How to clean the vapor separator?

[Fred Schwab <fschwab@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

     Pat Braden, in the Alfa Romeo Owner's Bible (p. 90), recommends - as
a routine maintenance procedure - cleaning the oil vapor separator, but he
doesn't say specifically how this should be done.  I suppose by soaking
and rinsing the unit in naphtha???  (The vapor separator, at least in the
'85 Spider, appears not to be dis-assemblable.)  He also recommends
cleaning out the hose from the vapor separator to the dipstick, using
compressed air (this part, I understand).

     I'd also be interested in knowing the principle of operation of
the vapor separator.  I suppose, internally, it has baffles and/or some
kind of porous material for a condensate to diffuse through.  And it 
looks like it makes use of a source of vacuum, connected via the lower
one of the two narrow-diameter hoses.

                                          - Fred Schwab (fschwab@domain.elided)
                                            Charlottesville, Virginia

'85 Alfa Spider (Graduate)

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