no BB's HHR is not turbo'd. His van is. Its an older chrysler/dodge minivan that came stock turbo'd.


BB-- that little filter on the valve cover is a breather filter. It vents the valve cover to help prevent the hot air from re-entering the intake system and helps keep oil vapor out of there as well. On the stock setup a hose connects the valve cover to the intake elbow. If you were to just plug the hole you would get built up pressure inside the valve cover.

 

ok thanks. how are your painted tail lights? do they work?

 

But if there`s pressure in the cover, won`t you eventually get oil on the outside through the filter?
Sorta reverse filtering...

 

sometimes this does happen. But the valve cover on the ECOtec motors has a "splash guard" built into it that prevents oil from being able to exit the breather tube. Only a fine mist. Which gets caught by the filter. Without the filter, over time, you would notice an oily film on the inside of the throttle body and intake manifold if you just had the normal hose hooked up. Without either you would see the same residue all over your engine compartment. Its not a necessity but sort of an engine dress up item. There is no real performance gain attributed to these filters on newer engines.

These filters have been used by muscle car/hotrod guys for years though!

 

I know they were used on the older carb. engines, but the modern engine is more of a sealed unit, you may be causing a vacuum leak or at least a pollution control system problem down the road.

 

This is what is normally used. You run a large diameter line to it from the valve cover. You should use one when running nitrous or any type of boost (turbo or supercharger)

 

so i should run the filter thats in this picture with my nitrous kit??

 

I have been using nitrous for years but mine were in the 300-500 hp range. If I were to run nitrous on my HHR I would do something like a 125 hp setup. Drop to a one step cooler spark plug and throw 100 -110 octane fuel in her. I would also look into seeing if someone could drop like 2 degrees in the timing table in the computer as well as see what the O2's are doing using a O2 sensor.

For even a 50 hp shot I would run a fuel pressure safety switch. Any loss in fuel pressure and you may go lean and loose your motor to a burned piston. That window switch you see people talking about is only for manual tranny cars. You dont have to worry about your car not shifting in time with an auto.

You guys also need to look at how that nozzle is aimed! The spry needs to run straight into the manifold. Any places that that spray could hit may cause a puddle of fuel and nitrous. NOT GOOD!! Those puddles tend to go BOOM!!

 

you dont need to run that filter. You'll be safe with a 65 shot. But I DO NOT reccomend going over a 65 shot with a stock internal motor.

 

I was looking at your ride on car domain...and it's really sweet! Which grill is the one you currently have - I see 2 types.

I was looking for a photo of the location/nitrous canister - is it that last one, the only ones I would recognize (since I've only seen a few) were purple.