Breather hoses/ PCV valve/ Oil catch can

[Hooblah]

Long winded but I'm attempting to install a BMC CDA air filter/induction kit and was wondering what I have to do with the breather that goes on the side of the air box?
I will be removing the aux rad and fitting a flexible duct to route air to the filter.

Secondly, I was doing a bit of reading and found that replacing the pcv valve can cure excessive oil consumption. One of my exhaust tips goes black quite quickly.

Thirdly, is it possible to vent crank case direct to atmosphere or do I need to use an oil catch can?

Thanks guys.

[Hooblah]

Ok well I've decided to keep the air box and have a cold air feed instead.

Which leads me on to the new problem:

So this weekend amongst other things I deleted the aux rad and changed the pcv valve.
Started the car up and left it idling, after a few seconds I thought oh shit I need to add some coolant. Can't have been idling for more than 5 mins until I topped it up. There was still water I the system anyway.

Ok so after a few mins the car started smoking heavily from the n/s exhaust pipe (thick white smoke). The other one was fine. I thought meh, it's probably just oil in the breather system. So I took it out for a hard drive for 10-15 mins. I got home and was suffering from.brake fade. The street was filling with smoke from my brakes. But no smoke.
A minute or two later it starts smoking again. N/s exhaust pipe. I have the factory exhaust.

So seeing as it's only smoking from one side, did I blow the head gasket because I didn't top up the coolant fully before I started the engine? If this isn't the case what else could be the problem? I didn't touch anything else on the engine and now I'm shitting bricks!

[2004B6S4]

I'm a little confused because you switched from n/s to o/s (I'm bad with British terms and not sure those mean - nearside and outside?)... but that makes me think it switched sides... anyways it sounds reasonable to suspect the head gasket so I'd check the oil and see if it has coolant in it

tbh I don't know enough about our pcv system to comment on the thing you're installing... my extremely uninformed guess is that if you mess with that system and get something wrong then perhaps it could cause an increase in oil burning? but that wouldn't be white smoke

[Hooblah]

N/s = near side = left
O/s = off side = right
😉

Sorry, edited it now.

[Hooblah]

Ok solved. Thanks for the input.

[VroomTT]

Ok solved. Thanks for the input.

So what was the culprit? S4 or RS4? Also, can you provide details on how you deleted the aux rad? I'm sure others like myself would benefit from the info.

[Hooblah]

I was being a spack lol.

It's pretty simple. There are 2 hoses in and out of the rad, just join them together to bypass the rad. There's a couple of diy's out there already. Oh it's an s4 btw. Works the same on a rs4 as well.

[VroomTT]

Thanks for the extra info I'm considering doing it, but concerned of heat problems in south FL summer. I'd need to put a front mount oil cooler in place of it.

Did you remove it as well, or just bypass it? Also, isn't there a thermostat which controls flow into that aux rad? Did you do anything with that?

[Hooblah]

Removed it with the thermostat.