Fuel doohickey?

Okay. I'm not that swift. Who can tell me what that rectangular silver device with the ribbed top, and fuel lines attached to it, is?
I tried to copy a picture of the 356 Mexican Coupe engine bay in the Classifieds section but couldn't. If you look at the third photo of the Mexican Coupe (engine bay), you will see what I mean. Is it is a fuel distribution device?

Thanks

Bob

Robert what you have here is the breather for the remote oil cooler system.

Thanks, David.

Do all cars with a remote oil cooler need a breather such as this?

Actually, I have a similar breather set up on my car, but I do not have a remote oil cooler setup.

The local air cooled VW place here has a similar set up on all their motors, I can't tell from the picture, but i would guess the two lines on the sides are going to the valve covers, while the center line is going to the oil filler pipe.

The center line will allow the residual oil that gets blown through to drip back down to the case, instead of changing your breathers every 50 miles.

I can't swear that is what is in the picture, but it is my best guess.
Rob

looks like one of these:
cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=238

The larger "cc" engines need this breather system as the case pressure needs to be vented. For a proper installation ,there should be four connections to the breather box

Case vent from the oil filler tube

Two from the valve cover

And a small aftermarket air filter that is an off the shelf item usually chrome with a white corrugated filter. This filter gets attached to the breather box.

Should you buy a breather kit that has the shiny black, thin wall tubing, throw the tubing out on trash day...it will get soft and go flat from engine bay heat, use a 7/16 ID black hose of something similar if you want to dress it up a bit.
Alan

Hey, my car does have a 'doohickey'. When I was underneath the car yesterday (on purpose) I saw that the breather unit is located on the back of the firewall - an interesting location.

One more piece of trivia...

A breather on the BACK of a firewall? I for one believe you should open them and clean them occasionally. Replacing the hoses sounds like fun. Is the oil filler neck vented?

David:

I'll take a closer look tonight to see where all the hoses go. I know the valve covers are vented to the breather box with large blue hoses.

Yes David, the oil filler neck is vented to the breather box on IMs.