Re-Route Breather Vent Kama 554

[3RRL]

Hi guys,
Almost a year ago I was asking about excessive blow by on my Kama 554 in this old thread.
Excessive Blow-By Kama 554

As it turned out, the blow by is not too excessive after all. In fact, other owners said it was pretty standard. Someday I'll do an engine overhaul if it becomes necessary, but for now the engine is still running great.

There were some interesting alternatives discussed. Of particular interest to me was to re-route the breather vent so that some of the oil gasses would be sucked up into the intake manifold instead of blowing out onto the valve cover and engine block...making a mess.
Sort of like recirculating what little smoke there is.

After re-reading the old thread, I wanted to accomplish a couple things with this mod:
-I wanted to make sure the air intake would not "suck" the oil directly out of the valve cover.
-It was important that the intake on the air filter get fresh air as well as suck in some of the smoke.
-I wanted the air and smoke to go through my filter rather than straight into my manifold so I could monitor it.
-I have a filter minder to tell me when the air filter starts to get clogged up.
Here's what I came up with.
The stock Breather is on the left and the re-routed one is on the right.

[3RRL]

I started out by boring out the OEM breather cap and making a brass bushing that fit inside and plugged up the vent holes. The bored hole fits the tubing and is sealed with an "O" ring. I can still unscrew the breather cap because it rotates around the tube. The wire meshing is still inside the OEM cap. There is another fat "O" ring that seals the threads to the cap, so no smoke or oil escapes when the cap is screwed on.

[3RRL]

I routed the tubing over to the front of the engine.
I had to find the right place to get to the air filter intake hole so the hood would close. These photos show the route I took. I made a couple brackets to hold the tubing in position. In the last photo, you can see the relationship between the end of the breather tube and the intake hole on the air filter.



I tried that out for a couple days and noticed that once in a while I could see a little smoke from under the hood when at idle. It was not too much but I wanted to make the breather tube a little closer to the air filter. The radiator fan was sucking some of it in before the air filter got to it.
So I put in a longer tube to get it closer.



Now there is still plenty of fresh air to suck in, but any smoke that comes out of the breather tube is collected and sucked up by the air filter opening. I've had this on for a week now and it seems there are no problems doing this. The smoke that used to come out of the OEM breather cap has been totally eliminated and so has the mess on the side of the engine.
If it works out I'll leave it like this.
Rob-

[bradblazer]

Nice work Rob - the hits just keep coming!
The chrome tubing looks cool. Is that sink drain tubing or something more exotic?

Brad

[GuglioLS]

Hey Rob,

Very cool Mod. I guess this was needed because the 554 engine does not have positive crankcase ventilation? I looked at the engine on my Jinma 354, it has a vent / filler cap on the crank but the valve cover also has a hose running to the intake manifold. I wonder how much smoke / blow by I'm getting? I cant see it because it runs inside a black 1" hose right into the intake manifold. What you don't know can't hurt you, right? HaHaHa. If it works to keep the slimy mess off the side of the engine that is a good thing.

I wonder is a "P" trap somewhere along the pipe might trap condensed oil vapors preventing them from draining down into the filter over time? I guess you will have to monitor it for a couple of weeks to see if that's even an issue.

looks great,

Larry

[3RRL]

Thanks guys,
Right you are Larry.
I've seen on the Jinma's where some of the breather fumes go back into the intake manifold. I was worried about a run away tractor, but the fumes are not that much at all. I made mine so the fumes come into the filter where I can monitor it. If the filter starts getting clogged up, I can wash it out or replace it. It would be good to do that periodically anyway.

Brad, you're right, that's chrome plated (brass) sink drain tubing.
It's 1-½"Ø tubing. Seems to be a lot of room for any smoke to get out without restrictions. Glad you like the routing, I think it's pretty cool looking too. I have zero mess at the engine so far after about 8 hours of running.
Rob-

[captinjack]

Good looking job Rob.

My Kama doesn't appear to be leaking as I haven't noticed any smoke coming from the filler/vent, but there's enough oil coming from everywhere else ( valve cover) that I think it's masked as far as oil goes.

My poor Kama is sitting outdoors all alone now in the brutal cold at the cabin and I'm getting a serious case of tractoritis. I have a whole list of stuff I want to do once the weather improves and I'm able to get back down for a visit.

