"EGR DELETE" Instructions

I've unplugged the EGR and it's been great. No headgasket yet.

Not a fan of the PCV to atmosphere. Having a slight vacuum in the crankcase is a good thing that boils off water and fuel. I might check it with an oil analysis to know if PCV is still doing its job.

SM-A536V ?

 

You could check that more easily, by ascertaining that fresh air is entering the PCV intake.

Between the time of draft tubes, but before universal PCV, some engines got by with an intermedate stage, whereby blowby was vented to the upstream side of the throttle plate, so there was no fresh air entering the crankcase. That met the requirement not to dump nasty blowby gases into our atmosphere, but did nothing to flush condensation out of the crankcase.

 

This is so true!
With the pcv valve tubing directed to the atmosphere there is NO FLOW of air in the crankcase.
The crankcase blow-by gasses can just as easily go back towards the 'fresh air in' port,, as they are to push through the PCV valve which is expecting a lower pressure to suck the gases out.

A slightly lower pressure in the crankcase is good for the seals, rotating and stationary seals.

 

Back in the day, it was directed to the atmosphere through a 'road draft tube' that pointed down into the slipstream underneath the car. When you were moving at any sort of speed, that would suck the crankcase vapors out, while air flowed in through a breather filter somewhere else on an engine, flowing right through the crankcase.

Of course it didn't provide much draft when the car was moving slowly or stopped.

 

Googled:

If every car owner in a city were to cause their cars to vent the crankcase fumes to the atmosphere, what would be the environmental impact? Say Los Angeles.

The AI response:

Venting crankcase fumes directly to the atmosphere in a dense city like Los Angeles would cause a significant increase in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous hydrocarbons, worsening air quality and increasing respiratory health issues. This would dramatically increase photochemical smog formation and create a toxic, pungent environment due to high levels of unburned fuel vapors, particularly with LA’s smog-trapping, bowl-shaped topography.
Key environmental and health impacts include:

• Increased Smog: Crankcase emissions contain VOCs that, when exposed to intense sunlight, accelerate the formation of ground-level ozone, a major component of LA's infamous smog.
• Toxic Air Pollution: The fumes release concentrated pollutants like benzene and other hydrocarbons directly into the air, aggravating respiratory illnesses like asthma and bronchitis.
• Failure of Pollution Control: Modern pollution control (like Positive Crankcase Ventilation, or PCV systems) is designed to recirculate these fumes back into the engine to burn them, which this action would bypass.
• Environmental Degradation: The increased pollutants, combined with LA's temperature inversions, would trap harmful substances near the ground, reducing visibility and causing long-term damage to air quality.

This action would effectively return air quality conditions to a pre-1960s level, when such emissions were not regulated, significantly raising health risks for residents.

 

I see Immanuel Kant has entered the chat!

Made me think "let's really put Gemini through its paces...."

Please consider the question "If every car owner in a city were to cause their cars to vent the crankcase fumes to the atmosphere, what would be the environmental impact?" and discuss how an individual's decision to so vent the crankcase might be scrutinized in other, less Kantian, moral theories.​

Not too shabby, this AI stuff.