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Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:29 am

I was looking through some old posts and see that for a larger engine those little aluminum breather boxes that most mount the their firewall are supposedly Too small. How can they be Too small when the top isn't sealed tight and it is basically open to the atmosphere?

Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:01 am

Too small for what? If the point is to connect several tubes together then I guess they are ok, but why would you want to connect them anyway?

A race breather box must be large enough to contain all the oil in the engine (so none gets on the track in event of piston or ring failure)

A mist seperator needs to have a drain to allow mist that settles out to go somewhere by gravity, but the strange boxes they sell do not have any low area like that.

So if it does not have enough volume to contain oil that gets pumped up, nor a method to drain it back.... what does it do? I don't know. What do you think it does?

Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:32 am

The breathers that are for sale are not the beat.
I built the breather for my race car. It is 3"dia.x8"long, mounted vertical tube. Inside the tube is a course piece of filter materal to help seperate the oil from the air. A 3/4"hose is mounted on the bottom for breathing and drain back. Plus 3 other 1/2" hoses are connected to the lower part of the tube. On top of the tube is a large screw on breather from a V-8.
No, it won't hold all the oil from the engine, but It works well.

Fri Jul 13, 2012 10:34 am

modok wrote: Too small for what? If the point is to connect several tubes together then I guess they are ok, but why would you want to connect them anyway?

A race breather box must be large enough to contain all the oil in the engine (so none gets on the track in event of piston or ring failure)

A mist seperator needs to have a drain to allow mist that settles out to go somewhere by gravity, but the strange boxes they sell do not have any low area like that.

So if it does not have enough volume to contain oil that gets pumped up, nor a method to drain it back.... what does it do? I don't know. What do you think it does?
I assume it's purpose is to relieve crankcase pressure, what else would it be for?

Fri Jul 13, 2012 10:35 am

bugguy076 wrote: The breathers that are for sale are not the beat.
I built the breather for my race car. It is 3"dia.x8"long, mounted vertical tube. Inside the tube is a course piece of filter materal to help seperate the oil from the air. A 3/4"hose is mounted on the bottom for breathing and drain back. Plus 3 other 1/2" hoses are connected to the lower part of the tube. On top of the tube is a large screw on breather from a V-8.
No, it won't hold all the oil from the engine, but It works well.

Now I would like to see a picture of this set up! I'm new to the VW scene and the little aluminum breather box the previous owner installed is a joke. But, thats what they sell! I opened it up, it isn't sealed and all that was in the cavity was a copper scratch pad for washing dishes. You get any blow by and it is totally worthless in my opinion.

Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:33 am

Much better alternative to the cheap kits out there IMO: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1181393