thanks for the long reply...looks like I made you work for it! You're being fastidious...but I appreciate that!
Just for the fun of it...I'm going to play advocate here.
You said: "
Anyhow I looked at my 4 z1 engines and 2 d15b7 engines. Low and behold one of my Z1s had the elusive empty valve up top. That in itself totally disproves the majestic diagram."
Does it? Be careful with your inferences. Between your 6 civics (all 5th gen I presume), 4 of which were VX's, and my VX, there was one that was not according to OEM spec up top. That does not "totally disprove" the OEM diagram. Rather, it suggests with a much higher degree of probability that elbow was modified by someone. Corroborating that is the note you made at the bottom pointing out that empty elbow had no OEM part number. It was probably just some Napa part put there by someone who didn't know any better, is my guess. And that's common experience with 20 old civics: most are almost modified into oblivion by kids and shade-tree mechanics that cut corners or don't know all they should. Very hard to find *bone stock* unmodified and unmolested VX's!
The same logic holds for the bottom joint...if it does differ from OEM spec that does not necessarily invalidate OEM diagraming. With that thinking anyone could modify any part on a vehicle and say "see, that proves Honda's diagrams are invalid." That would only be the case if you could say with
100% certainty that none of those joints/elbows were changed on your cars from the day they left the factory 20 years ago and are 100% bone stock. I'm guessing that's an impossibility for you!
Agreed with you on this tough: as long as it's got a PCV valve *somewhere* in the line, I'd be happy with that for my own car. I appreciate all the time you put into this.
