blowing out oil

I've just purchased a 2275 motor from a major builder for my flared speedster. I ran it carefully for 500 miles while I searched for a good exhaust system, and I then spun it to 6,000 to see if it could fly. Immediately oil started to blow out of it.
Unfortunately I really don't know much about type 1 VW motors. The machanic said that it is blowing out at the crank behind the pulley from some kind of a silly VW seal that was never meant to seal a motor like this. He installed a SAND seal or something like that to correct the problem.
Does this sound right, should any motor blow oil out of any seal at 6,000?
This is out of my mechanical experience.
Any discussion about this would be appreciated.

Dennis, You need a breather box. You've seen them in some of the photos here. Apolished box that goes up over the shroud on the firewall. It has a hose outlet to be connected to each valve cover ( and comes with a hose outlet to afix to each valve cover), and a hose to your breather /filler tube. The purpose is to give an outlet to the internal pressure created by a large motor. (Any motor over 1835 should probably have one. The oil pressure may force some oil up into the breather box, but then it drains back down into the crankcase, and will not pressureize the internals of your motor.


Gclarke "The Vacaville Guy"

Gary is absolutely correct (as usual). Here's what a breather kit looks like on a 2332 cc.

Dennis,

Gary and John are giving you good advice. Here is another picture of a breather box on a 2110 the square box on the left is the breather. The box has a shut off valve that can be opened so that the box can be drained when you change the oil.

Karl

Come on John, you just wanted to show your beautiful engine with all those steel braided lines! You did, and it is a sight to behold! I'm jealous!

Bruce

Dennis:

You can also get a breather box that takes the place of the oil filler just to the right of the Alternator/Generator. If you look closely at the photo below, you'll see it - I got this one from CB Performance, but Gene Berg makes one similar and there are others out there, too. Mine has breather lines going to the crankcase through a fitting on the fuel pump block-off plate (I have an electric pump) and to both of the carbs (the braided hoses going to the air cleaner covers) and it also breathes through the oil filler neck.

As you can see from these posts, there are a LOT of alternative breather boxes available

Bruce,

There's nothing about John's car that ISN'T just drop-dead gorgeous. I saved EVERY picture he's posted, so I can look at them and think about how I'll do it.... next time.

Gordon,

We just got one of the stand-up breathers like yours for the drag car. I LOVE the finned look that you've got going with the matching aircleaner caps! Where did you get them?

I've got a breather coming from a 356A that I'm going to adapt to the motor that I'm building for the Porsche. That's why I was all over the engines at the Lawn Event. I just scored one of those cool black and orange oil filter cans last week. Kind of going for the whole replica motor thing as well.

TC

The air cleaner covers came as part of the Dellorto kits from CB, and I got the breather box there, too.

A word on those particular breather boxes: They attach to the alternator pedestle in the same manner as a regular oil filler/breather, tightened with a gland nut. You'll need the gland nut install/removal tool for your ratchet to get it tight. I'm running a thicker-than-usual, rubberized cork gasket on the base (attach point) of the box, and locktited the hell out of the gland nut (red, medium) before I tightened it. Went through a couple of loosening episodes before I arrived at this point, as the box becomes a rather lengthy torque arm for the power of the gland nut and it kept loosening up. Been running all this season and it's still tight (knock wood).

I have a whole collection of photos for breather configurations. Too many to post.

I have seen it all, breather to air filter/s, valve covers and etc.

One photo hasn't anything, must be a work in progress, however, I have seen running cars with nothing. I wonder how the kink in the tube works on the other picture.

Guys, thanks for the excellent response. I do have a breather, it looks exactly like John Leader's. I also have a remote oil filter, and oil cooler. All the plumbing looks to be correct.
I can't believe the seals on these motors are so easily blown. Has anyone else had this specific problem with that seal and is the SAND seal the solution.
I've owned many high perfomance race motors, Formula Atlantic etc. and I've never heard of this problem.
I got zero tech info and support from my builder so I don't know how much oil to add and how to measure the correct level.
Any advise will be appreciated.

Call CB Performance in Farmersville, California, They are a premier builder and supplier of Motors and parts for the custom and aftermarket industry. Their chief engine builder is Pat Downs, he will answer all the questions, and provide solutions quite easily.

Dennis, the breather box and the sand seal will help. But if you overfill the engine with oil, it will still blow it out. I fill my engine to the bottom line on the dipstick and no oil blowby. With my oil cooler and remote filter I've got about 5 qt. capacity.

Eddie

Eddie, Gary, and all. thanks for the help and support, I'm a new owner but long, long, time speedster lover. Being such a novice is uncomfortable for me, but it is made easier knowing that this site and the owners support the brand so wonderfully.
I probably caused my own problem. After running the car for several hundred miles and carefully watching the gauges, as accurate as they are, I checked the oil and found none registering. I added a quart, drove around the block added another and it finally registered between the marks. I guess i should have calculated all the oil in the system that had not yet drained into the motor.
Well it sounds like too much oil is not a good solution.
I'm adding an oil pressure and temp gauge as we speak.
Thanks Guys.

Dennis:

Just so we're all Apple'in and Orange'in together here, the correct, stock, oil marker positions are:

Full = 4 7/8" down from the top of the dipstick tube

1 Qt low = 5 5/8" down from the top of the dipstick tube

You can measure these on your dipstick to see if they're the same (not all dipsticks, especially the Tiawanese imports, are created equal, nor are VW's and real 356's the same).

There is no "seal" on the pulley end of a VW crankshaft if you're running a "stock" engine. The design calls for an oil "slinger" which is a washer-like disk on a keyed part of the crankshaft, inboard from the pulley (there is actually a case "wall" between the pulley and the slinger). Oil finding its' way out of the bearing (inboard of the slinger) hits the slinger and is spun off by centrifugal force into a small chamber which drains back to the crankcase. All this works OK if the crankcase is properly vented to relieve excessive internal pressure at high RPM's. If not, the internal pressure forces the oil past the slinger and out past the pulley. Since there is no real "seal" there, the crankshaft often weeps a tiny bit of oil now and then past the pulley, and the engine tins are even designed to give that weeping oil a place to go (onto the ground!). There shouldn't be very much unless the crankcase pressure is up there, then all bets are off.

Too much oil is easy to do........we've all probably done that at one time or another. If you're running an external cooler and filter, there shouldn't be a lot of "drain-back" to the sump. Since it is a closed system (there shouldn't be any air in there) the oil lines shouldn't drain back to the sump when the engine stops. You will, however, have most of a quart pumped and splashed around the inside of the engine, valve covers, etc, which WILL drain back to the sump when stopped. Also, if you have a "typical" full-flow oil cooler installation (with the case drilled for the oil return) it won't drain down when you drain the oil from the sump to change it. The oil stays in the cooler and lines (but MAY drain a bit if the filter is removed, depending on where everything is mounted). So this means that, when you do an oil change, you just put in what the sump holds, NOT including the capacity of the cooler/filter/hoses.

Hope this isn't too confusing..........

Gordon
One of the "Speedstah Guys" from Rhode Island

Well stated Gordon!