Question about the breather pipe coming out of the valve cover and going into the air tube before the throttle body. Can I vent this to the atmosphere so the sludge from the engine doesn't go into the intake or does the valve cover need negative pressure?

 

thats what the pcv is for

 

This is different than the PCV, which is attached to the intake manifold. This is just a tube coming out of the valve cover.

 

yes you can just put one of those breather filters from autozone on there. thats what those breathers are for the pcv is wat creates the negative pressure(vaccum)