John_Salmon Posted February 27, 2002 Share Posted February 27, 2002 My vx 16 valve wet sump had an oil leak from the gerbox/bellhousing area. After replacing the sump gaskets with no result i removed the engine and fitted a new rear crank seal.OIL STILL LEAKING..... The Caterham oil catch tank was removed and the breathing system put back to the cam cover. NO OIL LEAK... I now run the engine with the SBD cam cover mod but with the cam cover still breathing into the inlet manifold and the block breathing directly into the vented catch tank via a 3/8 I.D. tube taken up as high as possible. The oil leak has been solved with no excessive oil beeing blown into the catch tank. The breathing pipe (cam cover to catch tank)supplied by Caterham was only 3/16 I.D. and did not allow the engine to breath enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EFA Posted February 27, 2002 Share Posted February 27, 2002 I believe the practice of sealing off the cam cover breather in an attempt to get crankcase vacuum can actually cause pressure within the crankcase which best case fills the catch tank, and worst causes cavitation and bearing failure. The fact that you are now breathing out of the crankcase and the problem has subsided his demonstrative of this. However, The Crankcase should breath to the head up a 1" dia tube (unless you have a dry sump system, when this can optionally be removed (Caterham didn't on a cost basis)) With the SBD mod in the cam cover you can then breathe (oil free) into a catch tank. Or if you have an external non bellhousing DS tank, you can breathe into the top plenum of that. Fat Arn The NOW PROVEN R500 Eaterid=red> See the Lotus Seven Club 4 Counties Area Website hereid=green> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now