More problems

[SimonR]

Conversion to the later type sounds beyond my capabilities.

Nope, it's actually a fairly simple job once you have got the parts. The fun part is getting the parts in the first place!

If you can find a late 1.6 Maestro (or Montego - see below) (Late F, G, H, J plate) with the oil filler in the cam carrier cover then it has all the parts you need. It's finding the donor that takes the time. All parts are interchangeable between the Maestro and Montego except the breather rail and elbow, due to a different gearbox adaptor plate.

Just take from that car:
Sump
Oil separator (which replaces the RH stiffening bar that attaches to the top of the sump and the side of the inlet manifold) and associated pipes (attached to sump and carb)
Breather rail (metal pipe that goes across the back of the engine) + rubber hose
Breather rail elbow + Bolts (bolts into the gearbox adaptor plate)
Cam Carrier cover with the filler cap in it.

Fitting the parts took me a morning and involved jacking the car up and supporting it on axle stands to get the sump off but it's really not a difficult job at all.

You can see the new parts of the breather system in this photo (Engine removed for clarity).

Of course, if you're doing a belt and braces job you might as well find a low-mileage car and take the unleaded cylinder head and ECU to convert your car to unleaded...!

Seriously though, the breather upgrade is well worth a bit of effort.

[e692wtt]

Duckhams Oils were reputed to be 'the best' for minimal 'Mayo' production as per Car mechanics Mag in the mid 90s, and it holds true now - I use nothing else . I found GTX Oil to produce momumental amounts of Mayo, and most other oils aren't much better.

My Monty, 1.6L 88MY, has the 'air hose from filler pipe to air intake' mod - when I got him the crankcase vent hoses were all clogged and all this hose did was spew vast amounts of Mayo into the base of the air filter housing... the usual oil seals around the Camshaft still blew out . It's not a complete success .

[mgdavid]

Hi, unfortunately the mayo problem is a design fault and is difficult to fix long term. The later models had the beather system totaly redesigned and this went a long way to curing the issues.
.......
The only thing you can do is remove all the breather pipes and oil filler tube and clean out all the mayo. The oil seperator on the sump is more difficult to clean out thoroughly so if you are lucky enough to get hold of a new one then that will be more successful than just cleaning out the old one. .......
Regards Gary

I do reconditioned sump breathers - email or PM me if you want one....
david.smith@stones.com

[D813YBB]

Finally borrowed the digi camera from work and took some pictures of the oil pipe work.

1. Picture of the oil filler tube with the cap off….anyone for Hellmans?
2. Picture of the oil pipes – seems fairly obvious which pipes they are but would appreciate confirmation.
3. Picture confirming my car has the extra pipe to the air filter
4. Wider view of the engine bay
5. Picture showing what I think is the oil cleaner (between the two centre spark plug leads)

[G Force]

Hi, You have correctly identified the oil seperator (pic 1) The breather hoses are straight forward one from seperator to tee piece, then tee piece to oil filler cap and tee piece running under air filter round to the carburettor. (pic 2)

Regards gary

[D813YBB]

Thanks for that Gary. I'm due to change the oil again very shortly as the car has done almost 5000 miles since the Christmas service. So after I drain the oil from the sump, I then remove all the pipework, whats the most effective method to clear out the slop from the pipes?

[mgdavid]

Start with about 1 metre of thick electrical cable (not flex, it needs to be stiff). Bare back 8 to 10 cm of wire at one end. Take a piece of rag about 15cm square, scrunch 2 opposite sides together, bind the bare wire round the middle and fold the 2 ends of rag back together. Then feed the other end of the cable down a hose and out the other end, pull it through. Repeat until the pipe is clean or the rag is so gloopy you need to replace it with a clean bit. Takes 10 minutes to do the lot and costs nothing.

[e692wtt]

In all seriousness, use a Duckhams Oil (I use Q 20w/50 in Monty, Mk I 1.6L with 150k on the clock but not too smoky :laugh: - and the 'Hellmans' is minimal even though the engine only does 4 miles each way to work, which is the worst sort of use for 'Mayo' production) and you won't have a mayo problem any more .

I'd say that Duckhams 10w/40 won't cause any mayo problem either - I'm going to use this in my 'new' 1.6L 'Fleagle, another Mk I 1.6L with just 25k on the clock.

Clean out the breather pipes as David says, check they are clear when you check the fluids (on a 'just in case' basis ) and use a Duckhams Oil, and they won't block again. Easier than fitting the later breather system - it works for me .

[C191JOE]

mayo

I helped Simon r with the repostioning of the various gubbins he describes and although it may seem daunting it all went smoothly - it's just a matter of being logical and methodical and giving yourself plenty of time to allow for the (occasional) snags. Rare, of course. and as he says, sourcing the parts in the first place.
(burgundy wearing off now!)

[D813YBB]

Update:

I changed the oil, oil filter and oil filler cap last weekend. The Hellmans was becoming really bad, so I removed the pipe from the oil separator to the carb which was absolutely full of the stuff. To clean it out I stuck a piece of old aerial cable through it and blew through it enough times until it was reasonably clear. After flushing and on reassembly I refilled with Castrol GTX Magnatec. (Couldn’t find a shop selling Duckhams).
On Wednesday I did a 337mile return trip down to Grimsby for work, and on inspection of the filler cap and filler tube on arriving home, no trace of the Hellmans could be seen. So fingers crossed it appears to have gone. In addition a slight hesitancy in the engine when cold has also disappeared, which must have been caused by the blockages.