!964 Avanti R1 engine back pressure

[jpiatchek]

Mike--No embossed ridges on any of my breathers, just 710 or OIL on the outside, depending on what side of the car you are looking from.

[sbca96]

From the Edelbrock website :

Valve Cover Breathers
Our push-on style valve cover breathers contain an effective filter which traps oil vapor and prevents engine compartment contamination. Inscribed breathers come with rubber grommets and match our chrome valve covers. Fits any 1-1/4" diameter valve cover hole.

Round Breather #4405 #4410



Those look real nice! Will work well with my Edelbrock carb and the
air cleaner I have for it.

Tom

[Mike]

The embossed ribs are visable in the picture of the breathers in the newest SI catalog, p104. They lift the clip so it doesn't block the holes, if it's rotated out of position, too. Do we have incorrectly made reproduction parts, listed under a Stude part#, that aren't even as pictured in the catalog? Heavens!
Maybe you could drill out the rivet that holds the clip; and make a disc with the correct holes, to fit inside. The R1/R2 ventilation system was carefully thought out. Stude engineering seems very proud of it, in the SAE paper.
Mike M.

[sbca96]

My R1 has the totally WRONG breather caps, I dont even know where they
are from. I think maybe some cheap Chinese ones. They dont fit right
either, and look like .... um .. yuck.

Tom

[jpiatchek]

Mike-Thanks for your persistence. I checked the breather caps on my other 289 Stude. I bought them about 1 year ago from SI. They are exactly as you stated. Two small holes and a ridge to position the clips straight. They have smaller holes than the Edelbrock and the 4 holes in the current caps in my R1. I'm sure they are the remedy to the problem. I will replace the caps on my R1 with these and put the R1's caps in question on the 289 and see if they leak on the other engine. If they do leak, I will buy two new ones from SI. They are pricey at $25.00 each, but that's ok. I have 3 sets of chrome breather caps for the Stude and they are all different. These new ones have a better design and will do the trick. Problem solved. Now to find the distributor leak. Will try the small oil lines and check out the valley cover more thoroughly. I hate to go to the trouble to replace the gasket on the valley cover unless i'm sure it is leaking. Probably take a couple of weeks until I get it replaced, if that seems to be the culprit, but I don't think so. Thanks

[jpiatchek]

I JUST REMOVED THE SMALL 5 INCH OIL LINE THAT WENT FROM THE DRIVERS SIDE HEAD TO THE OIL RETURN BLOCKOFF WHERE THE OIL FILTER USED TO GO. I AM WONDERING IF THIS WAS A MISTAKE. MAYBE IT WAS PUT IN TO DRAIN OIL FROM THE ROCKER CAVITY MORE QUICKLY. I'M WONDERING IF IF MIGHT BE IMPEDING THE DRAINAGE OF OIL BACK INTO THE BLOCK AND MAKE MATTTERS WORSE. I GUESS I WILL FIND OUT WHEN I DRIVE IT TOMORROW. I BUGGERED ONE OF THE FITTINGS TRYNG TO GET IT OUT AND WILL NEED TO FIND A NEW ONE IF I MADE MATTERS WORSE. ANY THOUGHTS FROM ANYONE? THANKS JOHN

[StudeRich]

John; remove ALL of the fittings in the front of the left head and install a 1/8" pipe plug from your local parts store or even a plumbing/hardware store directly in the hole in the head, you can do the same with the hole in the oil filler block-off plate. You do not need fittings!

I do not see how you possibly could hurt anything by doing that, since your car is probably the only car in the world that had that stupid line, all of our cars work great without it! It has nothing to do with drainback, having that line coming from the oil press. gallery and dumping it into the timing gears will only reduce your oil pressure and maybe the amount of oil going to left rockers.
Rich.

StudeRich
Studebakers Northwest
Ferndale, WA

[Roscomacaw]

I just wanna echo what Rich says: That line WAS NOT for head drainage. Whyever it's put there, it's wrong. All that line is buying you is loss of precious oil pressure.[8]

Further, it is indeed "OIL" on those caps. The OIL/7OI is just duplicate spellings of OIL so you can read it no matter how the caps situated. Since it IS where you put oil in, that's what it says on the cap![:I]

Miscreant adrift in
the BerStuda Triangle!!

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe

[jpiatchek]

I put a plug in both places and went for a good hard drive today and everything seems to be ok. The proper breather caps seems to have stopped the oil dripping from the breathers. I still do have oil leaking from what appears to be the distributor holddown. It could possibly be from the valley cover back by the distributor. Could oil leak from the back of the valley cover, or is that a real remote possibility?

[N8N]

If the gasket under the distributor is missing and/or torn, it *will* leak. Also take another look at the rubber hose for the oil pressure gauge, that is another common cause of oil leakage in that area and if it goes completely, it will dump a lot of oil real fast.

nate

--
55 Commander Starlight
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel