Hello, Hope all are well. Since I am stuck home thought this would be a good time to change the oil and filter. I looked at the oil breather on top of the engine and it looks grungy inside. Is there a easy/good way to clean it? would soaking in mineral spts or kerosene clean it. there looks to be a fiber inside and don't want to hurt it. It is a metal one with oil stamped in top. Don't know it that is orig or not. The engine has a pcv system so I would like it to breathe. Thanks for any guidence
The fiber packing in the oil bath air cleaner responds well to solvent cleaning. Back in the dark ages we used gasoline, but that practice these days gives the snowflakes with lace on their drawers a case of the vapors. Kerosene, mineral spirits, or Diesel fuel is less volatile and does almost as good a job of cleaning. Submerge your assembly for a few hours, and shake it a little periodically. Then let hang it up to drip dry and reassemble the cleaner with a fresh fill of cheap 30 weight oil to the proper level. Don't overfill! Depending on the amount of miles you drive, repeat annually, or maybe every 6 months for a daily driver. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I have kerosene will try that idea. as I remember form the old days the filler was a brass brillo looking material. And we did the gas trip or put it in the parts cleaner.
You can dunk it in solvent of some sort but There are only two ways to really redo the breather.
The first way is to un crimp the cap from the base. I have seen it done with a home made tool but then you have to re crimp it. I don’t think I can pull that off so I use the second method to save what looks like a junk breather.
The second way is to carefully cut in between each of the holes and detach the base from the cap that way. Then you can remove the metal mesh, clean it and check it’s condition, replace if necessary. You can also glass bead both pieces nice and clean. Then repack the cavity with clean or new mesh, install the base and put a small spot weld where each of the cuts was made. Then fresh paint. Good as new.
The way an oil bath air cleaner works is by gravity. The outside air flows down the inside of the housing and makes a 180 degree turn up into the fiber packing just above the oil, and any heavy dirt falls out from centrifugal force and gets trapped by the oil in the base. Finer particles get trapped in the fiber packing, which should have some type of light weight oil misted into it with a spray nozzle of some sort. It's the same concept the K&N filter uses, except they eliminated the oil reservoir and rely on an oil-covered woven packing to do the filtering. Neither one is very efficient- - - - -a proper sized dry paper filter is much better at keeping dirt out of an engine. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
OK- - - -we're talking about different parts. I read "breather" and immediately jumped to the conclusion that an oil bath air cleaner was being discussed! My bad! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
This is a V8 breather. Theses are not my photos, a friend who showed me how to do it, but same for the 6 breathers. Btw, yes, that is a copper pot scrub pad.
