I have gone through now, 3 different valve cover gaskets and all of them are leaking under boost. Normal driving everything is clean and sealed. However once I do a strong pull on the car, oil will spray out of the gasket causing a huge mess in the engine bay. Obviously there is too much crankcase pressure under boost for the gasket to hold so it blows open. I'm familiar with the concepts of the PCV valve system, how the valve will only vent crankcase pressure under vaccum conditions, boost however the PCV valve does nothing. The only other escape for the pressure is out through the breather tube/fitting attached to the valve cover itself. Currently I'm running a small breather filter from auto zone. I tried boosting the car without this filter (nothing attached to fitting) and oil simply spewed out of the fitting under boost. When I did this I found out there was no leak from the valve cover gasket itself. Making me realize that the problem may be my little filter is too restrictive for the crankcase pressure.

What can I use as a replacement for the filter? I have thought about a catch can venting to atmosphere but not sure if this is the way to go or which one. This whole leaking valve cover thing is really driving me insane. Thank you guys.

Thats bad for your turbo too. The turbo oil drain is gravity feed so any positive pressure in the crank case will make it harder for the oil to drain back to the pan.

The vent on the side of the valve cover needs to be going to the intake pipe. Its best to have a catch can between the vent and intake so oil doesn't get sucked into the turbo. Besides coating the intake track with oil, oil can also cause detonation.

If you don't want to have it hooked up to the intake pipe, you can get a couple 10an fittings welded to the valve cover and run them to a catch can.

dustyboner said:

Thats bad for your turbo too. The turbo oil drain is gravity feed so any positive pressure in the crank case will make it harder for the oil to drain back to the pan.

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I actually never thought of that but makes alot of sense :/ I don't have any port on my intake pipe on my turbo for a hose fitting. So will simply having a catch can connected to the valve cover venting to atmosphere work?

It won't work with just the stock line off the valve cover. Its too small. When the line is hooked to the intake pipe, the pressure differental between the positive pressure in the crank case and the negative pressure in the intake pipe, results in higher air flow thru the line.

If you have it vented to the atmosphere you need to run (2) 10an fitting on the valve cover.

Brad Bell said:

I actually never thought of that but makes alot of sense :/ I don't have any port on my intake pipe on my turbo for a hose fitting. So will simply having a catch can connected to the valve cover venting to atmosphere work?

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That should work just fine.

You might wanna try and clean the carbon deposits off your pistons and rings to see if it decreases the amount of blowby.

maybe try mopar combustion chamber cleaner and throw a bottle of redline SI-1 in your tank.

how to - mopar combustion chamber cleaner:
https://www.neons.org/howtos/MoparCleaner.shtml

A good pcv system is rather important, I'm a big proponent of dual, sealed catch cans with a check valve on the line to the intake manifold, with or without the stock pcv valve. All of my little oil puffs and minor leaks have stopped since sorting it out with proper stuff, otherwise the stock pcv was always allowing some pressure to the crank case.
Also, the fresh air vent to the turbo inlet is crucial when under boost to provide assisted pressure relief from the crank case. Otherwise you'd need a rather large-lined vented can and even then it wouldnt work as well as a smaller line with some vacuum pulling on it.

+2 on putting a check valve inline with the pcv valve as they are known to leak even when new. I have one in mine and also in my brake booster line. If your valve isn't sealing, then boost pressure is coming into the valve cover with all the effects of positive crankcase pressure that have been mentioned.

You're going to get a lot of varying opinions on this, but I think all will agree that putting a new check valve between the pcv and IM is a must and getting rid of the breather is a must. Everything else will get varying answers.

Vented is no bueno. Connect the breather port to your intake. Is your intake pipe aluminum or steel? Do you have a welder to stick a bung into the pipe? I welded a small 1/4 thick steel plate (about 1"x2") to the bottom of my intake pipe and then drilled and tapped it for NPT.

I had the same valve cover gasket issue until I ran a line from the breather vent to the intake pipe. Now I want need to stick one of those kynar check valves in my pcv too. Where did I hide them...?

