What's this doohickey?

[superstator]

While installing my freshly rebuilt head (which has made a HUGE difference so far, and I don't even have the timing dialed back in), curiosity finally got the better of me.

http://spiretech.com/%7Eablack/rover/doohickey.jpg

What the heck is this, and is it supposed to be there? It's welded onto the oil filler tube / crankcase breather and looks like a brass L from an air hose, connected to a few inches of vacuum tubing, with a bolt clamped into the end to plug it. I've always assumed it was an aborted experiment by a PO, but while I was reconnecting the valve cover breather it made me wonder...

[navydevildoc]

I am going to guess aborted PCV type setup to try and reduce the oil vapors coming out of the breather.

[LaneRover]

A tool for oiling up the threads of suspension shackle bolts?

[4flattires]

..at minimum I would align those hose clamps in a perpendicular semi-gradiant quadratic pattern in order to ward off the Feng Shui spirits from robbing you of any more unneccesary horsepower.

Are you missing the rubber valve cover grommets and shoulder washers under that acorn nut?

Jeff

[Andrew IIA]

I am going to guess aborted PCV type setup to try and reduce the oil vapors coming out of the breather. My guess too.


Are you missing the rubber valve cover grommets and shoulder washers under that acorn nut? Good spotting !

Best regards, Andrew
'63 SIIA 88' SW

[Tim Smith]

Looks like a diesel. My guess is that the previous owner had a boost set up off the crank fumes.

Drive along like normal until you need to pass that donkey cart, open the valve (this line would be piped to the intake with a standard valve on a tether) and voom! Close the valve as soon as you've passed that donkey because you're eating your own lubricant.

Too much high speed driving like this and you'll have to start watching your fluid levels. ;)

[superstator]

..at minimum I would align those hose clamps in a perpendicular semi-gradiant quadratic pattern in order to ward off the Feng Shui spirits from robbing you of any more unneccesary horsepower.

Are you missing the rubber valve cover grommets and shoulder washers under that acorn nut?

Jeff

It had lockwashers before I disassembled, and I just hadn't hit the hardware store yet to pick up some new ones. But rubber grommets? Do you have a photo maybe of the correct setup? I've still got to take the cover back off and retorque the head bolts, so may as well put it back together right when I'm done...

[superstator]

Looks like a diesel. My guess is that the previous owner had a boost set up off the crank fumes.

Drive along like normal until you need to pass that donkey cart, open the valve (this line would be piped to the intake with a standard valve on a tether) and voom! Close the valve as soon as you've passed that donkey because you're eating your own lubricant.

Too much high speed driving like this and you'll have to start watching your fluid levels. ;)

Yes, diesel. Would piping in the crank vapors in really give you much extra oomph? It would explain a lot about the condition of the engine when I started this project...

[Tim Smith]

They don't call them oil burners for nothing. Typically this condition comes from turbo seal failure which I know you don't have but if you were connect the crankcase breather to the intake you could produce a runaway diesel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine_runaway

It's not really clear with the below video but this poor fellow seems to be dealing with a runaway diesel himself. You'll notice that when he pops the hood, he's trying to manually stop fuel flow to the motor with the lever he's pushing but with no luck. He probably had the ignition off at this point too but since it was simply running on it's own oil that wouldn't matter. It's a runaway diesel.

q4fxjKnuI4Y

I wonder if this would still be a problem if you ran your diesel on 100% synthetic oil.

[Andrew IIA]

It had lockwashers before I disassembled, and I just hadn't hit the hardware store yet to pick up some new ones. But rubber grommets? Do you have a photo maybe of the correct setup? I've still got to take the cover back off and retorque the head bolts, so may as well put it back together right when I'm done... Here you go.

Regards, Andrew
'63 SIIA 88"SW