Does the steel wool screen need to be replaced in the down draft tube? what is the purpose? It was plugged and caused the oil to puke out of the breather cap and caused a oil mess all over the front of the engine. I cleaned it only to have it fall apart with nothing left to put back in. Everything is sparkly clean again.
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The purpose of the screen is to keep insects or mice from building condos in your engine via the draft tube. Steel wool is probably too dense and if someone crammed that in there it probably would clog with oil. I would use one of those copper pot scrubbers. It can be pretty loose. There should be a hole for a cotter pin to keep the screen from falling out.
A contractor failing to install a similar screen in an attic vent led to a family of flying squirrels moving into my attic. That was fun.
Nathan -
Studebaker stopped installing that mesh on V8 engines during the 1955 model year (they continued its use on 6 cyl cars). Installing a piece cut from a copper or stainless pot scrubber is an excellent idea. You could also convert to a PCV system.Restorations by Skip TowneComment
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An old timer friend of mine (older than Me!) would call those things 'rats nests', and without fail would discard them permanently!Comment
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They serve no purpose...as long as one of those critters do not choose to take up residence.
I believe standard maintenance was to remove, clean and re-insert from time to time.Brad Johnson,
SDC since 1975, ASC since 1990
Pine Grove Mills, Pa.
'33 Rockne 10, '51 Commander Starlight. '53 Commander Starlight
'56 Sky Hawk in processComment
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It is not likely to have a problem if you drive the car every day but how many of us do that? My dad has a '73 Corvette with late '60 side pipes. One spring we fired up the car but something seemed off. Then we smelled smoke. There was at least a pound of very hot seeds, grass, and mouse crap in the pipe.Comment
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