or drippers in the DeTomaso-logo rocker covers, and it all fits. Not by choice; I also use stud girdles to reinforce the rocker arm studs, and the girdles interfere with all known sheet metal baffles & drippers. I do not use spray bars, either. Regardless, I successfully use a stock rubber grommet and stock PCV valve (both OEM) with no smoking. I also installed Perfect Circle teflon stem-seals on all the valves during the last rebuild in '92. So far, so good....