Breather??

[Speed-Racer]

OK...is it necessary to have a tube from the valve covers to the carb/or flame arrestor, or can you simply have a valve cover breather??

[gcarter]

There is a greater risk of fire w/a breather.
But equally important, your engine will be REALLY dirty w/a breather. :bawling:

[MOP]

There is quite a bit of vapor mostly water in marine engines due to the cooler running temperatures, it needs to be drawn out of the motor via the breather tubes. Valve cover vents from what I have seen do help quite a bit in keeping things clean. When the tubes are eliminated you will find white sludge on the oil cap when you pull and and gook down inside. Even on you autos if you see white sludge when the PCV valve has gone bad.

Phil

[Speed-Racer]

:confused: Still confused....

[gcarter]

If you have a valve cover breather w/o the tubes to the card, the fumes and oil will vent onto the engine and into the air in the engine compartment, which if conditions were right, could be flammable.
However, with the breather tubes, the breathers are evacuated into the carb which keeps the engine and/or compartment cleaner, and a less volatile atmosphere.

[Speed-Racer]

Oil puke should not be a problem, except on high-performance engines...

The flame arrestor becomes dirty, and thus the air into the carb....I'm thinking the breather/filter type?

[marcdups]

Brandon, engines have condensation and some blow by which means that it needs to be evacuated somewhere, IE: back to the engine, the old Detroits and such had a 3 or 4 inch tube and about 3 feet long to accumulate the oil and small holes on top for the vapor with drains on them, same principle that Air Seps are doing for diesels now, it all goes back into the engine and therefore less mess and also less oil consumption, in other words the idiot that put those thingy mabobs onto the thingy magigs did not do it for nuthing, there is almost always a reason !!

[33 crossbow]

Brandon, engines have condensation and some blow by which means that it needs to be evacuated somewhere, IE: back to the engine, the old Detroits and such had a 3 or 4 inch tube and about 3 feet long to accumulate the oil and small holes on top for the vapor with drains on them, same principle that Air Seps are doing for diesels now, it all goes back into the engine and therefore less mess and also less oil consumption, in other words the idiot that put those thingy mabobs onto the thingy magigs did not do it for nuthing, there is almost always a reason !!

I get the oil puke on my engines. Just wipe them off every few times out. I run Gaffrig air cleaners with all the inner screens removed. it is worth about 8-10hp on the dyno....
More air the better, (in and out)!!!!! :rlol:

[Cuda]

Imho, the tubes don't do much. There isn't much of a vacumn greated right at the spot. As far as it evacuating the engine compartment, it will be drawn into the flame arrestor anyway. Gaffrig is definetly the way to go, I have K&N on my Formula, and I hate them.

[MOP]

Some reading that should convince you to keep the tubes going to the carb, valve cover vents improve the flow even more.

http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/h63.pdf
http://www.theoilpro.com/drivingtips.htm
http://www.smogtips.com/pcv.cfm
http://home.golden.net/~haida/suzuki/tech/tips/PCV.html