TC oil breather tube

[kiwiokie]

One of the places my engine is leaking oil is from the oil breather tube that runs from the cam housing to the air intake.  I pulled the tube and found only the engine side is hollow, the part that connects to the air intake is solid.  Seems like a strange design as on other engines the breather runs to the air intake so the oil fumes are burned again in the combustion chamber.  The oil drips from the base of the small filter and runs down the tube to the air intake and drips there also.  Is there a better set up for this?  This is a street only car.  Cheers, John

[FranV8]

That's a modified piece, if it's the breather from the right hand side of the head it should be a pipe straight into the housing over the carb intakes, no extra filter.  I guess someone put that on to stop oil going into the intake.

[EuropaTC]

 

Looks like a case of the fabled DPO (Dreaded Previous Owner). As already posted, it's wrong and your interpretation of what should happen is right, there is normally a feed into the air filter casing, or rather the backplate on the TC engine.  I would guess the DPO found the air filters were clogging with oil over time and that's why you've got that arrangement ?

Brian

[kiwiokie]

Thanks guys.  I guess this must an aftermarket item or someone went to a lot of trouble to make this.  Nice idea but poor implementation as there is nowhere for the oil to go once the filter is saturated.  Anyone have a parts engine with the correct tube they would like to sell?

[Grumblebuns]

The oil tube is something that you could fabricate yourself. It's a simple steel tube (0.63" diameter)with a single bend near the middle. There is an internal mesh steel cone filter at the engine end and some sort of tab on the air box end.

[Certified Lotus]

Early Lotus TC engines had the tube run down past the transmission to the road. It wasn't until several years later that it was "vented" to the airbox.

[kiwiokie]

Must have been the Hansel and Gretel philosophy so if you ever get lost you can follow your own oil drips back home.