[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by LEWISMATKIN

hello, ed. maybe i can be of help. the valve you are seeing is a bypass valve. your original housing also has one under the large hex shaped nut on the outside of the housing. as far as the gasket to use, take the housing you want to use and match the gasket to it. that is the reason full gasket sets come with 3-4 different housing gaskets. it looks like you have found the "Pontiac" version of the housing, using a AC/Delco PF24. i hope that this info has been of some help. as far as the position of the valve, take some compressed air and blow through the valve and see which direction that the valve opens. as this is a "bypass valve" it will open up when the filter is restricting due to being clogged.

Thanks for the explanation, Lewis. You've confirmed my suspicions!