• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Sad moment!

Share this page

B

blkcorvair

Jedi Knight
Offline
Cars running good, shaved my needle down one more time to narrow the mixture window where I want it.... Now on to that annoying oil drip. Thought it was the oil cooler line. Nope. Its that very annoying aluminum block behind the front engine cover.. YUK! (1500 motor) I love them peyton gaskets but wasnt to happy with the slabs of rubber for that aluminum block. (Just harder to put in and you never really know if they seated all the way. Much easier to tap a piece of wood in there til it bottoms out.) Also realized now that I forgot them really tiny gaskets that go at the top of that aluminum block. So I think Im going to try and put this bad boy on a lift at work and sneak out that block by pulling the oil pan. Has anyone found an off the shelf type and size wood that will replace those in the block? I have all the other gaskets and would hate to lose yet an other day! :wall:
 
Item #81 in diagram


mgmotor.gif
 
I whittled mine from a piece of oak trim. I also had the rubber gaskets and couldn't get them to fit. I also applied a bit of silicone gasket maker right there. Just a small amount. Of course the silicone is optional.
JC
 
yup that is what I hope to do, perhaps Ill pickup some scraps at the depot tonight. I would have though to use a softer wood though for compression. definate silicone everything I take off is getting silicone now! Id like to tear it down asap as its only been together a few days and have my best chance of getting it apart without damaging the front cover gasket. Tommorow is looking good.
 
In my experience NOTHING will make that stupid block oil tight. What a bad design!

But you may be able to stop the drip.

I had new wood pieces, but I replaced them with the rubber pieces once I figured out what they were for.

The block seems to leak a little less with the rubber and lots of Permatex #2 gooped everwhere.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]perhaps Ill pickup some scraps at the depot tonight[/QUOTE]

Pick up a pack of wood shims for a $1.75. Should be pretty easy to whittle the exact size you want from them. Plus, you'll get several do-overs in a pack.
 
I ran the wood pieces with no leaking and now (after a new crank in '05), I have the rubber blocks, also with no leaking.

The rubber blocks required careful shaving down with a razor blade to fit properly.

In both cases I used plenty pf Permatex.

But I have to tell you, I think much of the problems with these engines is crankcase pressure. If you can rig up a PCV-style system to keep the crankcase pressure down, it works wonders. Mine leaked like a sieve when I first built it 10 years ago...once I rigged up a system to apply a light vacuum to the valve cover, the leaking stopped.
 
I was at the depot sourcing some small pieces of wood when my wife walked up with several different paint sticks. The wood was better quailty than whats on thier shelf, two thickness' and best of all free! I knew there was a good reason for getting married.
 
LOL, I keep a preaty large stack of paint sticks and shims. Good all purpose stuff.
 
aeronca65t said:
(...) But I have to tell you, I think much of the problems with these engines is crankcase pressure. If you can rig up a PCV-style system to keep the crankcase pressure down, it works wonders. Mine leaked like a sieve when I first built it 10 years ago...once I rigged up a system to apply a light vacuum to the valve cover, the leaking stopped.
Click to expand...

Nial, any more details on this?

- I've seen Paul T.'s page, but that's a little further than I'd like to go! Would a (musclecar-style) mini K&N filter do the trick? Assuming that's legal in my area, of course. :smile:

- Or does it really need vacuum, presumably from the intake mani? If so, do you not need an oil seperator of some type, to stop oil vapour from (eventually fouling the valves and/or plugs?
 
I think you need vacuum, not just vent.

On my 1275, the breather on the front cover was never hooked up to the intake. When I'd shut the car off, there'd be a good 3" puddle of oil that would drip out. At the prodding of some members on here, I hooked up the breather to the SU's like it's supposed to be, and I get 1 small drop of oil when I shut it down.
 
tosoutherncars said:
Nial, any more details on this?
Click to expand...

Here's a schematic of what I have. At first, I just experimented with sticking a rubber hose from the valve cover slightly into the carb intake and even that worked OK.

The spacer here is a piece of round PVC pipe (2" ID). The hose sticks into the spacer about 3/4", so there is airflow around it. I was worried that the engine might suck oil, but in mine, it doesn't. It's not regulated by a PCV valve or anything, but the weak vacuum at the intake side of the carb seems to be about right, so it works (for me, at least).
I used to leak about a 1/2 liter of oil after a 20 minute race. With this simple system, I've run a four-hour enduro with average RPM of about 5500 and zero oil loss. The engine is just a stock, rebuilt 1500 with nothing special internally.

Prior to this, I tried venting the crankcase via the blanking plate for the fuel pump, but that was a complete flop.

carb-vent-1500.jpg
 
Nial whatd you use for a catch can?.. Right now I have a moroso breather attatched to the valve cover. No setup for vacum though. This may greatly help my problem. I was always worried about oil making it into the carb and fouling things up.
 
Oh, my catch can is <span style="font-style: italic">higly exotic</span>. :jester:

I use a plastic 1 quart motor oil bottle.

If you prefer a metal container, one of those metal olive oil cans works well (but probably looks best on an ALFA) :wink:
 
So basically if I plug the veny on my breather can and run a line from the breather can to the intake in theory this would help my problem. Gonna give it a try.
 
OK - i have got to see pictures now!
 
Back
Top