Gift for Richard/Crankcase breather canister/'84 VVT

[Bill Bain <BBain@xxxxxxxxx>]

As I said before, the other list I read regularly, the Leica users'
group, recently took up a collection from its members and bought the
list owner/administrator a new Leica M6 camera (about $1800).  In that
case, the "list" knew that he didn't have one, so the selection was
pretty easy.  In Richard's case, another car might not be an ideal gift,
but we should do something.  Richard, speak up, even if sub voce to a
few folks off-line before a GTV fills your driveway!  Count me in for
$10 at least when Bill gets the bank account set up.

The vapor separator is nothing more than a series of screens inside a
can that the oil-laden crankcase vent system air is sucked through.
Before the emissions became an issue, cars simply had a crankcase vent
tube ("road tube") from the valve cover that ended somewhere down
underneath the car.  The same can be done with a 115 engine by simply
running a hose of the appropriate diameter from the cam cover down along
the radiator side and securing it with cable ties, and plugging the
other vacuum lines to/from it.   This is useful when you're trying to
track down the source of oil leaks to determine if excess crankcase
pressure is the problem and since the vapor separator is NLA and it's
also not rebuildable, may become more prevalent.  Hook it back up for
emissions testing, unhook it later etc.

The vapor separator can sometimes be cleaned by soaking it in a pail of
gasoline or lacquer thinner and then knocking the canister on the ground
to try to dislodge the crud that collects on the screens.  I have to do
this about once a year.  I'm not sure it works all that well, so if
somebody has a surefire improvement on the cleaning process, speak up!

Sometime in late '84 or so, the VVT was converted from the previous
hydraulic version to the solenoid operated version that one sees on
later Spiders, so the gentleman with the '84 may indeed have a VVT, but
just not the electric one.  Either one works fine, usually.

Bill Bain
'83 Spider -  too cold here to spray the urethane to finish the bumpers!

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