California 280z "Voluntary Recall" WTF?

[Pennyman]

I live in CA and I've had my Z for several years now. On the inside of my hood theres a sticker that talks about a "voluntary recall" that was conducted many years ago. I know the recall proceedure involved taking the valve cover breather hose and routing it straight to the boot right after the mass airflow sensor. What was the point of this? Can/should I put it back the way it was? I don't think any other states dealt with this emmisions "recall" mumbo-jumbo, did they?

Stupid CA...I have a 76 Z and the gov't here just ruled that the rolling exemption will cease forever for cars newer than APRIL 75!!! ARGH!!!

[auxilary]

the point of it is so any oil that comes out of your valve cover gets burned in the engine and goes through the cat/smog pump and does not wind up on the road

[Pennyman]

No, see there was ALWAYS a tube coming off the valve cover breather, it never made it's way to the road, whether the recall was done or not. The only difference was that the breather tube either goes into the emmisions maze of tubes, like this:

Or you brought your car in for the recall and they routed the tube straight to the boot after the mass airflow sensor. This is how my 76 Z is.

Notice how instead of clamping onto another section of plumbing halfway though, it just goes the entire way.

I'm simply wondering why they enacted this optional recall and what they were solving.

There's also one other variant in the mystery of the "wandering breather tube" as thown in this picture:

Kinda weird in my opinion, could they be year-related?

[TBK1]

Well i have a 77 supposed to be from cali and mine has config # 2

[Pennyman]

So do I, and in my opinion,that long breather tube is the ugliest thing in that engine compartment. I'm thinking about trying out config.#1 and see how it runs. Just for fun kinda.

[TomoHawk]

I also have #2 on my 78 280Z. A friend has the one with the T-fitting. Are both were considered "correct?" I think that's the important question Otherwise, you just want to run the fumes or whatever comes out back into the engine.

Some people are removing the long hose and fitting a cone filter to the valve cover pipe.

thx

[KDMatt]

Okay, this is sort of a newb question I suppose, but how important is that breather hose, and what exactly is it for? :stupid:

I was cleaning up my engine a little bit today, and I noticed that the breather hose has a bit of a crack where it meets the valve cover fitting. Is this anything I should be really concerned about?

I'm thinking as a temporary fix I'll probably wrap some duct tape around it until I can properly address it.

[Gav240z]

From my understanding it's a form of pressure relief duct tape will be fine and removing it all together should not have any effect on performance of course you shouldn't block it off or leave it venting into nothing because if you do it will dirty up your engine bay.

[TomoHawk]

The hose is there to keep the low pressure inside the engine for it to run good. With the hose connected, unscrew the oil cap on the valve cover, and the engine should slow down.

[Pennyman]

Well, I went to the junkyard today and effectively changed my setup from #2 to #1 (with the exception for the weird valve bolted to the side of the intake manifold. It isn't in #2 or #3). Tha car runs fine, and the engine bay looks a little better. I think I'm gonna keep it this way and see how it runs.

BTW, the sticker on the bottom of the hood which has to do with the recall says: "PCV valve modification and emissions system integrity inspection. This vehicle has been modified under blah blah blah"...but there you go.

[sblake01]

Pics 2 and 3 appear to be 77-78 while pic 1 is a 75-76. That valve you speak of is on the 75-76 cars with factory air. I think it's part of the fast idle control system. My car is like pic 3 and it's a California car. I have a notebook full of records from the previous owner and there is no record of it having the modification. Based on that, and the comments above, I think it was a reacall on the 75-76 cars and that the 77-78 cars came from the factory with that setup.

[BuDavid]

ok i have the #1 config. and i'm while the car manual shows me the #3 config..

but i also think that it could be the #2 config with a cancelled hose that goes to the boot in front of the flowmeter..

but can anybody tell me where does the end of the hose on the junction which is against the valve cover end?? if the picture ws from the plan view it could be clearly seen!

thanx..