Oil catcher tank

[mgcjag]

Hi All.......helping a friend out with his purchase a S2 ots....removing the webbers that were fitted and putting back SUs......refurbed by David Lonsbale the Carb specialist.......Fitting an ITG foam filter but What to do with breather hose? Any one done this....Fit some type of oil catcher....any recomendations/ photoes appreciated.......Steve & Jeff

[mgcjag]

Hi All.......looking through the archives....Upgrades, found that some are routing the breather to under the car.......does this cause oil on the underside or is it just lost....Thanks Steve

[Heuer]

The oil is just lost, usually amongst all the other leaks on the XK engine The 3.8 cars vented the breather to the road in any case so not a problem to do it with the 4.2. Some people fabricate a tank (read old bean can) to collect the oil but it is generally not worth the trouble. One thing you might want to consider is using the CMC dual breather outlet if the engine has been modified in any way.

[44DHR]

Steve and Jeff,

Engine breathing is an important part of any engine operation and a good informative article can be found on this Burton Engineering website link :-

http://www.burtonpower.com/technical_1/ ... ystem.aspx

I run triple Webers on my Series 1 and run the breather in a vented catch tank as shown in my photo below. Venting to atmosphere is not really an good idea as the standard "closed" system, as normally employed on the Jag, as legally required post '63, uses the inlet vacuum to draw the gasses through. Besides if you do any form of competition or Track Days it is not allowed to be dumping oil or fluids onto the track and therefore catch tanks are required.

They are not just tanks to catch any liquid or condensate and must be themselves adequately vented to permit air flow. My tank uses two small air filters on the outlet stubs which when the car is running vent vapour into the area below the filter socks and these gases tend to get ingested back into the car.

I have been involved in building high performance engines for over 30 years now, mainly V8s and I make a specific point of ensuring improved breathing. This can often be a limiting factor on the engine to reach higher revs simply as it cannot "breath" and simply the amount of displacement and activity going on under the pistons needs to be effectively managed.

Heuer is right - as always !! - clear breathing is vital to avoid such problems as blowing your potentially vulnerable rear oil seal. I phoned CMC a few months back about their dual breather outlets and this now quite a costly option at over ?100 plus. I picked up a couple of spare alloy engine breather outlet castings at Stoneleigh this year for around a tenner each and it should not be that hard to drill through from one side to create a further outlet to be TIG'd or bonded in. Besides they are not visible on the Series 1 under the coil. You will have to ensure the modified front breather cover has the coil mounting stud fitted.

In your case I would just ensure your engine breather filter gauze is clear and a large hose fitted to any form of catch tank chosen.

regards,

Dave

p.s. If you wanted to sell your Webers or manifold, I could be interested. Just send me a private message.