Revisiting the breather hose air / oil separator design
September 13, 2011Separating the oil from the air in the breather hose
I did a nifty upgrade to the breather hose and intake in August by putting an air/oil separator between the valve cover breather hose and the air intake. This was supposed to accumulate all the blow-by oil instead of sucking the oil back down into the intake manifold.
How did this work out? A Catalina trip and 32 engine hours later, I checked it out and found the air/oil separator had some oil in it. Great! That is what it was supposed to do.
But there was also a dab of oil on the intake silencer.
And there was oil collected on the foam filter inside the air intake silencer.
This was a bit disappointing, I expected ALL the oil to collect in the separator.
On the positive side:- the engine isn't starved for oxygen
- the foam filter is easy enough to clean with regular dish detergent
- the excess oil from the breather hose tied to the air intake is being sucked into the intake and not covering the engine
Now I just need a design tweek on the air/oil separator side...