Oil Breather Filter.. Does it do anything?!
Oil Breather Filter.. Does it do anything?! Alright, so oil leaks out of my breather filter/cap. It's that thing that replaces the cap where you put your oil in, only it's a filter, that supposedly lets everything "breathe" out. Only thing is, randomly I'll get an oil smell, which most likely is it leaking out of there. The edges of the filter are always wet with oil. It's not pooling out, but enough to notice. There's also some splash spots (hardly) on my hood where it looks like it hit. Does this really benefit that much? Or should I just go get a factory cap.
Did you install the breather because you were having problems with excessive crankcase pressure (i.e. dipstick blowing out) or did you just do it because someone said it was a good idea? Remember, your crankcase breathes through the PCV system, so the only reason to use a breather there would be if the PCV system can't flow enough. That is usually only a problem on cars making serious power (not that 430 hp is anything to sneeze at). Do you have forced induction or spray a large amount of nitrous? Also keep in mind that if you put a breather in place of the oil filler tube with the factory PCV system intact you are creating a vacuum leak, since the PCV system will suck unmetered air in through the breather. Hope this helps.
