Oil from the breather hose

[Dano"T"]

How do you prevent oil from leaking out the breather hose. I cut it shorter to get it out of the slipstream....but to no avail. I have a C85-8 with 100SMOH. Someone told me to just live with it....wipe it off after each flight.....or stick a baby bottle on the breather hose and empty periodically. What is the cause? and is there an easy "permanent" solution. I assume crankcase pressure is involved....but can something other than an oil seperator be used?

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

I tried a bunch of stuff, but it still lubricates the fabric on the bottom of my plane. What seems to help most is attaching one of those foam Curlers to the bottom of the breather with a zip tie. After each flight just squeeze it with a cloth.

It is best to liberate the curler when "she who must be obeyed" has left the house for some reason. Oh, and personally I like to use the charcoal ones. The pink ones cause people to stare......

You do have to remember to replace the curler ever couple of years.

Richard Boyer
N95791

[Dano"T"]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

I bet you look funny flying your T-Craft with pink curlers in your hair. These are exactly the types of responses I like. These forums really are full of great tips....strength in numbers comes to mind. Thanks Mr. Boyer. Any other solutions are also welcome. So far the rag after each flight works well....I'm just picky.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

An air-oil separator will cure this problem, but you will need to have it approved. There are two or three different styles that are approved, but probably none of them for a Taylorcraft. You can probably argue that the M-20 or other brand of approved separator is used on XYZ airplane with the same engine, so they should not gove you too much grief. The cost of an M-20 separator, on the other hand, is very high.

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

And the curler is free!!!!!

I have actually looked at the oil separators, but never wanted to pay the cost or add the weight. I figure that is an extra piece of pie that I can fly with........


Richard Boyer
N95791

[N96337]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

Do you have an anti-siphon hole in the breather tube, up inside the cowl? I've seen them do a bit too much slobbering if you don't have one of those.
John H.
PS... sorry to hijack the thread, but how did you come out with the Feds and the floats?

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

So how high up should the hole be, how do you make it, what does it look like?

Putting another hole in the tube isn't something I thought to try......


Richard Boyer
N95791

[Dano"T"]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

No siphon hole.....where does one place this hole? As far as the floats....I just bought the Harer STC and inspected for compliance....it was all done except for the redundant venting of the fuel system. This was all a farce in my mind....the previous 337 was already approved at 1280 and 1351 on my plane and they said they had no intention of recinding that...so the FAA was just being difficult to Baumann. They just wanted egineering proof that those mods listed on that 337 made the plane safe at that weight. It sure would be nice if they would help out these guys trying to eek out a living in aviation.....it would help prices for us consumers as well. In my opinion....if those floats work so well on my BC12D-85 they should automatically be approved from F-19 all the way down the line. The bouyency is 1536# per float for heavens sake. This was not the only issue either. The FAA engineering office scheduled the test flight for November 28th....this is in Wisconsin.....water gets hard by then. We had the floats on and ready to go in September. The purchase of the STC sealed the deal....so what's $250......well, It could have bought me an oil seperator I guess.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

The little Cassutt formula one racer I owned came with an oil separator of sorts. The breather tube was stuck in a hole punched in the top of a small can of Veg-All mixed veggies... label and all! After the race, I guess you were supposed to empty out the can and cook with the oil

The extra hole in the breather vent as explained to me is to provide an alternate breather hole in case a rodent, dirt or mud-daubers clog up the outside end of the tube. Had nothing to do with anti-siphon as far as I know.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

The hole further up inside the cowl is to prevent case pressure build up if the tube ices over. I don't ever have a problem with blow by unless the engine is new or wore out. Check your compression. The other thing is there is a breather elbow available from Continental that extends further into the case closer to the middle. I make mine, the cost from Continental is stupid.

Mike

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

I made one too. Still slobbers. Compression is great.

The one saving grace for me is that now only the tube slobbers as opposed to the whole engine leaking everwhere! THAT was a mess.

Richard Boyer
N95791

[barnstmr]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

There are two other fixes you can do. These have solved the problem on my father-in-law's BC65.

1) Remove the 90 degree elbow fitting from the fwd RH crankcase. Install the fitting called out in the O-200 parts catalog for this same place. It has a 3 inch pipe extending into the crankcase. I have seen these home made by silver-soldering a copper pipe in the original fitting. The extra length places the opening more away from the oil splash area. Approval for this part is not necessary as an owner-produced part.

2) Orient the 90 degree elbow fitting horizontally toward the aft. Replace the breather hose with a longer one and route it up over the cylinder base. This will allow gravity drain-back of most of the oil that ends up splashing into the breather. You'll also note better oil consumption after these mods are done. And if you have the enclosed cowl... you'll need to plug up the baffle hole no longer used for the oil hose... and make a new hole in the aft baffle for the hose pass-thru.

[barnstmr]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

OH... excuse my overlooking that the fitting mod was already discussed. But its effectiveness I think is in the orientation and gravity drain back to the crankcase as I discussed in #2 above.

[N96337]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

In spite of what has been stated previously, the anti-siphon hole DOES make a difference (if that's what the problem is... it wont fix leaky rings or any other engine problems), as well as being an alternate source of venting in case the vent freezes or plugs at the end. I usually try to go up about 6 or 8 inches inside the cowl, and make a hole about 1/2 the size of the tube. This has worked for me a few times with engines from a 65 Cont all the way up to a 4360 Pratt (it suprised a few folks). If nothing else, it's a good measure to have one if you're flying skiis or anytime it's cold out. It doesn't cost much.
John H.

[barnstmr]

Re: Oil from the breather hose

The cessna 310 thru 421C's have a requirement for this hole as an alternate source. This requirement is due to an accident that occurred when one had the exit freeze over years ago.