Oil Vapour Separator

[joehorner]

Newbie to the Fiat forum. Have done a bunch of work on my 1976 Fiat Spider 124 so far. I have been rebuilding a 1970 VW Bus for years, so I can get around the engine compartment pretty good. One of the main issues I think I just figured out was why I had oil spitting out my dipstick and dripping off my dizzy at higher rpm's. I know the dizzy is prone to do this anyway (thanks to the forum). I will be changing out the gasket and seal this weekend. But the dipstick was an issue that was telling me that I had more of a problem as it was spewing oil all over my electronics on the drivers side. From what I have read, the Oil, vapour separator must be clogged. Thought it was because I didn't have a good vacuum connection to my carb from the crankcase vent tube, which should decrease pressure, but the oil should be going back into the crank case from the oil/vapour separator before it goes all the way up my dipstick. The only other thing it could be would be blow by from bad rings, which I dare not imagine at this point. Engine is purring right along, and I don't even want to think about a rebuild. Would like to see my kids once in a while without them running away from my grease filled hands. Anyway, would welcome any thoughts of alternative thinking. I also have not seen the clamps on the hoses that remind me of a combination of a cotter pin and and the twist things that come your bread. Will try to post a picture if people don't know what I am talking about. Not sure how to get it off. Could destroy it and go back with a normal hose clamp, but I don't like operating that way.

[TX82FIAT]

The oil vapor separator on the drivers side has a small elbow tube and a longer tube. The old style clamps can be taken off and replaced with new hose clamps. Usually a twist with a good pair of needle nose plyers will work. Since the clamps are the original clamps then you have the original hose. That little elbow hose may need to be replaced as well. Sound like you have a lot of crank case pressure.

[katsi]

Oh yeah. The old cyclonic vortex seperator. It should have a mesh filter in it. The bolt holding it in place is pretty long. If your bolt patterns from a PO are incorrect on the intake they the two hit when trying to remove either the intake or the vortex. If the bolt pattern is correct (studs vs bolts on the intake) then you should be ok. On my 79 they were messed up so it was a bitch to get them out but I was able to after a lot of finess). You can get a pretty good swap out elbow tube for it from any one of the suppliers and it should come with a new mesh filter. Problem is that the two sides of the original tube are different sizes because the connection to the cyclonic vortex and the block are different sizes. So whatever you get will need a little finess to make it work as they will most likely have the same circumference on both ends of the hose. Good luck. Really, shouldn't be that difficult is everything is original or atleast put back on correctly.

[joehorner]

What an easy fix! I don't have fuel injection so getting the seperator off was quick. Pulled the tube that goes to the air intake off, and sure enough...the spark arrester was all clogged up. Dropped it in the parts cleaner and then pulled the Oil Vapour seperator off. It was pretty gummed up too. Cleaned everything up and reinstalled. No oil coming out of my engine...at all! Didn't have to pull the dizzy. No oil on my exhaust or on my electronics. Loving it. Thanks for your comments. Just installed a 4-2-1 header last night replacing the 4-1 header. Taking it to the muffler shop tommorrow. It will be fun to drive it down the street without the muffler attached.