I took the fiesta to a Donnington track day a few weeks back and it highlighted that my breather system was inadequate as it was chucking loads of oil out of the breather filter whilst cornering.

The original system was only a spec R shiney and not up to the job, so I got a Bailey Escos catch tank modified with the right diameter connections to suit my car.

After loads of unrelated issues this week I finally got the car running with the new breather system on and a 19 row oil cooler and got it to Bedford for the RSOC track day at dinner time yesterday.

We did two laps and the brake servo hose popped of so we came in to secure it only to find when we opened the bonnet there was shit loads of oil al over the engine bay. Removed the filter of the "to atmosphere" breather pipe and the oil was coming from there.

I connected a pop bottle to this pipe and went out for another lap and came back in and it was full up (3/4's of a litre)

Have we got problems elsewhere? The car was not over filled with oil. We must have lost over 2.0l's over 3 laps.



This is the tank we have. The angled connecton on the bottom is piped up to return to the sump. The other bottom connection breaths to atmosphere. (where the oils coming from) The nearest connection on the top of the tank goes to the cam cover and the one behind to the back of the block. Is this connected correctly?

I would guess the tank probally holds a litre of oil so how the fook is it managing to fill this and still lob oil out?

Getting to the point of packing the car in tbh. Track days are meant to be fun and were just stressed out big time.

Yesterday cost us loads of grief, a couple of days off work, favours of various mates , fall outs with the other halfs and £500 in expense to do three laps!

Can anyone advise on why it could be breathing so heavy?

 

might just not be upto the job?

how about trying a catch tank?

 

are you sure the breathing issue isn't a deeper lying problem? ie. bottom end?

 

Its a brand new build so I'd hope not. Its been run in and mapped on on an engine dyno and only done roughly 200 miles on relatively low boost (12psi) Oil pressure seems fine. 36-38 psi warm idle and 70ish cold.

The oil that we caught i the bottle did smell of fuel tho.

 

I had a similar problem with my RS1800 when I fitted my Bailey breather ( no fault of Bailey Motorsport as it was a new design that I was trying out for them as it was a 1st for a Zetec breather for them )..... Basically on the front of the Zetec block where the breather comes out on the right hand side (near thermostat) theres a 1 way valve.... I removed the valve when fititng breather and at Castle Combe (1st outing with new breather) it blew over 1 litre of oil out in about 5 laps (less than 10 miles).... I put the 1 way valve back in and since then it has used 0 litres of oil including Bedford on saturday.... This may help it may not


Steve

 

We blocked of this pipe/valve as we didnt have enough connections on our tank. Is yours on the side of the head nearest the bulkhead? Where did you plumb yours back in?

 

Coming to think of it I'm sure the hose in question comes off the head.

 

You can just see the valve (behind the hose in front of the servo) and the connecting hose on the old breather. I was told to blank it off.

 

No thats not it......


Std connections....


RHS side of engine at front,pipe then goes under coil pack and connects to inlet manifold.

RHS of rocker cover goes to air box.


Bailey Connection....

RHS of engine at front goes to Bailey breather with 1 way valve still in place (blocked off inlet manifold where it usually connects)

RHS of rocker cover to Bailey breather (block off where it usually goes into air box)




The bit I'm on about that has the 1 way valve is a bit like a Cossie flame trap which is on the front of the block



If I had a pic you'd know what I mean I'm sure

 

This is the only picture of the engine bay I've got! Before everything was plumbed in etc..





The take off at the back of the cam cover goes to the front top connection on the tank. The other tank connection goes down to the back of the block.

 

On the early silver top Zetec the breather part with the 1 way valve is between (and just below) the stat housing and the exhaust manifold, by me removing the 1 way valve caused me the exact same problems you are having

 

Cheers mate.

I wonder if its different with a black top? Can anyone confirm wether I need to have this one way valve connected somewhere in the sytem? If so where??

 

i would block off one pipe at a time you have connected to the seperator tank with the engine running and see if the fumes/mist is coming from one or more pipes then you can see where you're going to need a new one way valve

 

Up.

 

Can anyone fully explain how the breather system works/the inside layout of the tank, with the connections I have??

I've been told the return to sump hose needs to be below the oil level in the sump??

The connection we had available on our sump is above the oil level?

Is this where the problem lies??

 

Up.

Bring back the seperate forums!

 

 

Anyone?

 

 

ok .. i will ask a silly question ..

on a cvh there is a small bit of plastic that sits at the bottom of the breather return pipe .. just wondering if the zetec would have the same thing ..
this plastic bit stops the oil coming back up the return pipe on cornering , i know as my engine builder forgot to fit it, and had exactly the same type of problem ...

just wondering if you might have the same type of problem

 

Eagle,

Are you talking about the breather pipe from the crankcase at the back of the block which goes to the rocker cover (cvh) if so i 've never seen
any fitting in that pipe and just rebuilt my motor and washed out all the breather pipe's, inc the pipe work from the top of the rocker cover
injection RST. had loads of cvh engines, so would be interested to know
if there should be some sort of a valve in place.


Regards Dave R.

 

Eagle

I'm not sure mate.

I'd like to know wether having the return piped into the sump lower than the oil level will sort it out and why?

 

thats the one as you look at the engine on the r/h side .. on the inside of the block there should be a small black plastic plate that just clips into place ,
i only found out about this on the cvh as it happened to me.

Brasso
if the return pipe is lower than the oil level then oil will travel up the pipe on cornering..

it sounds like you need to have some form of one way valve on the return pipe as i think its not the fact your breather that has the problem but the oil is being forced back up the return pipe and the only other ways it can go are back into the head or out of the pipe into the catch tank