Just had a look over the How To on the Breather System. I noties about the Vent Housing part D. I forgot to do this, cannot see it looking into engine bay . Is it easy to get at and what would be the best way to do it.?

Thanks .

SP_3.2 wrote on 19. Sep 2007 at 15:39:

Just had a look over the How To on the Breather System. I noties about the Vent Housing part D. I forgot to do this, cannot see it looking into engine bay . Is it easy to get at and what would be the best way to do it.? Thanks .

Really easy mate when the wipers and scuttle panel is off, I couldn't beleive the difference. :y

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/4396/image2za9.jpg

Note that the lower picture was taken while the engine was out of the car (not my car...), so don't expect to get that much clearance with the engine in situ.

Cleaning that small hole with a pin must not be missed ;D

Thank,s Gents will get that job done asap. :y

Just to check do you think that i can get to it without removing the scuttle panel as i have been having a hard job of getting the wipers off?

I did mine with the plenum off so didn't need to take-off the scuttle.

But from memory, with both the scuttle and the plenum in place, this would be a very difficult job....

Thank,s markjay will try again to get the Scuttle off.  

Could anyone tell me just out of intrest  How the Breather vent works? and what does it does. Had a look today and can see it looks like a nice job for the weekend if the weather is ok.

Thanks
Steve.    

The one part that Markjay is cleaning out in the pics IS accessible with everything in situ ;)

The breather system on an engine carries out two main functions

1) Removal of any blow by gases from the crank case

2) Removal of oil vapour fom the crank case.

This is done to stop pressure building up in the engine which can cause seal failure and/or increased hydrocarbons in the exhaust due to raised oil consumption.

This task is carried out by the breather system and consists of two pipes, one large and one small.

The breathers aim to keep the engine crank case at less than atmospheric pressure i.e. a slight vaccum.

The first breather is the smallest of the two, this is only realy used whilst the engine is at idle or very small throttle openings. This pipe connects to the engine side of the throttle butterfly because under these conditions there is little vaccum on the air filter side. Because the vac at this point in the inlet system is very high and the gas required to run the engine is very small (particularly on tickover), a small pipe is used and often a small controlled drilling (as seen on the V6 breather box or inlet manifold/throttle on the 4 pots) so as to control the amount of gas drawn through and hence idle is not affected (drill the holes out and idle will be affected!).

The larger breather is used on wider throttle openings, at this point the vac in the inlet system is lower the difference in vac on either side of the throttle body is pretty equal and a larger pipe is  needed to shift the increased amount of blow by gases. Using a large pipe also results in very little gas passing through the smaller breather pipe under these conditions which, is also a good thing as its less likely to block! This larger pipe is connected to the air filter side of the throttle.

Hope that explains it a bit.

Yeah. What he said! ;D

Thank you that is great. I always like to know how and why something does what is does. That a great help guys :y

Dazzler wrote on 20. Sep 2007 at 15:11:

The one part that Markjay is cleaning out in the pics IS accessible with everything in situ ;)

It's not me in these pictures... though I did clean my breather box at the time, believe it or not I just didn't take any pictures.  :(

The top pic was me, the lwoer pic might be Mr Mcburger.

Would it be useful if I added the description to the maintenance guide.

Would having blocked breathers affect performance and economeny ?

It wont help it.....

Thanks all i have just do that little one now the one from the  Breather vent housing. All ok.  :y  

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 21. Sep 2007 at 08:25:

The top pic was me, the lwoer pic might be Mr Mcburger. Would it be useful if I added the description to the maintenance guide.

Yep, every little helps ;)

Just to add my bit  ::) yes you can do it all without taking it to bits I have just done mine I used about two cans of cleaner to get as clean as I could the bottom of the y piece is a bit of a bugger to get to but remove the small pipe in front of it and its a bit easier to get to  :y

Could some one please put my mind at rest the pipe from the fitting with the small hole which one of the two connections does this go on to, on the black plastic box I think I may have mine reversed  :-[ it is at the moment on the left one  

LFF64 wrote on 21. Sep 2007 at 16:58:

Could some one please put my mind at rest the pipe from the fitting with the small hole which one of the two connections does this go on to, on the black plastic box I think I may have mine reversed  :-[ it is at the moment on the left one

It should be connected to the 2rd (from the left) breather box connection.  Here is a diagram, look at "View B."

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~estaszew/Catera/UpperEngine.jpg

estaszew wrote on 21. Sep 2007 at 22:00:

LFF64 wrote on 21. Sep 2007 at 16:58: Could some one please put my mind at rest the pipe from the fitting with the small hole which one of the two connections does this go on to, on the black plastic box I think I may have mine reversed  :-[ it is at the moment on the left one   It should be connected to the 2rd (from the left) breather box connection.  Here is a diagram, look at "View B." http://www-personal.umich.edu/~estaszew/Catera/UpperEngine.jpg

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~estaszew/ isn't bad either  :)

Whoops that means mine is the wrong way around would that have caused a problem  :-[

Hi all would any of you guys have a pic of where the end of the  y split part of the Brether goes into? is it on the same as the Vent housing could not see it  :'(

Thank for your help all. :y

steve.