Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi
Is it essential to have a breather pipe from the air filter housing to the engine?
Its missing on the minor I recently bought

Cheers

hi, its not essential but i would fit it , the reasons are it can reduce oil leaks by creating a slight neg pressure in the engine block eg suction.also any combustion fumes from the crank case will be sucked back in to carb and engine to be burnt and pass out through exhaust, without the pipe fitted you may get exessive fumes in the car which is no good for you and you dog, hope this helps,graham

Depends a bit on what year/ engine/ set-up you have. Metal oil filler caps were not air tight and breathed. There are some variations between that and an A+ engine and mixtures in between... If you have sealed breathing and a pipe coming out of air cleaner and out of rocker top fit a pipe between.

It IS essential - otherwise you will be breathing cancerous oil fumes. Fit one right away.

This is my setup



As you can see, it's just a pipe from the tappet cover to the inlet manifold. I guess it does something but would I be better converting to crankcase ventilation with a PCV valve?

Yes the PCV valve is best - but not essential. Neither is that fuel filter........

bmcecosse wrote:Yes the PCV valve is best - but not essential. Neither is that fuel filter........

Don't blame me, that's how she came and I've only had her a month

Actually, the fuel pump (non stock) is dying so that whole fuel plumbing will be revisited, I'll probably fit another filter though, if only because it gives you a visual check that fuel is getting to the carby.

Thanks for confirming the PCV valve. I'll be fitting one, but not for awhile, too many other expensive things waving their hands in the air for attention.

It's probably dying because of the filter - throw it away.

I had one of those inline filters on my last Morris when I got it & it led to fuel vaporising when it was hot, definitely best removed.

crackers wrote:This is my setup



As you can see, it's just a pipe from the tappet cover to the inlet manifold. I guess it does something but would I be better converting to crankcase ventilation with a PCV valve?

Some ones nicked the fuel pump

You have a pipe from the Rocker (not tappet) Cover to the air filter. If it's clean - and the air filter is clean -it should work well enough. PCV valve would involve drilling/tapping the inlet manifold. I would NOT advise sharing with that servo pipe connection. You also appear to have trumpets?? Do they play tunes?

Hopefully I have attached a photo of my engine, the pipe is in the manifold and I'm clueless as to where it should run to or what it does, as the previous owner has simply blanked it off with a bolt.

Can't upload the photo I have tried countless times

Try reducing the size before you upload as this problem is usually caused by the photos being too large. If you still have problems let me know and I'll upload them for you.

moggiethouable wrote:

crackers wrote:This is my setup



As you can see, it's just a pipe from the tappet cover to the inlet manifold. I guess it does something but would I be better converting to crankcase ventilation with a PCV valve?

Some ones nicked the fuel pump

Have not, it's that little black thing by the battery

bmcecosse wrote:You have a pipe from the Rocker (not tappet) Cover to the air filter. If it's clean - and the air filter is clean -it should work well enough. PCV valve would involve drilling/tapping the inlet manifold. I would NOT advise sharing with that servo pipe connection. You also appear to have trumpets?? Do they play tunes?

It's what we call the tappets here.
Thanks for the reassurance on the plumbing, I'll leave things alone. One of the long distance plans are engine upgrades (not necessarily an engine change but at least getting it breathing well) and I'll include the PCV valve in that thinking.

As for that servo, it's hard to tell if it's doing much because that particular model servo never did much even when they were working. The brakes are fine though (now).

Those trumpets are a cheap set of air horns and MAN ARE THEY LOUD
I'm tempted to fix the standard horn (still there) and remove the air horns but having had to use them a couple of times in traffic, I'm becoming rather partial to their effectiveness

Sorry -NO. 'Tappets' are the old term for cam followers with adjusters built in - the Morris 918 SV engine has tappets. These are 'rockers' under that cover - have a look - they just rock back and forth. Up to you about the trumpets -but surely way overkill for a slow Minor. Perhaps necessary on an E Type Jag......bot on a Minor???

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Thanks for the advice.

So what is that pipe with the bolt in? Please get in touch if you have two 2 door saloon does you want to sell.

The pipe with the bolt in is where the PCD valve originally fitted.