Hi - Local guy called today with beautiful Mehari and he said he has 2 oil leaks that he can not solve - 1. from behind camshaft (the points end) no seal and 2. from one of the push rod tubes seals. I said that it could be the Reniflard.
Was I correct???????

Or sh@gged pistons, rings or barrels?
I find it strange that everyone seems to blame the breather as the first call nowadays, when the problem is just as likely to be excessive blowby pressurising the crankcase, with which even a new breather will struggle to cope.

I'd suggest a compression test or even better a leakdown test in addition to a crankcase vacuum test.

ken

Forgot to say I did simple test with manometer and instead of sucking it was blowing out of the dip stick tube. He said new pistons and barrels about 4000 kms ago.

That's irrelevant if it's been pinking its nuts off and suffered a partial seizure.

I've seen a race engine have its barrels and pistons destroyed in 2 laps of Cadwell because the driver chose to ignore the racket coming from under the bonnet and kept the pedal to the metal.

ken

If for argument sake the pistons and barrels are OK - if the reniflard has failed would that give the symptons that we saw?????

Depends on the manometer readings obtained.
It seem quite common for the test at tickover to be the only reading quoted, whereas the second part of the test is just as important and that specifies that the reading should not go positive at high rpm.

The breathers on the 3 Dyanes I've got on the road must all be over 30 years old and although the crankcase pressure on all three does go (slightly) positive at high rpm, there are only small weeps from the crankshaft nose bearing seals on 2 of the engines,.
None of them have leaks from the pushrod seals or the points box area.

I hope that explains why I'd always recommend combining a compression test or leakdown test with a crankcase vacuum check, as you then have a better idea of the mechanical condition of the engine...

ken

In my experience leaky pushrod tube selas are caused by dodgy or badly fitted pushrod tube seals...

Heads off, replace and fit correctly. I used additional washers on the springs to apply more pressure to the seals.

Could not sleep last night thinking about this problem and decided to make a very simple reed valve to check if Reniflard was working- (pictures not pretty)
I have used feeler gauges so I could find the thickness that worked - 3 thou worked and the car went from positive pressure to 40cm vacuum..... Time to order Reniflard.

Just to finish - New style Reniflard arrived today from ECAS (much better can see reed valve etc) Cut old one apart and found seal had disformed. With new one 40cm of water (same as my reed valve but nicer to look at.)

those reed valve ones suffer corrosion from the condensation in them , the steel lump the carbon reed and the stainless keeper plate all conspire to rot the reed

that deformed ring in your picture can easily be made from a sheet of nitrile purchased off fleabay and 3 pop rivets - bobs yer uncle

if you can re seal the tower