I've had 1 on for over 2 years & only just replaced the 1st filter.
The intake is clean as a wistle.
When you say you "reversed the hose arrangment"
How did you have the hose's arranged. The top hole is the inlet (from rocker cover),The lower hole is the outlet (To the aircleaner)
& i didnt connect the return back to the sump.
Best thing i've put on my FT so far as it works
Hamo
The original hose arrangement (lower hose return) resulted in oil sloshing into the outlet hose and being delivered straight to the turbo and intake pipes. It delivered this oil in large enough gulps that the engine ran on it's own oil around 6 times. It takes suprisingly little angle offroad for the oil in the bottom of the provent to fill the exit hose.
I have modified it so the intake hose is the lower and the outlet hose the top. This setup actually works as an oil seperator. The lower drain exits to the oil sump below oil level (as recommended).
Honestly if you can run an oil seperator without the drain connected, you don't need one. If you do need one the provent probably can't deal with the oil volumes required. My engine had a factory external air/oil seperator which was replaced by one of my own design (worked well, but too small) and then the provent.
My efforts would have been better spent making a larger version of my own centrifuge oil seperator.
Here are the 2 main problems with the provent.
1. The exit hose is too low. Any decent oil flow will enter the outlet valve and from there cannot pass back to the drain, it can only leave via the vent tube. Acceleration and gradients off-road make this much worse.
2. Any oil caught in the filter has to drip past the exit stream to get to the lower drain. While dripping past the change of it leaving with the exit air is pretty good.
By reversing the hoses it keeps the bulk of the oil below the filter element. The bulk of the oil has a direct path down the drain. Any oil mist is seperated out by the filter and can then drip down to the drain without any issues.
Air getting out the top hose now is centrifuged, has to pass throguh the filter and finally exits at the top where the least oil can be carried.
The summary is simple. If you don't need an air/oil seperator the provent will work fine. If you do need one, the provent won't work.
