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[PeteF]

The connection to the back of the timing chest is not a breather. It's the drain for the catch can system. If you have removed the catch can this needs blanking.
Route the pipe from the oil tank breather "up and over" behind the battery to minimize oil blowing out and put a duck bill on the end. If you terminate the pipe over the chain you should get just about enough oil mist to keep the chain lubed.

[Adrian]

The connection to the back of the timing chest is not a breather. It's the drain for the catch can system. If you have removed the catch can this needs blanking.

Didn't I mention this already, Pete?

A.

[Wheaters]

This topic runs happily on and on......

A couple of questions I may have asked before:

1) Does crankcase pressure find its way into the timing case and help push oil back to the reservoir? Michael Waller’s YouTube video featured an early model engine rebuild. That engine had an inner timing case designed in a way so that the idler pinions could push oil return. Later cases don’t have that same design.

2) Is there any advantage in putting in a rocker breather? It was a common mod on BSA unit singles.

[Adrian]

Crankcase pressure can find its way into the timing chest via the oil tank, Redditch as well as Chennai Bullets have either a small slot machined in the top of the crankcase joint faces or a hole drilled through the casting wall, though the oil tank does vent to the atmosphere, either through the breather hole in the bayonet type filler cap or the 2004 onwards pipe on top of the oil tank.

I haven't tried this with a classic model but if you undo an Electra-X tappet cover with the engine running you only do it once, which suggests that there's more than just oil returning under gravity to the timing chest. The scavenge pump is bigger than the oil feed pump, so it will be pumping up crankcase gases through the rocker feed as well as oil.

A.

[Wheaters]

So....rocker breather a good thing, or not?

[PeteF]

Yes you did Adrian, missed that .

[Daiwiskers]

Paul fitted a breather to the inlet rocker box on asbo 30 he used a valve stem then I added the 90° adapter
But it's a G2 motor please excuse the blue grease

[windmill john]

Well I’m glad this thread goes on.... so I can get full understanding how this venting, oil feed system works

I was new to RE last year when I got Gupta, my 2002 350; register as 2006.

I posted a picture and Adrian gladly replied and explained; I’ll stick the piccy below as a reminder.

So, for my understanding please; well at least for my bike.

Reading your posts, the pipe to the timing chest was just from the catch can. I do not have a catch can and this pipe is blocked off.
I then have a breather to the back of the bike. Just to clarify, is this big pipe from the crankcase or oil tank? As I believe there is a hole between crankcase and oil tank, I wasn’t sure.

[PeteF]

This is an article I wrote years ago about RE breathers.
I was talking about the late Classic Iron Barrel models.
All the errors are mine!

Royal Enfield Classic Bullet
Crankcase breather
Some ideas from Pete Fletcher
There seems to be a lot of confusion about the crankcase breathers fitted to the later RE classic Bullets (after about 2004)
I'm hoping this article will be useful to those who are trying to understand the system.

These are, of course, just my personal thoughts on the subject.

Why do crankcases need to breath?
Think about an engine with the piston at TDC (at the top of it's stroke). There is a certain volume of air in the crankcase underneath the piston.
Now think of the piston at BDC (bottom of the stroke) There is obviously a smaller volume of air in the crankcase so the air will be pressurised.
However good your piston ring seal is there will always be some blow-by from the very high pressure in the combustion space above the piston. This blow-by will also raise the pressure in the crankcase.
If this pressure is not vented it will to try to leak out any way it can - like through your oil seals or any poor seal at a gasket. The leak will take oil with it and cause a messy oil leak.
(I also suspect that high crankcase pressure will tend to stop oil from the oil pump reaching the big end. I've no proof of this but pressure in the crankcase will certainly not help flow of oil from the oil pump)

What does an engine breath out?
1. A certain amount of oil vapour,
2. Blow-by gases from the combustion space (CO and lots of other stuff)
3. Quite a lot of water vapour especially when the engine is cold.

