GM Service Manual Online
For 1990-2009 cars only

A closed crankcase ventilation system is used in order to provide a more complete scavenging of crankcase vapors. Fresh air from the throttle body is supplied to the crankcase, mixed with blow-by gases and then passed through a crankcase ventilation valve into the intake manifold. The primary control is through the crankcase ventilation valve, which meters the flow at a rate depending on manifold vacuum. To maintain idle quality, the crankcase ventilation valve restricts the flow when intake manifold vacuum is high. If abnormal operating conditions arise, the system is designed to allow excessive amounts of blow-by gases to back flow through the crankcase vent tube into the engine air inlet to be consumed be normal combustion.

The engine ventilation system was developed to minimize oil consumption and ensure that oil ingestion could not occur during vehicle limit handling maneuvers. Filtered fresh air is routed from up stream of the throttle blade to the front of the right valve rocker arm cover via a formed rubber hose. To reduce the potential of oil pullover into the throttle bore area due to back flow of the ventilation system, the fitting in the right side rocker cover is shielded from the rocker arms and their oil spray. Blow-by gases are routed from the rear of both rocker covers, through molded nylon lines to a tee fitting located on the centerline of the engine at the rear of the intake manifold. From there, a single nylon line carries the foul air gases through an externally mounted, horizontal positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve and enters the intake manifold behind the throttle body.

The dual draw system was developed to meet the limited handling maneuver requirements. During sustained passively lateral accelerations, the outboard cover may fill with oil. The dual draw system passively switches, allowing the PCV valve to draw on the rocker cover with the least resistance. This results in the system drawing on the air filled, or inboard rocker cover and eliminates oil pullover due to drawing on the oil filled outboard rocker cover.

The PCV valve is connected to the PCV valve pipe. The PCV valve pipe is mounted to the coolant air bleed pipe with an integral fastener. This cable transfers heat to the PCV valve to eliminate condensation build-up in the PCV system. This also aids in eliminating throttle body icing.