Hello Chaps!
As promised, a picture 'how-to" of how to change the breather gauze on 2.0i Carlton engines.
Most of us I guess know about this / how to do this but for the newbies ...
The gauze get clogged up from time to time with dried up oil deposits and need renewing.
Symptoms include engine starting OK, then 5-20 mins into the journey, your engine will get grumpy and start to cut out.
So, in best "Tunes" fashion, to allow your engine to "breathe more easily" ... and therefore keep you purring along, follow the next steps:
1) Buy a "rocker cover gasket" (or otherwise known as valve cover gasket) - £2 Halfords **
2) Buy a rocker cover breather gauze - £2 ebay, £4 Vaux dealers
** Note: When I got my gasket the "newbie" in Halfords said they do not stock it, but a more experienced dude luckily came along and said the Carlton 1.8i / Cav 2.0i is the same for the Carlton 2.0i even though on the packaging it didnt say Carlton 2.0i ! Halfords "FAI Auto Parts" part number 111393 / RC293S
Open bonnet ...
Red circles - 8 x 10mm bolts to unscrew. Some of these suckers have metal mounts for spark plugs and wiring so take a note of what went where - usually some plastic bits will break / have broke - c'est la vie - cable ties at the ready to replace.
3 Purple circles - jubilee clips to undo.
Purple line - pipe we need to disconnect and clean.
Blue X - gauze is in here.
Here we have the pipe disconnected. These two metal 1" pipes will need to be cleaned...
A picture of the new gauze - note the locating bit.
In typical "Haynes jokebook" style, "removing the 10mm bolts" - but showing as I mentioned previously - watch out for the clippy things under the bolts - especially the ones near the bulkhead - they can disappear inside your engine bay, never to be seen again!
We will need to clean this area ....
... coz this happens !
OK, rocker cover off, and upside down we can see 2 x 10mm (thats handy!) bolts which we need to take off ...
If you're lucky, (like I was on "blue" and "black") the old gasket would just come off all in one piece - but unfortunately on "Purple" it was stuck so came off in bits - so to prevent any "bits" going into the engine, I padded the sucker with kitchen towel before scraping off the old gasket.
When you remove the 2x 10mm bolts you can remove the inner breather case, exposing the gauze which can be popped out...
Now clean the breather pipe thoroughly - I use a mix of Persil nonbio and fairy liquid forced through with drillbits or suitably sized pencils
Everythings washed - ready to go...
New gauze in place...
Breather housing bolted on ...
HOT TIP ... fit the new gasket to the rocker cover and N O T the rocker head ... the cover has "blips" which snugly fit the gasket, gripping it when you turn it back over to bolt on to the engine.
Use a pipe cleaner (or in my case an innards of a BIC pen and some loo roll) to clean out this bit (dont forget to clean the rocker cover metal pipe bit also!).
Good idea to replace the oil filler cap before bolting down incase you lose bolts down the hole!
Job done, and a cleaner rocker cover to boot !!!
Have fun!