Got a battery powered grease gun for Xmas and will do a review on it later this spring.

edit: I forgot to ask you how did you add the symbols for 1/2 and 0?

[3RRL]

Jan 13, 2009 15:03:36 GMT -5 captinjack said:

Good looking job Rob.

My Kama doesn't appear to be leaking as I haven't noticed any smoke coming from the filler/vent, but there's enough oil coming from everywhere else ( valve cover) that I think it's masked as far as oil goes.

My poor Kama is sitting outdoors all alone now in the brutal cold at the cabin and I'm getting a serious case of tractoritis. I have a whole list of stuff I want to do once the weather improves and I'm able to get back down for a visit.

Got a battery powered grease gun for Xmas and will do a review on it later this spring.

edit: I forgot to ask you how did you add the symbols for 1/2 and 0?

Thanks Jack,
Good to hear your Kama doesn't have blow by like mine does.
To make ½ press and hold Alt and type 171
To make the Ø symbol, press and hold Alt and type 0216
Your computer should have a "symbols" chart inside it somewhere.
Do a search for many, many more.
Rob-

[3RRL]

You saw in my "Steel Wool Filter" thread where I re-routed the breather tube again so the oily smoke would not clog up my paper air filters. After deciding not to use the Steel Wool filter after all, this connection kept the paper air filters from getting wiped out.



Well, as it turns out, that little hose was just not enough to take the oily smoke into the intake manifold like the large tube from the first mod. In that other thread, Larry made a great suggestion to ad a larger tube into the intake but install a shut-off valve to it. That way I could open the valve up until the just the oily smoke was being sucked into the intake. It would be a perfect way to "fine tune adjust" the amount coming from the breather into the intake. If there is smoke coming out the breather holes, open the valve a little more ... just enough until it disappears.
So that's what I did this weekend.

[3RRL]

I started with the little housing that holds the OEM metal filtering material.
It had a flange on it that wouldn't fit inside the "T" I was using. I ground the flange down in diameter so that it fit the 1-1/4 "T". I made the flange the same size as the largest pipe thread so I could screw it down inside the "T".



I then drilled several "breather holes" into the top plug.
The metal filtering material fits back inside that now. You can see the "breather holes in the plug. I will remove the plug and filtering material when changing or adding oil.
Rob-

[3RRL]

Your probably wondering why I'm using a "T"?
When I made the OEM oil fill/breather cap to fit those large pipes, it finally cracked in half. So I needed to make a new "cap". I added a little extension that makes the whole breather a little taller and gives me a straight shot from the new shut-off valve to the air intake tube. The bottom of the "T" is connected by a pipe nipple to a connector. And the connector is welded to the OEM breather flange that bolts up to the valve cover. The top of the "T" will have that breather plug I made. The middle of the "T" is where the shut-off valve is.

I also added a larger 1/2 pipe elbow and welded that to the air intake tube.
Then I got some clear vinyl 3/4" ID tubing to connect the valve to the air intake tube. I was able to do exactly like Larry said ... adjust the valve opening just enough to take the annoying smoke away. The new breather cap works good so I had to open the valve almost completely before the smoke disappeared. When I changed engine rpm I could see a little puff of smoke and then it would disappear again. So I think I have it set perfectly now.

Thanks for the great idea Larry!
This is what it looks like.
Rob-

[bradblazer]

Looks nice Rob I'm sure it will do the trick for you.
It's nice to have you in the vanguard of all of these mods. I'll bet that tube won't stay clear for long.

[affordable]

Damn Rob your not only a hell of a Fabricator,Welder,backhoe operator,machinest,home builder.

Your a Plumber Too !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great job on all the Mods

Tommy
Affordable Tractor Sales Co.
" Your Jinma parts Superstore "
www.affordabletractorsalesco.com

[quikduk]

HAHA.

Rob is a "retired plumber" so he doesn't need to remember that "payday" is on Friday...only that hot is on the left and shit still runs down hill.

Looks great Rob! Another classic mod. ;D

[GuglioLS]

Hey Rob,

That came out better than expected. So it works then? I mean, you were able to adjust the suction rate with the valve? Is there still a .200" restriction somewhere in the plumbing or just the valve? My thinking was that the valve would have been closed off more that it is, oh well so much for my prediction

Seems to work and definitely looks great .... Oh and does you filter minder still work with this mod?


Larry