Extended Breathers

mick 1986 · Nov 19, 2018

I have been looking at replacing the breathers and unions on my rebuild. I have all stainless unions, and the breather pipework and minfold. I see people talk about still fitting wading plugs to the gearbox and timing belt housings.

My main question is why can’t we use unions on these 2 connections and pipe them in to the extended breathers? My pipework is clear, so checking for any oil in them areas should be an easy job of looking at the pipe.

What is the general opinion?

blue beasty · Nov 19, 2018

You can, not sure how worthwhile it'd be on, eg, a TDI bell housing as they're not water tight anyway

lynall · Nov 19, 2018

Insert a 1/4 bsp nipple into the timing case and flywheel housing drain holes, attach a short piece of clear pipe blanked off the other end to the niple, the clear pipe means you can check for oil or water quickly.
Assuming its a tdi? make saue you connect the injector pump breather rubber nipple up to the breather system, water/damp gets on and seizes the fuel pin.

Rob 90 · Nov 19, 2018

I have sealed my clutch housing to gearbox / engine block and clutch slave cylinder and starter motor to guard against water getting in when wading.
I just wonder though would the bell housing and timing belt housing need to breathe if plugged and sealed? Different situation to gearbox and diffs that get warm and are full of oil.
Even so the fitting below would suit the job.

mick 1986 · Nov 19, 2018

blue beasty said:
You can, not sure how worthwhile it'd be on, eg, a TDI bell housing as they're not water tight anyway

It makes me wonder why they supplied a drain plug for it. If water can get in, then fitting the drain plug would surely keep it in, increasing the amount of damage it actually does.

Yes it is a 200tdi.

mick 1986 · Nov 19, 2018

lynall said:
Insert a 1/4 bsp nipple into the timing case and flywheel housing drain holes, attach a short piece of clear pipe blanked off the other end to the niple, the clear pipe means you can check for oil or water quickly.
Assuming its a tdi? make saue you connect the injector pump breather rubber nipple up to the breather system, water/damp gets on and seizes the fuel pin.

Yes it is a 200tdi. I keep seeing posts like this about the FIP, but I can’t find any photos about where the pipe connects to?

lynall · Nov 19, 2018

mick 1986 said:
Yes it is a 200tdi. I keep seeing posts like this about the FIP, but I can’t find any photos about where the pipe connects to?

If you look at the boost capsule itself at the rear just below the top is a little rubber nipple approx 1.5 inches long, the odd spalsh wont hurt but serious wading or getting stuck in deep water means moisture will get into the vented section.
I will go and take a pic

lynall · Nov 19, 2018

One pic, the rubber nipple is missing off this pump, but you can see the bare bit of alloy its fits onto.

neilly · Nov 19, 2018

mick 1986 said:
It makes me wonder why they supplied a drain plug for it. If water can get in, then fitting the drain plug would surely keep it in, increasing the amount of damage it actually does.

Yes it is a 200tdi.

Not sure on the difference between a 200 and 300, but I have never had water inside my bellhousing or timing case, except when I had a front seal fail on the timing case.

On the 300 tdi, you can fit a breather to the FIP timing cover plate on the front of the case. One issue about fitting breather pipes to the bell housing and timing case using the wading plugs holes , Is that they are in a vulnerable position.

Cheers

mick 1986 · Nov 19, 2018

lynall said:
One pic, the rubber nipple is missing off this pump, but you can see the bare bit of alloy its fits onto.

View attachment 163073

Thanks for the photo. Is that just below the boost diaphragm housing?

mick 1986 · Nov 19, 2018

neilly said:
Not sure on the difference between a 200 and 300, but I have never had water inside my bellhousing or timing case, except when I had a front seal fail on the timing case.

On the 300 tdi, you can fit a breather to the FIP timing cover plate on the front of the case. One issue about fitting breather pipes to the bell housing and timing case using the wading plugs holes , Is that they are in a vulnerable position.

Cheers

That was one thing I didn’t really think about. I wonder how vulnerable they will be? I will fit some push fit fittings and have a look.

lynall · Nov 20, 2018

mick 1986 said:
Thanks for the photo. Is that just below the boost diaphragm housing?

