Morris Minor Owners Club

Has anyone managed to clean out a blocked breather in the timing chain cover of a 1275 engine?

After suffering form ever increasing oil leaks I have decided to do something about it. Scanning this forum, it convinced me that it was a blocked engine breather problem.
Sure enough when I got the timing chain cover off with the breather attached it is blocked with gunge.
No problem I though, just fill it with Gunk and all will be well. I did this but apart from the gunge that was at the end, none has come out yet. After 24 hours the Gunk is still slopping about in the bottom of the breather.

Any ideas? I do not have access to an air line so that is not an option. Has anyone been able to extract the filter from the housing?

Any suggestion would be gratefully received.

You could set it on fire!! Or apply a hose to the outlet end. Or just fit a cover with no breather, and breathe it from the rocker cover instead. But you are right - as in life - good breathing is very important.

cut the breather in half and take out all the wire mesh and gunge, and then weld a flat front to it, as you may find the original shape hits the fan blades, or of course bend the fan blades up.
do not fit a front timing cover without the breather you will run into problems with the breathing.
try venting the hole in the side of the block, originally for the mechanical pump instead

None of my 1275 engines have timing case breathers, and none have any problems breathing! But yes - the fuel pump hole if present does provide another breathing opportunity!

I have used the fuel pump hole and the rocker cover for breathers
So far so good
But my engine was bored and has new pistons ..

Thank you all for your suggestions. Problem now solved. It did not need setting on fire, cutting in half or anything more technical than an old knitting needle!

With the cover removed, and the breather soaked in Gunk, it was still well and truly blocked after soaking for 24 hours. Out came the old knitting needle and after a few vicious prods it started to clear. A few more and the filter itself started to show at the bottom. By prodding and pulling the gunge started to clear. More flushing and in the end it flowed quite freely. Last thing to do was to push the filter back into place.

The problem of the fan hitting the breather was solved by adding spacers behind the fan. As I had the front of the car and the radiator removed this was not so difficult and the bolts were long enough to take the spacers.

I am extremely pleased to say this has all but cured the massive oil leak I had without having to renew the sump gaskets. There is now no leak from the front and a slight weep from the rear that I can live with until the engine has to come out again.

So anyone who is suffering from the dreaded oil leaks, look to cleaning out the breather first, it certainly worked for me!

Well done Roger a nice cheap solution
I am surprised you still had enough clearance between the Rad and the Fan putting spacers behind the fan to clear the breather, thats why there were suggestions to make the breather into a D shape to give the clearance from the fan.

Cheers! That could save me a few quid!