I have an obd1 s52 with m50 manifold. For a while now I have experienced a strong oil smell with a smoke cloud when taking off from stoplights. This only occured when the engine was warmed up and after sitting at a light and idling for a while. Due to the symptoms, I suspected possible valve seals/guides. I have actually replaced my cylinder head with one from an m52 that I had resurfaced, checked valve guide wear, and replaced the valve seals. I have also tried various ccvs including the m5 cyclone separator and the obd2/m52 ccv. I have also tried piston/solvent soaks in an attempt to clean up my oil control rings. These things did help a little, as originally I was getting ridiculous smoke clouds upon decel/engine braking when coming at a stop. After trying these things it went back to just the smoke clouds after idling for extended periods of time and taking off. Recently I stumbled upon a common mod on e46s to delete the ccv system and just run a catch can with pcv valve, basically applying much higher vacuum to the crankcase.
It seemed sketchy to me at first but a lot of people seemed to have success with it, and since it was a simple mod to do I figured I would try it. I've been running it for about a week now and the change has been drastic so far. The engine runs smoother and seems to pull harder. It doesn't matter how long I sit at lights now or how hard I punch it. I can't get it to put out any smoke cloud in my rearview. I have the valve cover hooked up to a catchcan and then to a tee between my icv hose and the intake manifold. I already had this tee installed from my last setup (obd2 oil separator), since I copied the RMeuropean method of cutting the icv hose in half and installing a tee to install the obd2 ccv system.
I am aware there is some risk involved with this setup, as I have read with high vacuum on the crankcase the oil pressure can drop, and oil can actually be pulled away from the rings and piston wrist pins. I believe my oil control rings may be the main cause of my smoking and oil consumption, and that could be why this has been so effective in stopping the symptoms on my engine. Either through helping the oil rings seal better, or through the vacuum preventing oil from being sucked up past the rings. So far I have only had positive results. The car honestly feels as strong or stronger than when I first did the swap years ago. As far as oil consumption, I haven't driven it long enough to tell if there will be a difference. I have been burning about 1 quart per 1k miles for a while now. I will see how it looks when I reach the next 1k miles. Hopefully nothing crazy happens to my engine by then.:shock: Anyways I just wanted to share my experience as this was a big surprise to me, and if it continues to work this well then I will be a very satisfied driver.
It seemed sketchy to me at first but a lot of people seemed to have success with it, and since it was a simple mod to do I figured I would try it. I've been running it for about a week now and the change has been drastic so far. The engine runs smoother and seems to pull harder. It doesn't matter how long I sit at lights now or how hard I punch it. I can't get it to put out any smoke cloud in my rearview. I have the valve cover hooked up to a catchcan and then to a tee between my icv hose and the intake manifold. I already had this tee installed from my last setup (obd2 oil separator), since I copied the RMeuropean method of cutting the icv hose in half and installing a tee to install the obd2 ccv system.
I am aware there is some risk involved with this setup, as I have read with high vacuum on the crankcase the oil pressure can drop, and oil can actually be pulled away from the rings and piston wrist pins. I believe my oil control rings may be the main cause of my smoking and oil consumption, and that could be why this has been so effective in stopping the symptoms on my engine. Either through helping the oil rings seal better, or through the vacuum preventing oil from being sucked up past the rings. So far I have only had positive results. The car honestly feels as strong or stronger than when I first did the swap years ago. As far as oil consumption, I haven't driven it long enough to tell if there will be a difference. I have been burning about 1 quart per 1k miles for a while now. I will see how it looks when I reach the next 1k miles. Hopefully nothing crazy happens to my engine by then.:shock: Anyways I just wanted to share my experience as this was a big surprise to me, and if it continues to work this well then I will be a very satisfied driver.
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