more qustions

Joel!  Bit colder now then when we were wandering around Lime Rock, huh?

Anyway, to your questions.  ANY engine larger than a 1,776cc needs additional breather assistance.  The stock VW breather apparatus (if you can call it that) was barely adequate for their 1,600.  The 356 version was slightly larger (more like a Berg or CSP breather) and the 356 racers concocted a bunch of different versions, the best ones based on a large (think Hi-C) juice can.  Danny P has a cool one (and pretty effective, too) on his Spyder that is an 18" long by 2-1/2"-ish diameter cylinder and plumbed to the case and vented to the carbs.

The question becomes, "what sort of breather set-up do I need for my 1,915"??  Do a search on here for breather and see what hits you get - this has been covered ad nauseum on here in the past, enough to confuse anyone.

So, to your questions:

I used the berg valve covers with nipples welded in and an empi box mounted above the fan shroud on firewall for my 1915 and no more leaks for me or damp anything...

While the rear wheels wells are tight fit for tires - there is usually plenty of room in front and the wheel spacers push wheels out to better fill the wells. I have front disc and Porsche 2L Fuchs.  The spacers were needed to have the rim clear the calipers plus it allowed use of billet center caps over the front bearing nuts (no way would a OEM stainless steel caps fit. Plus wider stance better cornering --- at least according to old Pontiac wide track commercial.  (Note dropped spindles usually give a 2x +1/2" front stance).

I like the faux 356 billet look of the CB Breather filler - $55 (Shown without fitting and hoses.)

Pat Downs told me he only vents the 1-2 v cover due to oil thrown at the 3-4 cover. He did this on my engine and everything is nice and dry. I'm sure if he does it this way for a reason and a lot of pressure can pass through a 1/2 inch hose so one valve cover breather hose is enough for most engines.

I found a picture of the plumbing on my engine.

Damn, that is one beautiful piece of engineering!

Happy New Year.

Everybody has there little tricks and set ups. Any performance minded  engine needs the valve covers with breathers. The key is to use a large enough line/hose that allows the motor to breathe. I try to use a "10 hose as often as possible. A # 8 will work ok from the valve cover to a breather box, the breather box should be mountEd high enough to allow a #10 hose to drain back to either the fuel pump mount or a stock vw oil breather/filler setup. As for the breather I use the RLR box.. If Mitch pipes in maybe he can share a picture of his engine compartment. Keep in mind the better your breather system is, less chance of oil leaks, or sucking a valve over gasket. I do not think anyone should use the cast alum breather boxes. They are very restrictive. 

Another view:  I have a 2332 from JPS's builder.  There is a breather hose from the oil filler tube to the right-side carb.  Early on, I got all exercised about proper breathing, and looked at lots of set-ups.  Even bought a bug-pak, and the fittings to mount on the valve covers.  I know this will not count for anything w/ most of you here, but I did ping JPS about all of this, and he said that the breathing supplied by the builder would be fine.  He does lots of engines of this size like this and does not have trouble.  I do get a little oil coating on the inner parts of the air filter housing, but this seems modest.  Given how often I go in there for this and that, wiping up the little bit has not been a problem.  While my engine does weep a  bit of oil here and there, I have no drips on the garage floor.  Once or twice a year (getting ready for Carlisle, for example) I go under and wipe stuff down.  Using the bug-pak would likely reduce the amt of oil I see in the carb filter, but it is hard to see how it would improve the breathing per-se.  While I may still install the bug-pak, I have not done so yet.  Crankcase pressure (which is driven ultimately by blow-by past the rings) does not seem to be too high.  Maybe engines with worn rings, or ones not seated properly, or of poor materials (?) pass more gas.  I dunno about all of that, but imagine that there would be a wide variation in engines depending on the care of the builder, age, and of course size.  Just $0.02 worth, nothing more.

PS: I have seen Danny P's home-made set up, and it is pretty damn cool.  a very effective separator, allowing lots of surface to condense oil vapor and trap the mist so it can flow by gravity back to the crankcase.  He is a very clever guy.

The advantage of a breather box is that it allows the oil vapors to condense before being directly sucked into the carbs.  Although a lot of pressure comes from compression bypassing the rings/valve guides (blow by), oil droplets/foam is also kicked up from internal windage caused by reciprocating parts like the crankshaft and connecting rods.

DANG! That's a nicely detailed engine. Looks great in that color combo. 

Thank you everyone for your replies-especially Gordon for his tutorial.Question-since a firewall mounted breather box is vented to the atmosphere would a hose running to air cleaner on carb create enough suction to draw  fumes? I think it would.

Joel

Here's the breather box installation Tony did on my new 2026cc:

Large box for maximum internal surface area, mounted as high as possible so drain tube routes nicely downhill to oil filler. Lines at left and right are from valve covers, line underneath is drain line:

A better view of drain line:

We used an original VW oil filler, as it already has an input fitting on top for a drain line from the breather box. This filler also has a drain tube on its under side (not visible here) which we retained and connected to the old school (and politically incorrect) drain hose which usually leaves a few drops on my garage floor after most drives.

