Oily air filter

Paul296 · Post by **Paul296** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:36 pm

I've just replaced the air filter in my car with a K&N. When we removed the old one (well, when Mulley removed it!) it was covered in oil at one end (see pics) - anyone know what might be causing it? Is my car about to blow up!? I suspect the old one may have been in there for some time.

Thanks

Paul

Oscar · Post by **Oscar** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:57 pm

It's supposed to be like that. Have a look at where the breather pipe from the oil filler pipe goes...the filter catches the excess oil vapour. Don't worry, just keep driving it.

(I suppose I should have said "Car's a write-off, mate, I'll take it off your hands for 50 quid")

Paul296 · Post by **Paul296** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:11 pm

Oscar wrote:It's supposed to be like that. Have a look at where the breather pipe from the oil filler pipe goes...the filter catches the excess oil vapour. Don't worry, just keep driving it.

(I suppose I should have said "Car's a write-off, mate, I'll take it off your hands for 50 quid")

That's the right answer - jolly good! ( not the 'I'll take it off your hands for 50quid' bit obviously)

We did think it might not be much to worry about - but seeing as I'm a hopeless neurotic where my cars concerned . . . you can't be too careful!

Cheers

Paul

Post by **Tim Leech** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:51 pm

Was gonna say that doesnt look to bad to me Paul, its when you can "wring it out" you need worry. The one on the TZD wasnt much different oil wise but was alot dirtier!

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:19 pm

It wasn't too bad, but was worse than anything that i'd ever seen before including my tzd turbo, so suggested to Paul to post up a piccy incase there was an issue? The good thing about the K&N is that it can be cleaned if it does get gunged up which i said i'd do if Paul keeps an eye on it.

Paul296 · Post by **Paul296** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:47 pm

All good then! The K&N filter has made a bit of a difference - not so much with acceleration ( although I'm not really the accelerating type!) it just seems a bit more 'willing' when cruising.

All I have to do now is change the LHM which is looking a bit . . . well NOT very green that's for sure!

Post by **Tim Leech** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:28 am

Paul

Have you taken your intercooler off and given it a damn good clean out? Its just a couple of screws and hose clips.

Post by **Defender110** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:26 pm

Roverman wrote:Paul

Have you taken your intercooler off and given it a damn good clean out? Its just a couple of screws and hose clips.

And the engine breather/oil fill tube and pipes.

Paul296 · Post by **Paul296** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:35 pm

Roverman wrote:Paul

Have you taken your intercooler off and given it a damn good clean out? Its just a couple of screws and hose clips.

Mulley and I had that discussion - on the list of 'to do' jobs.

Paul296 · Post by **Paul296** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:44 pm

Defender110 wrote:
Roverman wrote:Paul

Have you taken your intercooler off and given it a damn good clean out? Its just a couple of screws and hose clips.
And the engine breather/oil fill tube and pipes.

I'll have to get my nose back in the Haynes manual to work out which bits they are exactly! - My current state of mechanical ignorance is such that if I've seen one rubber hose with a jubilee clip on it - I've seen 'em all!

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:24 pm

I can show you Paul if you get stuck, most of this stuff is dead easy to sort, especially once someone shows you how to do it if you are worried about what you are doing & don't want to break anything.

Paul296 · Post by **Paul296** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:38 pm

Cheers for that Matthew. I popped into my local motorfactors tonight just on the off chance that they had some Hydroflush - you were right; they'd never heard of it

Apparently there's a GSF in Lincoln so I'll pop over in the next few days, get some and take you up on your offer of help to get the LHM changed. In return I might valet that car of yours . . . if you're lucky!

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:59 pm

The old XUD9 in my Wife's break had about 600 000 km on it, when one day, returning from a business trip from the other end of the country, she called me and said "I think the engine broke up". She had been driving a bit over 100 km/h on a motorway, when "suddenly the engine sound changed, the car started to accelerate and the view from rearview mirror become all greyish black, like you sometimes see in Formula 1. And it did not shut down by turning the key."

I took my Old Lady, a towing line and the toolboxes and rode to her rescue. On the way I thought of all possible explanations to the described phenomenon, and finally came to the conclusion that the bloody thing had started to eat its engine oil. Which turned out to be the case. I took one of the glow plugs out just to see it had lost 5 mm in length and was covered with black stuff. The compression seemed to be there, however, and after adding 2,5 l of oil and cranking a few times, the thing came back to life. She drove it back home (some 150 km), and I followed keeping an eye on the exhaust color (and the CBs in both BXs tuned to the appropriate channel for inter-vehicular communication, should the need arise). The car seemed to work OK, and I had a lot of other business to attend to, so I decided to let it be for a while and "follow the situation".

The car worked more or less OK, and top speeds were avoided from that experience on. It even passed a MOT with the smoke test and all. I had of course cleaned the breather hoses as thoroughly as I could, and fitted a 2 l can in between the breather and the air cleaner just in case it would happen to go epileptic again. Which it did 9 months after the first occurrence, with me behind the wheel and a largish load of firewood on the trailer. And it turned out the 2 l was not quite enough. And it did it for the third time after another 6 months, at which point I decided to change the engine.

Which I did: Pic1 Pic2 Pic3 Pic4. Since the old engine seemed to work OK as long as the RPM was kept moderate, I've been planning to harness it to power the firewood processor by fitting a P.T.O. to the steerboard side driveshaft. This project has, however, not yet proceeded to actual realization stage due to constraints posed by the unavoidable finiteness of spare time.

Anyway, what I thought to say was that even though some oil in the air cleaner is normal, there is a point beyond which some action might be preferable in order to avoid experiencing what I've been through.

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:22 pm

Off topic, sorry but what do you use for light when you're working outside at night?

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:50 am

mat_fenwick wrote:Off topic, sorry but what do you use for light when you're working outside at night?

Usually something like that:

http://www.rmattila.com/images/remontit ... ihto_1.jpg