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I made my oil separator out of a
hair-spray can. I cut out a section of it to reduce its overall length, then,
with a 1" wide overlapping brass strip, soldered the two parts back
together. For the soldering, I used the paste in a tube which contains both
solder and flux, which I brushed on the can parts and the brass strip, then hit
that with a propane torch. I pulled out the nozzle on top and soldered the hole
shut. I drilled a 5/8" hole in the bottom center, and one tangentially on
the side at the bottom. For the breather outlet, I soldered a 5/8" brass tube up
through the hole on the bottom that went almost to the top of the dome on top.
For the breather inlet, I soldered a 5/8" brass tube into the tangential hole on
the bottom side. I next made a 1/4" hole on the bottom near one edge and into
this I soldered a 1/4" brass tube to serve as the oil outlet. Now this last is
very important to get the separator to work properly. At the side at the bottom,
directly opposite the breather inlet, I made a 1/4" tangential hole
which goes in the opposite direction from the breather inlet, and
soldered a 1/4" brass tube into it. Finally, I wrapped the whole thing in
fiberglass to give it strength and add extra sealing to all the joints, and
mounted it to the firewall. For the engine breather tube I used a 5/8" aluminum
tube which goes to the back near the firewall; this is much lighter than rubber
hose. I connected this tube to the separator's inlet tube with a short piece of
hose. I provided a 1/4" tube from the bottom of the separator to the bottom of
the oil filler tube for drain-back, and a piece of 5/8" aluminum tube, connected
to the separator's breather outlet with a short piece of hose, to go to the
bottom of the cowling. Lastly, I connected the 1/4" tangential fitting to a
source of outside dynamic flow. The purpose of this, and why many separators do
not work, is to provide a cold counter-flow against the breather flow to
condense-out the hot oil vapors. That's why the Airwolf
separator requires an inlet from your vacuum pump's
outlet.
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