Breather fittings were welded to the upper corners of stock VW valve covers:

Yeah, Gordon should have been a university prof. He knows a lot and likes to share it.  Something he does well, and we are all better for it.  :-)

Would Mitch's breather box take better advantage of it's size if the inlet hoses were up high rather than down low ?

We used to make up smaller breather boxes and stuff them with SS Brillo pad type material for extra surface area to collect the oil.

I knew a guy once who raced motorcycles and ran a 1/4" inch vent line from the crankcase back to a small venturi fitting on his exhaust pipe. He swore it scavenged oil mist/air from the crankcase, thus eliminating a small bit of HP loss caused by the rotating parts beating thru the air/oil mist in the case.

I'm not the college professorial type (although I'm working on longer hair)........

But I DID stay in a whole lot of Holiday Inn Express places a while back.  Always liked the "Pop Tarts" they had at the breakfast bar.......   

We used to use the S/S Brillo pads (I think they were "Chore Girl" brand, but that's probably no longer politically correct) in home-built breather systems made out of "Hi-C juice cans - worked great.  And I think Danny P might have that "suck-it-out" exhaust venturi extraction system.  Either he or Stan mentioned it a couple of years back.

I think I like the suck-it-out-the-exhaust concept better than the suck-it-into-the-carb idea, at least theoretically.  A steel wool baffle is the right idea for either idea.  Either one would need to be able to drain the liquid oil back into the case.  Getting the exhaust to properly eject might be a trouble, and you'd surely need a one-way valve to guard against backfires, which could, as I think about it, blow the whole f---ing thing to splinters.

Moroso Crankcase Vent Kit

It works well. I've got one.

kinda pricey for a PCV.  No doubt it works, however.

$30 for the check-valve and Bernoulli tube is not so bad, but you are right-- for this to work well, you'll need a sealed breather box with the bottom draining liquid back to the case and the vacuum from the check-valve pulling off the top of the box. The box will be at least $100, and should be big enough to make a difference. Mine is more than 2 gal worth, but it's overkill (stunning, I know).

The Bernoulli tube needs to be at the tailpipe, after the muffler, let you fill the muffler with oil vapor.

All that said, it works really, really well.

Been there......still doing that.

So Ron, will your car be ready when the snow thaws...2015?

I want to have mine back home before Bob gets his new IM. 

To keep my mind off my IM I bought a new truck.  We have a VERY steep driveway (gravel), and pulling my 5th wheel up, with my old 2 wheel drive F250, was very nerve racking....lots of rear tire spinning.

My new truck has 4x4 and a honking big diesel.

^ NICE! 

Yes, I have a home-made breather that is 2" in diameter and 18" long. It drains back into the case via the universal/type3 oil filler block-off. It has two baffles inside with a bunch of quarter-inch holes inside. The top end does have a hose that goes to the passenger side carb.

I also have the exhaust fitting, I believe it is from Moroso via Jegs. It is all the way back at the 3" tailpipe after all pipes converge. However, the evacuation directly from the case only occurs above 5000 rpm, the fitting is attached where the oil filler should be. I have a 911 shroud so no standard filler. I have a solenoid that opens above 5K to forcibly pull the vapors out, and it seems to work VERY well. My thinking was that the VW engine was never designed to rev past 5K, or to have anywhere near the compression, displacement, and power output that we can have today.

PS: Since most people vent to the carb top, here is my take: There is no "vacuum" there, as just below is all that surface area from the air filter. If vapors get expelled inside the air cleaner, they will indeed be drawn in and burned, but I think there is no suction.

This is the fitting that I purchased:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dtc-785-10095

I agree that there probably isn't much of a suction at the top of an air cleaner, but the airflow coming in from the sides would expectedly draw the vapor coming from the breather (probably under some nominal pressure from the crankcase you're venting) along with it.  The two would seem to work together because I don't see any oil film inside of the air cleaners or venturiis on my carbs.  Of course, you need a breather that separates the oil from the gasses adequately, too!

Sounds like you have a primo set-up there, Danny!

This thing is big enough already!

What size diesel in there?

I had the 6.0 in my 2006 King Ranch and it was just about perfect for pulling Pearl on her trailer.  Because it was the 6.0 (with its inherent, weak point of head gaskets) everybody told me never to "chip it", and I ever did.  I think, though, that if I was pulling much more than a 6,000 gross pound trailer I would opt for a 7.3 and slap a Bulldog chipset in (or equivalent) and never look back.

Get onto the F250 Diesel forums and discover your truck's weak points and what to do about them.  On mine there were five: FICM, EGR, fuel pressure regulator valve, FI Oil pump and head gaskets.  Price to replace any one of those was over $1,500 USD And I had to do three.

I'll tell you, though, even my puny 6.0 could pull rings around those gas V-10's out there!

Ford reworked their diesel engine for 2015.  It now puts out 440 hp, with 860 ft/lbs of torque.

I'm not a big fan of extended warranties, but with this new truck I plan on buying Fords extended warranty.

Geesh,  440hp and 860.... more than my 330hp 600 big truck car hauler , I would be in trucker heaven with the towing GVW  !

Hopefully I've seen the last of 1st gear and high rpm up steep hills, while pulling my 5th wheel.

That's right, Alan!  When you're a" sailor on a concrete sea" there's no substitute for horsepower.