Oil Breather Tank

[puremalt]

Similar to an earlier comment, I overfilled my X flow due to a dodgy dipstick. The breather bottle is full and the drips of excess oil have littered South Wales. Do I really need the breather bottle if I regularly check the level? Just think of the power to weight.

 

Dave Robertson

[stevefoster]

You would want to catch the oily condensed vapour junk in something rather than vent it to the world surely... As you noted when overfilled the catch tank filled up. Imagine what would have happened to the next 7 around the bend after you if you had put that lot on the ground. All have a duty to keep the slippery stuff off the tarmac I think.

 

 

Steve

My racing pics hereid=red>

Hants (North) and Berkshire area club site

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[ashaughnessy]

The usual place to put the breather pipe if you don't have a bottle is to point it under the car. This has a beneficial effect on the rear chassis tubes as they get a nice anti-rust coating. It has a very bad effect on the a-frame bush, though, which doesn't like oil. All the oil from the breather ends up on the back of the chassis.

 

I don't think the breather pipe sprays enough oil out in any one place that you'd notice it much on a public road (unless badly overfilled) but the environmental issue means that a catch tank is a good idea.

 

If your catch tank is filling up faster than you can check it, this doesn't sound right. Also, a very good upgrade is to plumb the breather pipe into the rocker cover then have a second pipe coming out of the rocker cover into the catch tank. Cuts oil loss by a huge amount as most of the oil now goes back into the engine instead of the catch tank.

 

Anthony

[Tom Pickering]

Phew - a rocker cover that looks like spaggetti junction - I like the idea but I'm going for the dry-sump.

Have you got the correct dip-stick or have you marked the existing one at the correct level.

 

Tom

[ashaughnessy]

Tom, I'm not sure who your dipstick question is aimed at. I've no idea what dipstick I have, correct or otherwise. I'm not even sure what mark to use. But I don't get too much oil in my tank anymore with my spaghetti junction rocker cover.

 

I suppose a good way to mark the dipstick level is to empty the oil and then fill up with the amount specified by Caterham for use with the standard sump. When it's all drained into the sump, mark the level on the dipstick.

 

Anthony