BOV options, maintenance, location discussion
 

When I first TT'd my Z, I didn't realize my Turbosmart BOV's were a maintenance item (lube at every oil change IIRC)... I went about 15k miles before one of them got stuck and I finally popped them out and lubricated. At that time, they were already looking pretty worn out due to the lack of maintenance, I assume.

Between remodeling my house and getting a work-from-home type of job, my Z has been a garage queen for a couple of years. Sitting for a week or two at a time seems to be resulting in the BOVs getting stuck more often (probably in combination with the premature wearing).

So - I have some questions.

1) Are there maintenance free BOV's out there? Eliminating this maintenance item would be awesome, especially if I am going to need to replace them soon anyway.

2) Is there a drawback to locating the BOV's downstream of the intercoolers?
Right now mine are installed on the IC inlets, behind the front bumper. If I can't replace with a maintenance-free valve, I'd like to relocate to a more serviceable location.

What do you guys think?
The current BOVs that shipped with my kit are TS Plumb-back type, though they are vented to atmosphere.

2) Yes. You are heating up your i/c with air you are going to waste. But that's just on paper; it may not make enough difference to matter IRL.

You can run tubing from the BOV to a convenient point and inject lube from there. You'll need to purge air from the system the first time you use it. Keep the tubing as short as possible.

I had the same bov with my gtm supercharger and it would get stuck very often ...I got tired of lubing it every week and it always would get stuck right before a car meet .....I changed over to tial bov and had zero issues since on the supercharger ..and I have the same bov on my turbo charged Z with no issues as well

..I did have to cut and weld the fitting for the tial bov it is different than the turbo smart one ..but worth the worth it in the end

Is the tial BOV maintenance-free? Or just requires much less of it? This sounds like the way to go.

I haven’t had to “service” mine since putting it on and I don’t believe there is a required Maintinance for it ... however out of habit I tend to look over my motor .. turbo .. pipes.. bovs and wastegates regularly ... only thing done was switching out springs for boost settings

Tial Q is the way to go. Haven't really heard of a need for "Maintenance" for them, but I would call Tial before making the purchase, As earlier stated you would need to replace the flange on your current piping.

Well I think I figured out one reason why one of my BOV's keeps getting stuck. I removed them a couple of days ago and one of them had some water/gunk intrusion on the spring side. I am going to clean them up, polish the bore/piston, and also ordered some o-ring kits to rebuild both of them. Hopefully I can get some more life out of them - changing over to the Tial's is going to be expensive if it comes to that.

I was doing the same with mine ....and was getting about 2 weeks each time before it would seize up ,however to do mine required removing the front bumper each time and that got old fast

Yup, me too =( I'm crossing my fingers for better luck! Got a cheapy polishing kit from Harbor Freight - came with a cylinder wheel that fits the bore perfectly. Stood a drill up in my bench vise and started polishing. Looks promising so far, I can't feel any of the damage in the bore or on the piston with my fingers anymore. Will switch the compounds tomorrow night and finish it off... new o-rings come in Saturday hopefully they will be back in working order. For about $25 and a few hours I figure its worth a shot.