Okay I ordered a catch can last light, along with some hosing for it. My plan is just to vent it to atmosphere for now, untill I can get a port welded to my intake. Currently I'm just running a small intake filter attached to my turbo. Where can I get a check valve for my pcv valve?

Kynar check valves:
https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=36844

They work great for slot of people. I went with some metal ones just to try them, slightly higher pressure needed to crack the diaphragm, but have been working great for me.

Hey man, are you runnin a 16g? There’s no way that turbo is causing excessive crankcase pressure, I agree with others in this post that it’s probably a faulty pcv valve, letting positive pressure into your head under boost, the inline check valve should solve your problem

1cleangsx said:

Hey man, are you runnin a 16g? There’s no way that turbo is causing excessive crankcase pressure, I agree with others in this post that it’s probably a faulty pcv valve, letting positive pressure into your head under boost, the inline check valve should solve your problem

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Yes I'm running a super 16g turbo made my Hahn racecraft. I just ordered an inline check valve to go with the pcv valve like others have mentioned. Hopefully that and the catch can install should do the trick! Keep you all posted

Installed catch can, check valve for the pcv, new felpro gasket, and I have success! Installed the gasket last night with 2 washers per bolt to help squish the gasket onto the head more. Let it dry overnight. Just took it out and boosted it to 10psi a couple times and I'm completely oil leak free! I'll have to give it a few more days to be sure but so far so good. Thanks for your help guys.

What catch can is that and how do you like it?

Good to hear you're making progress. I suggest you still work on tossing that little filter & plumbing your catch can vent into the intake per-turbo. You'll be even happier with the end results.

Vegas smith said:

What catch can is that and how do you like it?

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It's this cheap one on Amazon

ESPEEDER Universal Aluminum Oil... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMV19TR?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I'm not too familiar with catch cans myself, this is the first one I've ever owned. But seems to work well. Has a little dipstick so that's nice.

Mello said:

Good to hear you're making progress. I suggest you still work on tossing that little filter & plumbing your catch can vent into the intake per-turbo. You'll be even happier with the end results.

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Yes I plan to get a new intake pipe with a NPT fitting to do exactly that. As for now I'll have to run it like this.

Mello said:

Good to hear you're making progress. I suggest you still work on tossing that little filter & plumbing your catch can vent into the intake per-turbo. You'll be even happier with the end results.

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I checked my catch can after two hard pulls and the can is about 1/8th full of oil, it's actually surprising of how much oil got dumped into this thing. Would ditching the vented setup and switching to the "sealed" setup with the pre turbo pipe reduce this?

No it would not make a difference in the amount of oil but a sealed system would help reduce more crankcase pressure.

Mello said:

No it would not make a difference in the amount of oil but a sealed system would help reduce more crankcase pressure.

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But if there's less pressure in the valve cover wouldn't the amount of oil going into the can decrease?

The only way I know of to reduce the amount of oil you're collecting in the catch can is to reduce the ring blow-by with a re-ring, hone & rebuild or switch to a dry sump & suck it out with the scavenging from the oil pump.

What are you putting as the filler inside your catchcan? Adding filler will reduce oil accumulation.

Also, with your specific intake setup, you can drill and tap that metal collar to pull vacuum to your catchcan.

Mello said:

The only way I know of to reduce the amount of oil you're collecting in the catch can is to reduce the ring blow-by with a re-ring, hone & rebuild or switch to a dry sump & suck it out with the scavenging from the oil pump.

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shouldn't the rings seal better if its connected to the intake tube?

https://dsportmag.com/the-tech/quick-tech-the-benefits-of-lowering-crankcase-pressure-part-1/

http://www.radiumauto.com/Blog/Post/Catch-Cans-101-102

rEclipserGST said:

What are you putting as the filler inside your catchcan? Adding filler will reduce oil accumulation.
.

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From looking at the link to the catch can the OP bought, i don't think it has any filler.

From the look of it, the radium catch cans are using scotchbrite. you can get them 2 for $1.50 at dollar general

That is exactly what I put in my catchcan, and it is an identical design. I have the black cans.