vent hoses and thermostat cable

[9144fun]

Yesterday, while pulling off the fan belt for the first time since buying my car I found a couple of things that raised questions.

First, I found that when the car was converted to carbs the vent hose that comes out of the engine on the left side had been just laid down in front of the fan shroud blowing oil all over the fan area. After about 2 hrs. of cleaning sludge out of there, I decided to conect that hose to the hose that was again going no where coming out of the box for the oil filler tube. My question is can these 2 hoses simply be hooked together or do I have to make a provision for the engine to "breathe"? I am thinking that if it needs to breathe that I could bring the hoses together at a T and connect a small air filter to it.

Next, I realized that my thermostat cable had broken. When there is no cable are the flaps sprung in the open or closed position?

Thanks,
Chad

[Ron Meier]

The head "breather" hoses were connected to the air cleaner. You can "t" them or whatever you want. Instead of the air cleaner, they can be run to a breather box or catch can (racer stuff). Make sure you mount the box or can as high in the engine compartment as possible as the head taps are not outfitted with baffles.

When the thermo cable breaks, the flaps always goto the open (hot) position, otherwise you would have "cooked" T4 for lunch. If left in the "open" position, warm up is slow and a tad more engine wear can occur.