Hello All,

My breather cap off of a 65 (The one in the front that connects to the air filter) is full of a dried black powdery substance. I've shot brake parts cleaner in it, but it stills seems to have an endless supply inside.

Any suggestions on how to clean the thing out? (I was thinking of soaking it in either gas, or simple green).

I know they make aftermarket ones, but they just don't have the same look as the OEM ones

Thanks for all your help in advance

Never use gasoline as a cleaning fluid. It is hideously dangerous to do so. You can easily get dead (or hurt badly enough to wish you were dead).

Simple Green and similar detergents will not touch the cooked oil gunk inside the breather cap. Soak it in solvent (Berryman B12 Chemtool, for example) for a few days. You may eventually find that you cannot get the fibre mesh inside the cap clean; your options are dirty or gone. In that case, you have to choose between installing a new cap that doesn't look original, or opening up the cap and replacing the fibre mesh with some bronze wool which you have hand-pulled to the correct density so air will flow through it. Don't use steel wool, which will rust. Then re-crimp the cap together and repaint it.

Or spend the big bucks on a new one in chrome.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I've had pretty good results cleaning stuff with something called

Oil Eater that I get at Costco.


Cheap try, is liquid dishwashing soap and hot water.


I'd also try paint thinner (leave it soak outside)

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

I'll comment about the cautionary note against gasoline.

I have a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. Gasoline is no more dangerous than Chemtool or any other strong organic-based solvent. Granted, all of these organic chemicals are not entirely safe, benzene is particularly bad, but with proper venting, gloves, and eye protection, they all are pretty much the same. No sparks or flames around any organic solvents! I've routinely cleaned many parts using gasoline. It is a handy solvent that costs, currently in CA, $2.59 per gallon. Chemtool is a great solvent but costs about $25-30/gallon. Why not use gasoline to melt away oil residues? Getting it all out of that semi-closed container, that's another matter...it would take exchange of large volumes of a decent solvent or perhaps lesser volumes of a powerful solvent to do that (chemtool is a good one for sure). It took years to build up that gunk. That all said, Dan is totally on point, even if you did use solvents to dissolve away the gunk, there might not be any fiber element left anyway. Likely the best solution is to open that bugger up and exchange what's left of the filter element with new material. Careful prying with the appropriate tools, you should be able to do it without damaging the crimp and be able to close it back up - patience is needed there. And, you'll be satisfied that you did it yourself and have a freshly painted breather knowing full well what's inside it. Who know's what those new ones have in them? Wow, you're totally right about that chrome one, Dan, $85 dollars is highway robbery - it's a tin can for goodness sake.

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ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Mopar-1967- ... b7&vxp=mtr

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I see that was a "bid" situation and shipping is $15, my bad..

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The price variation is incredible...

Here's one for $29: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOPAR-68-69-OIL ... 8d&vxp=mtr

and here's one for $179: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mopar-engine-oi ... 83&vxp=mtr

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Or, carefully pry the crimped edge loose under the cap edge and pull out the old gunk and clean. And you could renew the filter 'media'.

Speaking of 'media' I had the same issue on my '62 breather cap. I cleaned and cleaned to no avail, but finally tapped it a bunch on a hard surface and the gunk just fell out in batches. It finally got pretty clean, but much of the 'media' broke up and came out too.

We examined the 'media' and to our surprise, my son and I are pretty certain that it is horsehair! Has anyone else taken a close look at the
'media' in the older caps?

Would shower drain hair work?

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"Louise", a 1976 Dart Custom project, (now sadly reverted to being just an "organ donor" to our other project Darts.)

...but it probably would work. I have noted in some really old cars I've worked on, there seem to be some "different" materials used for various purposes. Bakelite, wood, leather (still used ubiquitously), but horse hair? I suppose that was a tail end supply from the old old days, cheaper than synthetics at the time, carry over from the 40-50's era.

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AHahahaha!! You a punny guy! "tail end"... get it?

Roger

I get it now, but I didn't mean to pun anyone.

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I'm not sure,but I would be struggling to supply enough to fill a breather cap these days,hair is a precious commodity on my head !
I did pull one apart ( a breather not a shower drain) and it did look like a horse hair type material,or possibly brumby hair to satisfy local content laws of the day... I pulled it apart,cleaned it out and used an air filter foam substitute,that was years ago,still all good .

OK, for those days when English is a foreign language to me (LOL), just what is 'brumby' hair?

It's the Australian equivalent to a Mustang...a wild or feral horse...it's all English language,maybe just not american (lol)