Yes the silver square round bit of bare alloy

owas · Nov 20, 2018

lynall said:
Insert a 1/4 bsp nipple into the timing case and flywheel housing drain holes, attach a short piece of clear pipe blanked off the other end to the niple, the clear pipe means you can check for oil or water quickly.
Assuming its a tdi? make saue you connect the injector pump breather rubber nipple up to the breather system, water/damp gets on and seizes the fuel pin.

Definitely do this, took me 2 days to get mine free when it siezed!

mick 1986 · Nov 22, 2018

One thing I have been looking at today is the location of the manifold. I have a 200tdi and the snorkel is up the LHS (passenger side), but think the heater may get in the way of the breather routes if I mount it on that side of the bulkhead.

Any photos of a 200tdi with it fitted? Or fitted on that side of a 300tdi?

dag019 · Nov 23, 2018

mick 1986 said:
One thing I have been looking at today is the location of the manifold. I have a 200tdi and the snorkel is up the LHS (passenger side), but think the heater may get in the way of the breather routes if I mount it on that side of the bulkhead.

Any photos of a 200tdi with it fitted? Or fitted on that side of a 300tdi?

I have my breather manifold just next to the heater box on the passenger side, with then the larger pipe running over the top of the heater box and up the snorkel on the passenger side. My breather is external to the snorkel, but that does not matter for me as I already had cables running up the back side of it to get to the roof lights.

lynall · Nov 23, 2018

I bolted my manifold to the bulkehad and then ran one large 10mm od pipe up the outside of the snorkel and poked it through the snorkel cap drain hole so the pipe could out the top of the snorkel plastic mesh.
You can just see the manifold at the back of the pic above the rocker cover, tbh it can go anywhere you want.

FlyingPete · Nov 23, 2018

Don't know about a TDi, but on my 19J the timing case and flywheel housings are normally left open to let out any oil which gets past the crank seals- LR knew they'd leak so gave you drain holes to stop it contaminating the flywheel/timing belt. To stop water getting in, they gave you wading plugs.

If you pipe these into the breathers, there's nowhere for the leaking oil to escape to. Easier to just fit the wading plugs and drain them periodically.

mick 1986 · Nov 23, 2018

dag019 said:
I have my breather manifold just next to the heater box on the passenger side, with then the larger pipe running over the top of the heater box and up the snorkel on the passenger side. My breather is external to the snorkel, but that does not matter for me as I already had cables running up the back side of it to get to the roof lights.

Is yours in a similar position to Lynalls in his photo? More central than over the heater box? I always intended the larger “main tube” to be external to the snorkel and visible, so that’s the route I will be taking. It will be screwed to the snorkel though.

mick 1986 · Nov 23, 2018

lynall said:
I bolted my manifold to the bulkehad and then ran one large 10mm od pipe up the outside of the snorkel and poked it through the snorkel cap drain hole so the pipe could out the top of the snorkel plastic mesh.
You can just see the manifold at the back of the pic above the rocker cover, tbh it can go anywhere you want.

View attachment 163218

Thanks for the photo. It’s given me a much better idea of where to site the manifold. I’m trying to get all these annoying, time consuming, jobs sorted so the rebuild can move at a faster pace. This will help site the manifold and allow the tubes to be cut to length and sorted! Much appreciated.

mick 1986 · Nov 23, 2018

FlyingPete said:
Don't know about a TDi, but on my 19J the timing case and flywheel housings are normally left open to let out any oil which gets past the crank seals- LR knew they'd leak so gave you drain holes to stop it contaminating the flywheel/timing belt. To stop water getting in, they gave you wading plugs.

If you pipe these into the breathers, there's nowhere for the leaking oil to escape to. Easier to just fit the wading plugs and drain them periodically.

My hose is clear, so if I see any oil residue, then I will remove the hose and drain the oil.

The problem I was trying to work out, was why drill the fuel pump timing cover, to then plug the drain hole? It didn’t, and still doesn’t, make much sense to me? The best reason I have seen on this thread is one of vulnerability due to the position of the holes. Once I have a rolling chassis, I will fit breathers to the drain holes and see how it looks. If it looks like they could be snapped off and cause me a headache, then I will leave them and plug them.

Extended Breathers

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