Thread: Series III 2.25 DIESEL questions

crank case breather vents straight into the intake manifold

you can get a vacuum venturi unit to go on the intake. DONT.... you can fit an alternator that has a vac pump but you will then need to add an oil feed and dump to the sump for the oil and the output of the vac pump.

the breather is held on by one screw, unscrew it and then soak it in petrol for a couple of hours and see if it frees up... if it doesnt use acetone. just rinse it thoroughly prior to reinstalling it, it should be sealed to the rocker cover by an oring.

Thanks Dave.

It's the breather at the top of the engine, the one that's mastic'ed in place, that I'm trying to find out where the far end of the tube connects to please? It's fitted to the rocker cover, not the crank case. Have I mis-named it?
The tube of mine is currently hanging next to the off side of the crank case, & hopefully is responsible for all the oil on that side!
I took the retaining screw out - it's sealed with something similar to leak-lok (a thread sealant for refrigeration fittings). I think I'll add an o-ring or some form of gasket there when I get everything else sorted. The mastic bond was strong enough that I couldn't pull the breather off. Thanks a lot for the acetone tip.

I'll avoid the venturi type vacuums, thanks. Presumably they're not trustworthy?

Originally Posted by Ratel10mm

Thanks Dave.

It's the breather at the top of the engine, the one that's mastic'ed in place, that I'm trying to find out where the far end of the tube connects to please? It's fitted to the rocker cover, not the crank case. Have I mis-named it?
The tube of mine is currently hanging next to the off side of the crank case, & hopefully is responsible for all the oil on that side!
I took the retaining screw out - it's sealed with something similar to leak-lok (a thread sealant for refrigeration fittings). I think I'll add an o-ring or some form of gasket there when I get everything else sorted. The mastic bond was strong enough that I couldn't pull the breather off. Thanks a lot for the acetone tip.

I'll avoid the venturi type vacuums, thanks. Presumably they're not trustworthy?

The breather on the rocker cover should connect to the inlet manifold.

If diesels get breathy, it is common for leaks around the base of the breather "mushroom" to leak. The silastic'd breather mod is common.

The breather from the rocker cover of SIII diesel should (in theory) connect with a piece of rubber hose to a pipe nipple fitting set into the rear core plug of the inlet manifold.

Mine have always vented to atmosphere, leaving an oily patch under the middle of the bonnet. Any remaining hole in the inlet manifold was blocked off.

As mentioned before there should be an O ring between the black mushroom and the rocker cover. Look out the bolt thread is easy to strip.

Re: Vacuum system, the "genuine part" is a venturi manifold add-in with a butterfly valve. Works like the butterfly in a carburettor. This is fitted between the flexible air inlet hose and the start of the aluminium inlet manifold. The whole thing has a linkage back to the throttle bar which closes the butterfly valve when you take your foot off the accelerator, making a vacuum in the inlet manifold, which is in turn connected to the brake booster.

All this does is make a poor vacuum, lots of smoke on part throttle, reduce the flow of air into your engine and add one more set of plastic ball joints to break in the throttle linkage.

A better solution is a replacement alternator with rear mounted vacuum pump, or a 12V vacuum pump.

You can retrofit the brake booster from a later SIII to yours. They are designed to fit a dual circuit master, which means you will need to change the front brakes to the later style with twin leading shoes or make a bit of a bodge.

Alternatively you can get an inline booster which will fit with your current system. This sort of thing, n.b. this is just an example to give you an idea - no recommendation. BOOSTER TYPES

HTH,

Andy

As indicated with the breather - breather problems usually suggest loss of compression due to worn rings.

If yours is an 88, swapping the entire braking system, or at least the front and m/c to six cylinder (wider 11") brakes may well give you a sufficient improvement without the problems of fitting power assisted brakes.

Most of the problem with the intake butterfly largely arise because the adjustment of the butterfly is critical - it is only meant to close when the throttle is completely closed, but this means that any free play due to wear on the linkage reduces vacuum, and adjustment to fix this means it is partly closed when it shouldn't be.

John

When you remove the breather or "mushroom", if you stick the little pipe that comes out from it into a potato, you can put some diesel in the breather and leave it for a while to soften up any deposits in it.Give it a shake, empty it then put some clean diesel in and rinse it out. Leave it to dry then refit it. If you do this a couple of times a year it will keep everything nice and clean. Used to do this on a 90 turbo diesel and on a series 111, 2.25 diesel.

My old series 3 used to blow oil out of the rocker breather as the filler was also fitted with a breather that faced into the breeze from the fan. found this when I fitted an electric fan and stopped the high speed airflow.

Finally got it sorted out and cleaned the rocker cover breather by long soaking in ULP 2 stroke. Then fitted the right oil filler cap and a new O ring on the rocker cover vent.

The same LWB traybabk had only fully manual brakes and they worked well when set up and adjusted correctly. was possible to lock up all 4 wheels if not careful. Linings were reasonably soft though. Had previously had a 720 dato with the vac pump on the rear of the alternator and it was a pain in the arse.

Finally silicone is death to engines unless used very carefully. One blocked oil gallery/jet and the engine is stuffed.

Cheers

Thanks to everyone for the assistance & tips.

I haven't had a chance to get stuck into it again, but hopefully I will this weekend.

For today's stupid question, I have 2 (of what I presume to be original) tools. One is clearly the crank handle. The other is similarly long tool with a squared end, about 1/2" iirc. I'm presuming this was the jack handle, but am I correct? No, I don't have a LR jack in case you're wondering.
Both these tools are stowed behind the seats. There are clips on the bulk head, but only one of the tools seems to fit, possibly due to the dual fuel tank's filler hose reducing the available length of bulkhead?