What do we do when things are not working? Well yeah! – we fix them!
Obviously, if while engine is running, and a lot of smoke pouring out of the crankcase breather – then it’s not a breather box that is at fault, it’s a blow by and in that case piston rings are knackered… so if that’s the problem you are facing – this is not the post you are looking for…
In my case it was oil dripping out of the vent tube, more after faster rpm’s, less after slower rpm’s, but i hope we all agree – it’s always best to keep oil inside of the engine, not outside of it..
So there was that, a clear idea that its not working and a will to fix it and so I decided to get it out and play around a bit, wash it perhaps, and see if that helps… so I washed it, and I noticed that not a lot came out of it… so I drilled a big hole on the side of it, and i was not very surprised – there was, well… just some left overs of what ever had to be in there!
That explained why it didn’t do what it had to do, and I had to come up with something to make it work! And, the answer to that was a wire mesh! Not just some chicken wire mesh, but a fine stainless-steel mesh rammed in the breather box!
Let me explain, originally Mr Suzuki stuffed some sort of sponge type of thing into my DRZ’s breather box, but it deteriorated with time, so I hope that something metallic will last a little bit longer, and in theory, if its colder – vapours should stick a bit better, and more of it, should allow to condense and drip down and back into to the crankcase instead of it being blown out! Well, that’s the idea anyway!
So what did I do? I just ordered a fine mesh measured 90cm by 60cm, cut it into couple of smaller bits, folded it in a way that no loose ends would dangle around and stuffed it into the box, not too tight, not too loose but I tried to fill all the corners and fill it in a way that no matter how vapour would travel through the breather box – it would have to pass through the mesh few times!
The result? Well… 1 sheet of that magic stuff wasn’t enough to my surprise, I had to order another one and stuffing both filled the box up to the top, but yet with no restrictions, and a fast test ride proved it to be a good solution as not a single drip came out of the vent pipe since!
Nearly forgot! I plugged the hole with one of those rubber grommets that I had stashed somehwere from previous projects!
Explore more about DRZ400E!
Project “Suzuki DRZ 400” Adventure Build:
- Making a choice!
- Project Tracking (Any motorcycle project)!
- Why you should grease your suspension bolts and bearings… (find on my DRZ400 project)
- Motorcycle frame powder coating nightmares (why you should or shouldn’t powder coat your frame) + Bonus tip
- First impression and first problems on my newly rebuilt DRZ-400
Suzuki DRZ 400 Mods:
- Crankase Breather box mod – How to stop oil being blown out of the vent!
- Making Custom Wiring loom for my DRZ400 (or 3, or 4!)
- R&D FlexiJet, The Flexible air fuel screw on suzuki DRZ-400, is it any good?
- Big Safari Fuel Tank Balancing Attempts (and fails)
Suzuki DRZ 400 Fails!
Coming soon…!
