Valve cover question

No you can't get rid of it - when vacuum is pulling air out of the crankcase/valve cover through the pcv, that air has to get into the engine somehow. It comes in through the breather. If you get rid of the breather, under high vacuum conditions, you can actually create enough vacuum in the crankcase that you'll hear squealing sounds from air squeezing past the crank seals. On the other hand, under full throttle when there's no vacuum and lots of crankcase pressure, it has to be able to be vented. If the pcv alone doesn't have enough capacity to vent it (remember, your other breather will be gone if you eliminate it), then it will vent through the weakest link - often the front and/or rear crank seals. Many rear main seals have been replaced only to find that the leak persisted because excessive crankcase pressure was forcing oil out the seals. If you want to get rid of the mess, remove the breather, and instead reconfigure that opening so you can run a hose from it to a vented catch can. The catch can will 'catch' most of the oil, and the breather on the can will deposit it's 'mess' away from the engine - where ever you mount the can. Alternatively, a lot of carbed cars had the other brether hose routed to the air filter so the fumes from it go back into the intake.

Not sure, but I doubt there'd be less splash from rear to front on the cover. Yep - you'll need some sort of fitting that goes in the valve cover, and has a nipple (preferably at least 5/16" - bigger provides more venting) for a tubing connection. Arranging catch cans is done differently by everyone - so it's a fabrication issue, but an easy one. Shoot me an email at myount@senndelaney.com and I'll send you a pic of my arrangement. It's a sealed pcv system with efi, but the concept is similar. It'll give you ideas how to mount yours if you decide to go that way.