Joe Romas wrote:
Looking at your picture and thinking about it

it looks like you have it correct. It's there to allow pressure out but to close when there's a vacuum. Also the side that's up would not seal the round "output" part of the housing if you were to turn it over
Now my turn to ask

Is there any obvious design flaw that could be worked around? And was it dirty enough to keep it from working? The round hole coming up from the lower part looks partially plugged with sludge.
Howdifficult was it to remove the cover

Was quite difficult but i sprayed some silicone first and then worked it off carefully using two thin screwdrivers.
Once you get inside you can see that the problem relates to a lack of filtering medium so i fitted a white pad as per the pic.
I then decided to try a pot scourer instead of the white pad which i've done now and will monitor the results. I fitted a piece of clear PVC hose to the puck for monitoring purposes. If the pot scourer traps the oil and the oil then runs back to the crankcase like it was designed to do i'll be happy.
I try and stay as stock as possible i know the Provent is still the answer but when i saw some of the installations where some of the guys had cut their engine cover to accomodate the hoses i thought i'd play around a bit with the puck.