I thought they condensed the aerosolized oil by bubbling the oil vapours through the puddle of oil there.

 

look again.

 

It looks to me like there is a clear tube running down the edge of that sticker to the oil pool, its hard to tell, but it would make sense, otherwise the separator would serve little purpose as you pointed out earlier.

 

pcv just another emmision control device, damn californians and there smog problem =)

 

oil can enter through the front vent on the valve cover as well. Still a vacum

 

mine looked the same when i took my head off on my 86 22r.

i cleaned it all off with brake cleaner, and carb cleaner for the intake /carb.

i took off my egr system, and the hole is was a pinholes compared to what it is without the carbon.oily buildup.

i think its because of my aap causing my truck to run really rich a while back.

 

All the gunk doesnt become an issue until your engine becomes worn past a certain point... they designed it to work properly while the system is in its prime... you start seeing the gunk after about 75k to 100k miles usually... the deposits on your piston crowns is not going to hurt anything...