5.0 PCV Location - Detailed Writeup w/pics

[Cali' Explorer]

Hey all. Since I know this is something that most 5.0 peeps have been trying to find for some time, and very few have had success, I figured I would do up a full writeup to hopefully make it easy for anyone with the 5.0 to find and replace the PCV.

Click Here For The Writeup

You can click on each picture and see an enlarged view for more detail of each picture. Hope this helps all you 5.0 guys.

P.S.: If this is helpful, it might make a good sticky since this is a common problem =).

 

[jimbo74]

nice!

 

[section525]

How do I know if a PCV valve needs to be replaced? Just pinging? What does PCV stand for.

I don't know these answers.. but I bet they'd be good to add in your writeup!

 

[jimbo74]

Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve

If it is good, it will sound like a spray paint can when you shake it, you should hear the ball rattling

 

[Cali' Explorer]

Section 525-
I will add those in the AM, time for bed now. But, I thought I'd answer your questions first.

PCV Valve stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve.

The PCV Valve allows your engine to return any gases that are in the crankcase back into the intake to be burned (including oil fumes, unburned blowby from the combustion chamber, etc...). On older cars, a simple crankcase breather was used, but because of Emissions laws, the PCV Valve basically just reroutes these fumes that normally would have been vented into the atmosphere back into the engine to be completely burned. The valve also keeps the pressure in the crankcase down.

I'm not sure how you know if it is time to replace it. I have heard you are supposed to replace it every 30k - 50k miles. I've heard of people solving pinging problems, oil leaks in the crankcase, even detonation issues with this. But as for how to really tell it needs to be replaced, I don't know.

My rule of thumb is that anytime you are doing maintenance beyond a regular oil change (like spark plugs, wires, hoses, belts, etc), you might as well change it, since a plugged PCV can cause complications, and it only costs $7 ($3 if you buy it from a regular store).

I hope this helps you some. Also section, you need to tell me where you got those great deals on the parts for your X. I've been looking to get some FMS roller rockers to replace the stockers. Hehe

 

[Cali' Explorer]

Ok, I've added a description of what the PCV Valve is, along with a brief history. Go to the link in my first post, and you will see a link from their to information about what a PCV Valve is.

Hope that helps =).

 

[Fusion213]

It was a pain to replace mine because I only had a general idea of where it was located. I bought a fram PCV valve for my explorer and it had an elbow on it so I took that off, hooked up the hose to it, started poking around back there till my finger went into a hole, and shoved that puppy in there.

 

[Cali' Explorer]

Warfarm-
Ya, I was worried a little about that. Since I used the stock one, I found that by just rotating the hose back down to where I pulled it and "searching" with the hose, it pretty much found its place on its own without any problems.