linewarbr wrote:
The EHM allows internal crankcase gases to be released directly into the atmosphere - something the EPA put their foot down on in the late 60's and early 70's. So, it's basically illegal for a passenger car driver to circumvent the emission control and could result in some trouble if you were to be discoverered.
Partially true. Sure, gassers have had PCV valves and such for quite a while, but few diesels have had them until relatively recently. Interesting that my '06 Jeep Liberty CRD 2.8L has a CCV closed system, but my '06 Cummins ISX 15L has an EPA approved "elephant hose" system. Let's see... I put on approximately 145,000 miles a year at an average 7 mpg in my semi (along with hundreds of thousands of other commercial vehicles), venting the crankcase to the air with the blessing of the EPA. I have really no problem doing the elephant hose mod to my CRD that does around 25,000 miles a year with an average of 26 mpg. Less than 11,000 Liberty CRD's running around the country side with only percentage of them having an EHM done versus over a million commercial semi's running around the same territory with EPA approved crankcase ventalation to the atmosphere. Does anyone besides me see a contradiction in this? But then, the worse thing that for anyone to hear (whether they realize it or not) is "your government is here to help you".
Illegal? Probably. But legal issues rarely are determined by logic. Just like it is illegal to allow someone under 21 to buy and consume alcoholic beverages, but it is perfectly legal to kill and mame for life these same under 21 folks in the military. With so many laws on the books, we are all in violation of some law, somewhere. At this stage of my life, I really am not going to worry about the EPA getting their panties in a wad over my CRD venting to the atmosphere. Not when my semi and other equipment can do it legally. Gassers do not have the same situational conditions that diesels have in using a closed system. Gassers generally do not have soot laden exhaust gasses being mixed with oily crankcase gases in the intake of the engine. So I generally have had no problem or did I modify the PCV system of a gasser.
To each his own.
There is a substantial cost difference between some sort of provent and ehm. I did my ehm for the whopping sum of less than $10. I haven't seen a provent style system for even close to that cost.