Morris Minor Owners Club

I’ve ordered one of those chrome pancake air filters from ESM. It should fit to the carb easily enough, but I’m wondering what to do with the air hose from the rocker cover to the standard air filter housing - as there appears no way of connecting it?

Would it be a case of replacing the rocker cover with one that doesn’t have that pipe connection on it? And does that mean that connection is surplus to the requirements of the engine?

put down side of engine ...vent to air

MorrisJohn wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:53 pm I’ve ordered one of those chrome pancake air filters from ESM. It should fit to the carb easily enough, but I’m wondering what to do with the air hose from the rocker cover to the standard air filter housing - as there appears no way of connecting it?

Would it be a case of replacing the rocker cover with one that doesn’t have that pipe connection on it? And does that mean that connection is surplus to the requirements of the engine?

The engine really needs some sort of crankcase ventilation. Without it you can get pressure build up causing oil leaks, etc.

Several different crankcase ventilation arrangements were fitted to the Minor at various times, but you don't say what engine you have fitted. The correct combination of parts must be used, in order for the system to work correctly. However, all the arrangements involve crankcase gases being drawn into the engine via the carb, air cleaner or inlet manifold, so they can be burnt.

Philip b wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:11 pm put down side of engine ...vent to air

Venting to air isn't ideal, because you can get oil mist and unburnt fuel fumes exiting the engine into the atmosphere. When these make their way into the passenger compartment it's not pleasant Plus, you can get dust and dirt entering the engine, which won't do it any favours.

Hi,
I use these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291495388016
And to avoid unnecessary head injuries fit one of these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251389972380 ... 1438.l9372
Best wishes,
Mike.

You do need to retain some form of crankcase breather for the reasons stated above.

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/fuel- ... ed-p830663

The additional hole in the air cleaner could be used for attaching the breather pipe. You will need a adapter though.

Thanks for all the replies.

Phil, that is the one I ordered. I’ll try to find an adapter. Failing that I’ll just leave the original set up alone and forget the idea.

Oh dear.... I can see the activists now.... sitting down across junction 21 of the M8....

John ;-)

Sleeper wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:15 am Oh dear.... I can see the activists now.... sitting down across junction 21 of the M8....

John ;-)

Indeed. Glasgow is going to be hellish while this COP show is in town. Why they couldn’t have held it on some large country estate, instead of inconveniencing a few million people, I’ll never know.

Those pancakes are known to be absolutely terrible at making any more power, in fact they kill it, but they are very good at making additional annoying induction noises!

Bowie69 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:56 pm Those pancakes are known to be absolutely terrible at making any more power, in fact they kill it, but they are very good at making additional annoying induction noises!

Hmmmmm.... so (genuine question) what is the point then, other than they look shiny?

To use the vernacular: nailed it.

All that can be said is that they are better than no air filter.

This was enlightening, and one of many similar pages out there:

https://www.minimania.com/Air_filtratio ... test__1288

If tight on space the pancakes are useful, especially on twin carb setups, but we are not overly burdened with that on a Minor.

With E10 petrol being more volatile, it would be useful to be able to input cooler air to lower vaporisation. I wondered if this might cause a rise in interest in alternative air filters. I'm not quite sure of the effects though and preventing the petrol input from getting hot is far more important than the air input and once done (e.g. heat shields) may mean that the air filter can be in the usual summer/winter positions.

I'd say it is only the 10% that is more volatile, the rest of it is the same stuff, and doesn't get carried away by the E part of the fuel.

Honestly, I don't think E10 will make any difference at all to 99.9% of running, and won't need anything changing on these cars except rubber fuel line.

philthehill wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:08 am All that can be said is that they are better than no air filter.

Maybe not even that? When I was an apprentice and had tarted up a 1976 mini clubman I was showing it to the lads at the machine shop and my old boss walked over had a look at the engine, pointed to the filter and said “I see you’ve installed an instant rebore kit”.

As he knew his way around engines, had rebuilt many and had become a minor minor local celebrity at speedway in the 50s I got rid of it and henceforth thought they were junk...

Mind he was a lugubrious owld fart at the best of times.

there is quite a bit in the vizard book about air cleaners, it is interesting to see how little difference there is between the performance cleaners and a decent paper one, the data also seems to point towards a longish trumpet being important which needs a deep air cleaner, we are working on what to fit with our new twin carbs currently it's looking like a two minor ones with larger intake pipes or modified MGB ones.

If you want to fit a pancake air filter the Triumph Spitfire air filter element is a good filter to use. They normally sit inside the air filter housing but can be used without the housing. The filtration is good and being an Unipart/ex factory item you can be assured of the quality of the product.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144136783326 ... Sw5jVgj9OJ
The ram pipe/stubs are a good item to fit as it helps the air flow into the carb.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172722193072 ... xyhlJRe4dk

I was thinking something like this on the Su's but with a deeper airbox (this is too shallow for the lotus at the back, a deeper one is reckoned to be worth up to 5hp) and a cone air filter down beside the radiator with a hole the same as the heater intake on the other side opened up in the front panel to get fresh air in.

The trouble with the Lotus intake is that the crankcase breather goes into the airbox right next to the rear cylinder air intake. Years ago I remember the rear cylinder on my fathers +2 always used to foul its plug. If the breather went into the airbox well forwards of its main intake then the dirty stuff was shared more equally around the 4 cylinders and it ran a lot better.

Regarding E10 I've heard it also eats paper filter elements and I have seen it eat into bare aluminum.