Yeah, when I built my motor, I powdercoated everything, and took the factory separator apart to clean after coating. It is really simple. PCV comes in from the left side and hits a single baffle to force the vapor/oil to turn hard downward. The liquid oil (mostly) falls out of suspension and pools at the bottom. The remaining vapor comes back up to the right of the baffle, and out the vent tube that turns back down to the ground. The liquid oil builds up until there is enough weight to open the check ball in the drain valve, and returns to the crankcase.
There is a small (1/4" or less) hole drilled in the back of the catch can portion of the accessory bracket that I believe to be a safety relief in case the outlet tube gets plugged or freezes or whatever. It didn't seem to let any dirt in, probably because it aims at the block and air would have to take a circuitous route to get to/from that hole.
Anyway, at ~300k miles when I pulled mine apart, it was covered in a thin layer of oil residue, and otherwise clean & clear of debris. It had a small amount of liquid oil sitting at the bottom, probably not enough weight to push the check valve open yet.
The only issue I have with the design is the single baffle doesn't do a good job separating oil on a motor with more blowby than stock, as my truck gets some oil out the vent tube that will eventually build up and drip on the driveway. I think routing the vent to the exhaust would solve this, but I don't want to draw a large suction either, as that would probably make the oil separation worse than it is. So maybe I just want a T into the exhaust, not a venturi fitting?