I've hopefully attached a couple of pictures of what I ended up doing in the end. I found an old valve chest cover I lying around which had already been partly butchered for an outlet, and combined it with a bit of old plumbing to direct the fumes into the carb.
I've been very surprised at how much of a difference it has made, I wouldn't say it's 100% cured, but a good enough difference to have been worthwhile and to make driving the car substantially more pleasant.
As for sorting the underlying issue causing the fumes, I've long learnt not to disturb an otherwise well running engine unless there is something absolutely critical wrong with it, as the simplest of quick fixes always seem to escalate into long term rebuilds!
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,230 Threads: 33
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7 Location: Salop
Car type: '28 GE Cup. '28 AD Chummy '30 RL Saloon. '34 RP Saloon. Too Many toys!
if you turn it through 90 degrees. and fit a 6 foot long piece of heater hose zip tied to the chassis venting out the back somewhere, it will be 100% cured!.
I'm not sure how much oil is swimming about int the valve chest, but if it's significant you're at risk of pulling over loads of oil through that new outlet due to it being low down in the valve chest area - would potentially be better if at the top with some sort of oil separator/gauze or at least a direct splash shield behind it.....
You wouldn’t have to strip it. You can change the valve guides in an afternoon, with the engine in the car. In this case probably as quick as an effective bodge.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,230 Threads: 33
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7 Location: Salop
Car type: '28 GE Cup. '28 AD Chummy '30 RL Saloon. '34 RP Saloon. Too Many toys!
26-04-2019, 04:07 PM (This post was last modified: 26-04-2019, 04:08 PM by Hedd_Jones.)
I ran a hose from such a chest zip tied on the chassis and aimed at a back spring for a number of years, until the engine, which went very well wore sufficient end float in its main bearings to knock occasionally when the crank hit the cam bearing.
The 'smoke' is indeed at least partially oil mist. It produced a slight oily residue on the spring it was aimed at, not enough to wet it, but enough to colour the road dust/filth. But it didn't spit out neat oil by the gallon.
Before the chest vent and hose it would fill the cabin of my poor box saloon which meant I had to drive with the passenger door window well open or I soon got kippered. Even so I got partially kippered.
The procurement of a woman who was happy to go for jollys in the car (despite the smoke) was the prod that I needed to do something about it. I preferred her perfume to burnt oil smell. That woman is now my wife. And out offspring is enjoying the same car at present.
There is a much better engine in the car now I hasten to add, but a car on the road and enjoyed is always better than one in bits in the shed.
When warm and working hard, my RP gives off an occasional smell of hot oil accompanied on times by curling wisps of blue smoke in the front passenger footwell. Nothing I can't live with though. I have put it down to yet another Austin Seven thing.
I am reminded of an early 50's Volkswagen Beetle that a young lady of my acquaintance owned. On those, the heater ducted cooling air from the engine into the car. One couldn't use the heater because of the almost overpowering smell of hot oil when the vents were open!
When at university in the 60s my friend had an RP, which he still owns. It smoked profusely.
He found that having the sunroof open a couple of inches sucked a lot of the smoke out of the car.
When following him in my fabric saloon the smoke was clearly visible rising from the roof. - Interesting.
