Cat 3116 Breather Replace or Clean?

[GnrlPatton]

How did you make out with the breathers?

Haven't yet, I'm heading to the boat tonight and will remove them to bring home. I'm kind of hoping they are filthy, as that will be another reason for the transom sooting that will be solved.

 

[JVM225]

Haven't yet, I'm heading to the boat tonight and will remove them to bring home. I'm kind of hoping they are filthy, as that will be another reason for the transom sooting that will be solved.

I’m not an expert but I suppose if there is enough oil in a breather it could contribute to some soot on the transom.
Not sure it would be the only reason for sooting though. Again though, I’m a novice with diesels.
It’s a breather for the crank case.
The dirty oily air stuff that comes out of the crankcase and up through that breather gets filtered by the filter media (steel wool looking stuff) inside the breather and fed back in to the combustion chamber.
If you follow the hose out of the breather it goes to the vacuum regulator and then another hose goes from the vacuum regulator to the base below the air sep where it is cycled in to the combustion chamber along with the air pulled in through the air sep.
If there is enough oil residue in the breather it might be sending enough of an oily mix back in to the combustion chamber to cause some sooting.
If that were the case though I would think the excess oil is getting by, or being pulled past, the filtering media inside the breather and there would be some visible evidence of excess oil on the exit side of the breather and/or the hose to the vacuum regulator.
While you can spray the crap out of the breather with a degreaser, I use simple green, the filtering media is permanently trapped in there and tough to get to directly so I soak mine for a while, rinse with water then dry by blowing air through them.

 

[GnrlPatton]

I got mine out and cleaned them this weekend, it was pretty straight forward. They did have a fair amount of oil residue in them, I squirted them down with Simple Green first, then put them in a bucket of hot water with Dawn, and let them soak for a few hours. I swirled the bucket around every 30-60 minutes or so to really get them clean, then drained the oily water and rinsed in clean water. I haven't reinstalled them yet, but the whole thing was pretty simple, and I have to assume it will help.

Kevin

 

[LaPlaya]

1999 3116's 380DA - 475hrs. Seeing just a little black soot around exhaust holes... I have the AirSeps and Breathers... I removed mine, cleaned them, and reinstalled them last week. It was pretty straight forward. They did have a fair amount of oil residue in them and the "spring actuators" were a little "sticky"... I squirted everything down with straight Simple Green full strength first. I made a bucket of hot water and Simple Green and let them soak for a few hours. I swirled the bucket around every 30-60 minutes as well, then drained the oily water. I then put them through a fresh bucket of hot soapy water (Dawn) till they were clean and then rinsed in a final bucket of warm water and let them dry. Pretty simple process. I cleaned my AirSep K&M filters too and then reinstalled the entire system. She "seems" to run "cleaner"? I'll keep an eye on the amount of soot around my exhaust holes.

 

[ttmott]

I think he is talking about #2 (the breather) in the first graphic.
I only posted the second graphic of “what I have” to show the difference between the breather and elements.
Sorry for the confusion.

That is not a "breather"; it is an oil separator. It's purpose is to strip the oil vapor from the engine crankcase gasses and return the oil to the crankcase rather than oil down the turbocharger compressor. Ideally this system operates at a slight vacuum created by the turbocharger and is one of the essential tests done by a surveyor. The O-ring and clamp for the separator can be a bit tricky so double check it to make sure it seats.
From the school of hard knocks....

 

[Express 390]

I didn't know about taking off the breather and cleaning it, I do the AirSeps every year, along with Item #1 in the second image (not sure what that is..). If I'm reading this right, I can just unclamp the big white element and take it home to soak in a degreaser? To be sure, it's the item in red in my image, correct? I've been cleaning the 2 items in green already. If that can contribute to the sooting, I want to jump right on it!

View attachment 71033

Thanks,
Kevin

Nice job on the motor and bilge detailing , Kept clean the way it should be!

 

[mrsrobinson]

Bump

Is this the K&N stuff I should use: https://www.amazon.com/Air-Filter-C...52&sprefix=K&N+air+cleaning+kit,aps,87&sr=8-1

 

[fwebster]

Will work fine in Walker Airseps.

 

[mrsrobinson]

I am going to check mine on Friday. How can I tell which ones I have?

 

[fwebster]

Walker supplies K & N elements with Air-Sep kits.
The filter elements should have a slight red tint to them

 

[marty51]

You have what is shown in both graphics

 

[Njlarry]

TT,
could you please elaborate on testing the vacuum on the oil separator? I know it was not done during my survey. How and what does it show?
Thank you.

Edit. Also does anyone have a part number the seal numdered 3 in the top drawing and must it be replaced?

 

[Pgeee]

This shows the whole crankcase breather for my 3116s. therein it seems are the parts including the o ring. I’ll get a couple before I take mine off, just in case

the 2nd snapshot below shows the reducing size hose I have (item 7) , I think mine are ok though.