@neuropathy well with no cats then you do not need the catch can, most engines only start to smoke blue when the oil is dumping into the cylinders. If you are doing a rebuild in the near future - months not years you can likely leave it.

The catch can does not replace the PCV mod it goes between the valve cover and manifold, more or less you extend the hose a bit so you can locate the can.

 

Wait I shouldn’t be screwing around here. I thought “cats” was a typo for “car” but I didn’t realize you probably meant catalytic converters... ****, I do have those (I live in CA, after all). You can commit all sorts of crime here and get off easy but no cats and they’ll flay you.

So, I don’t know if I’ll manage to rebuild the engine so soon - I’ve never done anything like that and hopefully I could manage, but I’d probably need to buy a lot of tools and parts... I’ll start looking into it. I don’t have a flat concrete driveway, garage or lifts either, but I might be able to figure something out with a workplace.

About these valve seals - are these actually the valve cover gaskets or something else? I could try to manage that job and see if it helps. I suppose if you remove the valve covers you could repair anything else to do with the seals, as well, if that’s a separate issue?

So the oil catch can attaches with a hose to the PCV?

 

@neuropathy Ok so really simple

Valve seals are in the head, and are supposed prevent combustion gases etc from entering the area under the valve covers. When the seals are shot you get combustion gases up top which can cause your oil issue, it causes some over pressure.
Bad piston rings can do this too by causing overpressure in the crankcase and the same effect as above.
The valve cover gasket is not involved

The problem in most cases doing valve seals means pulling the heads, a good shop should be able do it with the heads in place.

To install a catch can, is a bit tricky because of the space in the engine compartment and you ideally want the hoses as short as possible.

The best spot would be on the firewall behind the passenger side valve cover
You then run a hose from the the valve cover to the catch can.
And then from the catch can to the PCV valve on the intake

Get new hoses, generally the hose that comes with the can are pretty low quality and keep your original.

Here is a example
Check the dipstick every time you check your oil, it is important to not let it fill up

 

It sounds like it would be very expensive having a shop do that and it would probably make sense for them to do a full job there at the same time, wouldn't it? I'm just wondering if it's worth it for me... I don't really want to spend the money that a shop charges and I really just want to work on the car myself hoping to learn as much as I can along the way, but it's starting to look like she's becoming another project vehicle I don't have enough time for, like my RRC, which has been sitting because of a brake issue for a few years now...

About that catch can, will that keep the throttle body clear of oil so the oil issue doesn't destroy the catalytic converters if I keep emptying the can? Is it likely the oil that keeps disappearing in this engine is getting sucked through here and gets burned out the exhaust? Can I take the oil from the catch can and put it back into the engine or is that a bad idea? I think that I can manage doing this sort of modification in order to keep oil from ruining the catalytic converters.

Thanks for your help

 

@neuropathy It will greatly reduce the oil getting to the throttle body. The oil from the can gets dumped, do not reuse it as it will be contaminated somewhat.

I thing I forget to mention you might have to add a metal pop scrubber in to the catch can, it helps get the oil out of the air flow. DO NOT use steel wool just cheap one of these