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So I see these things on a lot of cars (yes, even Accords)... the mini-looking filter on the valve cover.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2589/3872014717_1eda89b52b_o.jpg)

My question is, what is the point of it??  It looks neat, but I never understood what they were for.  I've also seen that port on the valve cover be totally exposed with nothing on the end of it, or have a line attached to it that ran to an oil catch can or something.  However, in looking at my K24 engine, that port has a complex system of lines connected to it, as shown here:

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/3872798180_ae1ce9e185_o.jpg)

The blue circle is where the filter would go.  The yellow arrows show hoses that seem to go to the aftermarket intake, the throttle body, and the area of the valve cover where the upper radiator hose attaches to.  The red arrow shows the big clunky looking piece that attaches to the intake of which I have no idea what it does, or if it's even needed since on other intakes I've just seen a straight hose there.  Again, I think the filter looks nice, but I'm not sure how it'd get installed without removing all of the other hoses, which must serve important purposes.    So, drop some knowledge on me homies.

It is an oil breather element. Some people prefer to have the breather element instead of having the oil circulate back through the intake.

What Scott said.  Basically, this is for your valve cover to vent any oil/pressure back into your combustion chamber to be burned up and spit out your tail pipe via your intake.  Some people don't care and just have it vent out atmospherically.  The filter is there so nothing goes in.

is this recommended or an oil catch can would be a better alternative?

A catch can keeps it out of your combustion chamber, and this doesn't in my understanding.

debating this whole issue with my friend who runs an oil catch can on his 99 big turbo passat
he seems to think if you vent this out into atmosphere he would fail emissions tests (new jersey)
i disagree but dont have any facts to back up my opinion.

i dont remember any type of emissions tests being done when i got my car inspected... and something like this would never show up or be recognized from a tailpipe test right?

someone would have to physically open your hood and stare down your engine looking for faults, which i would think 99% of the time they wouldn't even pick up on something like this
would this effect emissions ?

It has the ability to effect emissions because if you were burning enough oil your car would throw a CEL, and you would fail emissions. Chances are if your car was burning this much oil and inspection sticker would be the least of your worries.

Technically, both the catch can and the itty bitty filter keep the oil from re-circulating back into your combustion chamber.  The catch can just allows the other gasses to vent back into your combustion chamber, while the itty bitty filter just vents it out into the atmosphere.

So you could kind of say that the little filter is a poor-man's catch can?

well they pretty much said it all but wow that is some engine bay you found there..... i never saw those kinda individual coil(MSD)packs on our engines...looks sexy

So the little mini filter just vents gasses and oil right into the engine bay?  That can't be too good.

But still, I can see how the filter allows for the removal of the hose that connects to the intake (since the gasses no longer need to vent through the intake system), but what happens to the other lines I pointed out (the one that connects to the throttle body, and the other that seems to connect to where the radiator hose attaches to the lower part of the valve cover)?  Do they just get plugged up, or do you need to reroute them somehow??

I think you're seeing things in that first picture you posted.  The valve cover vent goes to your intake before the throttle body.  There are no coolant lines involved in that.  Honestly, the best thing for you to do is get an oil catch can.  I have one that I will give you if you want it.

^ I don't think I'm seeing things.  I'm gonna have to take a better pic or snap a quick video to point out what I'm talking about.  There's def. more lines in that general viscinity that must do something... maybe part of the throttle body coolant system (that bypass mod which I never did).  It's frustrating that I can't explain this.  And the free catch can is tempting.

Here's a better pic, courtesy of Alex over at V6P:

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2575/3886476986_66c8685ca6_o.jpg)

So there are two other hoses/lines (blue circles) that are connected to the main metal line (red arrow) that the filter goes on (Rolo put his filter on the end of the line as opposed to right on the valve cover itself).  I'm confused as to what those other two lines do, and if you decide to put the filter right on the side of the valve cover as opposed to how Rolo did it, than what do you do with those two other lines??

Those two other lines are probably the coolant lines that are not connected to the line that goes to your valve cover.  Don't over think this one, it's literally a vacuum line that goes from your valve cover to your intake.  Some of them have that weird plastic valve thingy, but others don't.  Those other lines are just next to that vacuum line and don't have anything to do with this mod.  IMHO, it's a waste of money and I would just leave it alone.  It's basically just one of those "look at this" mods that does nothing for performance.

Thats not Rolo's engine btw, its K24Low20z.

Dave, I'll slap you the next time you don't post in the appropriate forum.  I know where you live too!!

Oh yeah, it's Alex's engine bay, my bad.

Where the fuck did I post this thread this time Tim??  I gotta stop posting when I'm half asleep.

 
By "weird plastic valve thingy", do you mean that odd-shaped plastic piece that sits in the middle of the line that connects the valve cover to the intake?  Anyway, I only posted so many questions because those other two coolant lines seem to be welded to the vacuum line that this mini filter seems to replace (on my car at least), so I couldn't understand how it was possible to do it in the first place without figuring out what to do with the two coolant lines.  I'd probably never do this mod, but you know I'm a curious bastard.

Actually Dave, you had posted this in general discussion. I'm surprised Tim didn't move it sooner with the replies he posted.

Unless your car is different, I don't think the coolant and valve cover breather lines are together.  My engine bay is a bit different than most people's though, so it may just be the fact that I've already removed all that shit and replaced it with my own lines.

Yeh Tim, slacker.  

I'm pretty sure mine are all attached, so my bay may be different than yours.

i know on the v6 the coolant and valve cover breather lines are together i had breathers installed in my car they work good while driving but when stopped the idle was a bit ruff since it was sucking in all the hot air from the engine bay

(http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7721/img00165200907120933.jpg)

Check it out!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlrCJfkOXxU

Ok guys, you can take this for whatever you want...

The little filter thingy (Breather) really is not good for our engine and WILL fail emmisions as you have removed part of the emissions control system entirely and are now venting crank case gasses to atmosphere. Our engines like a little vacume in the crank case which is why it is connected where it is.Now a oil catch can allows the gases to still be injested back in keeping emissions happy, but also giving a place for the heavier oil to drop out and is the proper solution. But if you have a really anal (asshat) inspector he can still fail you on visual.

Thanks for the info Paul.

Dave, after watching your video I see what you're talking about.  I got a flashback from when I installed my intake like 8 million years ago.  I think that with my AEM intake, we removed that piece all together.  I do remember that we removed one of the coolant lines during the install.

Thanks for the heads-up Paul.

Tim, I am aware that certain aftermarkets intakes (such as Injen I believe) come with a hose that totally replaces that whole odd-looking oem contraption, while other intakes (like my K&N) seem to reuse the oem part.  That's weird in itself, but my bigger question now is that if you had to remove one of your coolant lines, what did you do with the flow of the coolant?  Did you have to plug up where the hose used to be at both ends, or did you do something else???

I think he replaced that line altogether. Follow the lower line of that two part hose assembly and you'll see what we're talking about.

^What he said.  I just replaced the line so it doesn't need that silly ass metal line.

Funny thing is, honda has been putting that very same silly metal line in their 4 cyl engines for a long time. My 87 Integra had that same shit in it. Why they do it, I'll never know.

To keep the gases hot so that they don't sludge up the line over time.....

Makes sense. But a hose is cheap and easy to replace. Leave it to Honda to think long term.

Yeh, makes sense.  Now that I look at it, it is really just one line (not two) that travels from the engine to the throttle body area, but it's welded in the middle to the valve cover breather hose assembly.  I guess Paul's info makes sense in that this setup helps to heat the breather line up.  Not very convenient though if you wanna ditch the breather hose assembly pieces for something else, however.