Breather in 2.5D NA

Hi,

This relates to a problem I'm having with oil and air/steam escaping from a bolt on the rocker cover of my 2.5D ( http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f7/help-206098.html ).

I have cleaned the breather in the engine oil filler and this is clear. I've circled this in yellow in the picture.

Is the part I've circled in Red the cyclone breather and so should I also remove this and clean it?



Thanks for all the help so far guys. I'm really missing driving my Landy. I overtook one earlier (with the greatest of ease) and was wishing I was back in mine. I think it must have been an NA as well as he was struggling to get to 40 on an incline

Cheers.

I drilled a hole in the rocker cover on mine and connected a bit of garden hose to help it breathe, the back pressure was that bad!1

Ok, I disconnected the breather pipe from the engine cap and blew through it with no resistance.

There is also no resistance blowing through the engine cap.

I removed the brown thing and the small section of black pipe. This also appears to be clear (it does not vent to open air anywhere though, is this correct?). I'm steeping this is paraffin for a bit to clean it but I'm assuming nothing further needs to be done with it.

The remaining assembly goes down to the sump - I can see a black pipe running down from the bottom of it which connects to the sump.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that the pressure in the rocker is ok. There is a clear return path here for the gasses but they are venting through the rocker hole because that's the path of least resistance.

The breather appears to be a military specific part:

Land Rover Military Defender 90/110 2.5 Diesel Breather NEW | eBay

Should this assembly be removed and cleaned?

normally, the rocker breather returns to the air intake as a way of relieving the pressure in the engine. Your setup while returning the oil to the sump does not seem to relieve the pressure. I too have this tornado cleaner and the bottom is linked to the sump but the top I have routed via a long pipe to atmosphere. you could vent to air intake but mine just dirtied the filter. this might be your issue.

Thanks Johnny. So did you block the air intake (blue pipe in pic)?

Any chance of a pic?

There does not seem to be huge pressure in the rocker. Wondering if I'm just not getting an effective seal.

I can't see, but I guess the blue pipe goes to the air inlet. I would try a pipe directly from the top of the cyclone to the air inlet. any pipe of the right size will do for a test. This will remove the domed piece and see if this helps. ideally the induction vacuum will reduce the pressure. I'd guess that the dome is a flame trap or something similar.
I have a 19J turbo diesel so my setup is similar but not quite the same.

Hi Johnny,

The blue pipe is only about 30cm long and goes direct to the inlet manifold.

I am thinking a more serious issue or combination of problems is going on.

The dipstick if removed slightly allows white\blue smoke through. Dipstick also makes a sort of breathing sound. If almost completely removed, it spits oil. I'm guessing best case scenario is valve clearances, head gasket, worst case cracked piston or rings.

I think the Landy has stood for a long time prior to me putting a few hundred miles on it. Maybe that's had an effect on the gasket.

Forgot to say, prior to this issue there was no smoke out of the exhaust but I suspect I am now getting some blue\white smoke but it's hard to tell as it's freezing! Also looks like it's blown a little oil out of the exhaust but I did overfill the oil slightly a couple of days ago but drained of the excess immediately.

Hmm, I would vent to atmosphere myself first as its easy to do. One thought just struck me is the inlet manifold joint. Is this clear? As the pipe could be fine but the joint is blocked. If this this is not the case and venting to atmosphere does not help then the reason is more expensive/time consuming. Could be many things but check the cheap ones first. Timing and worn valve seals to ensure there is no blow by here and then whip the head off for a look see. I have to admit I'm out my depth from here but I'm sure someone on here will be able to add further.

My TD is a bit of a blower but still works fine and since I vented the rocker to atmosphere, via a long pipe from the rocker cap, its never run better. Also keeps the chassis lubed lol, not really, I monitor the pipe and get only a tiny amount of oil passed.

I hope I've been of at least some help and I'll keep looking at the thread so I learn from your findings. Hope its not too expensive, and last resort is fit a 200tdi as I plan to do when the cash allows.

Thanks for all the suggestions John.

I had an interesting explore. I've blown through all the pipes again to confirm no blockages. I also removed the blue breather pipe to check it for soundness (it was fine).

I then fired up the engine without the blue breather hose to confirm that the smoke was from the sump side rather than the intake side - which it was.

I then reconnected the pipes and fired up the engine again. No smoke venting from the rocker any more. Very small oil leak appeared after a bit. The only difference was that I was no longer using the rocker nut to support the blue pipe.

I then took everything off again and cleaned off all the old sealant. During my cleanup I noticed very small amounts of clear silicone (I'm using black). I've then resealed it and secured the pipe brackets again without tightening up too much. I'll leave it overnight to cure.

If I still have a leak tomorrow, I'll remove the pipe bracket, find some other means to secure it and start again. I've noticed there is a small amount of side to side play on the stud so it could be that the movement of the engine against these pipes and brackets is stressing the joint a bit too much and causing the leak. Seems a poor way to secure it IMO as it's always going to have the weight of the pipes bouncing around on it.

So using sealant seems to have done the job for sealing the centre nut hole but just below the nut there is a little weld which has cracked and has a pin sized hole in it. For now I've stuck some sealent over it and I'm going to leave it today to set.

As this is a low presure area, could I use chemical/instant weld as a 'proper' fix or do I need to get this welded properly? I belive the valvue cover is mild steel not ali?

I don't see why you can't use coldweld on this. I would say that if you could remove the cover and apply on the inner face the it will work better.