How do the later Bullets breath?
The later bullet models do it like this;
1. There is a hole in the wall between the crankcase and the oil tank so that pressure from the crankcase passes to the oil tank (this is not really an oil tank as such, but the rear part of the main engine casing which is a separate chamber to the crankcase)
2. There is a vent out of the top of the oil tank, which relieves pressure via a black rubber hose into the catch can, which is situated behind the battery.
3. Pressure is vented to the catch can through a duckbill (non return valve) which is inside the catch can.
4. Excess pressure in the catch can is vented through another tube to the air filter in the RH toolbox.
5. Oil (and water) caught in the catch can is returned to the engine via another tube to the back of the timing chest. There is another NRV in this tube so that oil can't blow up from the timing chest into the catch can. (I suspect that oil drains down to the timing side mainly when the engine is stopped) Some people think this is a timing side breather but it's not .

What's this duckbill thing?
The duckbill is a neoprene tube with a flattened end, which acts as a non-return valve. This valve helps to preserve any negative pressure in the crankcase. (generally a good thing for various reasons but I'll keep it simple here)

Problems with this system.
The main problem with this system (even when it's working properly) is that water vapour from the breather will condense in the catch can and be returned to the timing chest.
Now, there's and old saying that "oil and water don't mix" but that isn't quite true. If you whisk oil and water together vigorously they will form an emulsion, which has the consistency of mayonnaise and is about as useful as a lubricant. Any water returned from the catch can to the timing side will be vigorously mixed with oil by the timing gears to form this emulsion.
This is not what I want in my engine!
If enough of this goo forms in the catch can and breather pipes it can bung up the drain to the timing side so the catch can fills up and dumps all the crap into your air filter (not good for the filter)
Emulsion forms more in a cold engine and will tend to separate back out if the engine gets to full operating temperature so short runs make the problem worse.
If you do lots of short runs then frequent oil changes will help.

Why does RE make them like that?
I can only assume that it's something to do with emissions control and is an attempt to not dump any oil on the road.

What can you do?
(This is just my opinion remember)
Remove the catch can together with all the piping.
Seal off the drain to the timing side. (some people say a plastic number plate screw does the job with a bit of silicon to seal it. It wouldn't fit mine so I sealed off the pipe and left it in place for now)
Fit a length of 1/2" ID plastic tubing to the vent in top of the oil tank (00 jubilee clip)
Lead the pipe up behind the battery to terminate under the LHS rear footrest and fit a duckbill in the end. (you can take the one out of the catch can or get a new one)
If you prefer, you can extend the tube all the way to the back of the bike over the rear mudguard.
As the engine vents from the crankcase via the oil tank, you should not get more than a slight oil mist out of the back - most of what comes out should be water. If you get any significant amount of oil out the back you may have other problems with the engine.
Some people terminate the vent over the chain so that any oil vapour will help to lubricate it but don't forget that water will be vented on to your chain as well.

What can't you do anything about?
As the engine breathes via the oil tank you will get water vapour in to the oil tank and some of it will condense in there (especially when the engine/oil is cold) It will not form emulsion with the oil too readily as it is not getting thrashed around in there (not like in the timing chest) but it will do to an extent. Most of it should be driven off again when the engine warms up.
The only way I can think to cure this is to fit the breather back where it used to be on earlier models (primary side just below the bottom of the cylinder)
This would require you to drill the crankcase and fit some sort of spigot.
It's something I may do if I ever have the case split but probably not till then.
You could also seal up the hole through to the oil tank (but you would definitely need the case split to do that)
One slight advantage to venting via the oil tank is that it should catch any "globs" of oil which are blown out of the crankcase, so you should only get oil vapour out of the breather.

I say again, this is just my opinion (after looking at lots of other people's ideas on various forums)

[Daiwiskers]

I know I have said it before

Your engine will run better if it is drawing fresh air through the carb or fuel injection intake
If you think about it when the motor is running you have a vacuum at the intake if the engine breather vents to the intake you have pressurised oil mist being fed into a vacuum this will coat your air filter with oil mist causing rich running, and coating your intake with heavy carbon deposits, also mucking up the vacuum that you need for clean carburation
Get those breathers out in the open your motor is ment to suck clean fresh air in and breath out exhaust and oil fumes

Well that's my take on it both my Harley and asbo30 are running open breathers, the Harley has a fine copper screen in each rocker box, asbo 30 has the crank case breather running to a duck bill just above the rear chain, and the rocker box breather running to the rear of the bike