2.8 Breather pipes
 

What a joyous job this was. Not.

However the whiffs of hot oil and leaks told the story and sure enough both pipes were literally crumbling to dust. Dust with a core of snotty slime.....

Certain amount of dismantling needed to access the hose under the throttle body. Fiddly, irritating, knuckle-skinning dismantling.

Got there in the end. Great care needed to thread things through exactly the right route and on the right side of the various pipes and wires as once you’ve clipped ‘em on...... they don’t like to come off again! Guess how I know that...... Might also be worth picking a higher quality offering than Topran.

While in there I also did the RH cam cover gasket as the middle plug well was filling up with oil and it was piddling on the exhaust manifold a little. More irritating access issues. That bloody wire that goes from the fuel rail area diagonally across the cover and down to the alternator was a right pain.

Was a bit surprised to see wasted spark coils rather than COP considering my old 96 V8 was COP.

Still have the LH one to do but I ran out of daylight and patience. Looks like it should be a bit easier.

Still runs.... hopefully more oil and fume tight now!

Nick

You'll have the satisfaction of a difficult job well done as well as the lack of burning oil smell. +++

it may be worth re doing your vacuum lines too. mine looked fine from the outside but were badly cracked under the cloth layer or whatever you call it

Absolutely. They all look horrible as the fabric outer covering is crumbling. Need to a buy a reel as there seems to be miles of them!

Nick

Horrid job. Ive also changed the other rocker gasket, still weeps a little but at least the spark plugs aren’t getting submerged anymore. You might find it a bit of a struggle to get on to the nuts at the bulkhead end, it’s a bit of a squeeze with all the pipes/wires, but if the breather is already off it should be much easier.

Drove the car today for the first time since doing the job.

Interestingly it seems to have better control over the idle speed when cold than it did, and unexpectedly, it has altered the behaviour of the autobox which now seems a little less deranged than before......

Doesn't smell oily any more either :)

Nick

Broken breather pipes will allow in unmetered air. That makes for poor cold running, and confuses the TCU which gets its load signal from the MAF, via the ECU.

Oil in the spark plug holes has a noticeable effect on cold idle too.

Yeah, in hindsight it's obvious enough..... didn't show any overt signs of vac leaks though, which was why I'd been letting it slide. I know a job that will let the blood out of my knuckles when I see one.....:(

The oil in the plug wells was very early stage. Just a dribble in the middle plug on each side. End ones still dry. Not like the bloody TT which had all 4 about half full and the original (75k miles) plugs. That definitely ran better afterwards!

Nick