I am wondering if someone can tell me what this blue canister is located near the firewall on the passenger side. Here is a pic if it. There was a heater hose size hose connected to the air cleaner. I am swithching to an aftermarket air cleaner that has no provisions for this. Do I need to connect this to something or can I leave it disconnected. Will it affect emissions as we have to pass emission tests here in AZ? Thanks.
That is the charcoal canister. It comes up from the vent in the gas tank and recycles the fumes. I can't see how it would effect emissions in a negative way being disconnected. I took mine off all together and threw it away.
The correct hose is available from Ford still. You can easily adapt the nipple from the old air cleaner to your aftermarket one. Fuel vapors come from that so I think it is wise to suck them into the engine to be burned. Hose part # D4ZZ9D667A Here is my set up on a small air cleaner.
It looks like someone left an empty coffee can under your hood. Disconnect it and throw it away. Then, you will have to devise something to plug up your fuel tank vent tube. For years, I drove with it just plugged at the tank. Recently, I put a plastic fuel filter at the top of the tank on the line. It made no difference.
I just cut the rubber line loose back where it goes into the steel line and stuck a lawn mower fuel filter in it. Been working fine for almost 17,000 miles now.
i don't know what your smog laws are there but if they look under the hood and check for smog crap then i'd say yes to your question. if you were in cali and your car was a 76 or newer you would not pass. also if your running a aftermarket air cleaner that won't pass either. the air cleaner should be enclosed with all provisions. personally i'd dump the can all it does it recirc the fumes back to the tank. the charcoal is probably so old in it it don't work anyways. besides it makes more room to change the #5 plug anyways! not that i would know that
STMANSER said the laws in his part of AZ were pretty stringent, so on second thought, you better ask around to see what you can get away with. If, like Jamie and myself, they don't check smog equipment on cars this old, dump it!!! I basically did what Jamie did and have had no problems. Just a filter to keep a full tank from spilling over, and to provide a little venting on the tank... Here in Texas, if I can drive it into the inspection station, even if it is stalling, smoking, and has no tread on the tires, they will pass it, if it is 1978 or older.
Thanks Dennis for the part number for that hose.. the hose is approx 3/4 dia and is flexable right.About 14 in long if I'm not mistaken. Thks again
Thanks for all the help guys. When I took the emission test a few months ago they didn't even look under the hood. Maybe 30 year and older cars they don't pop the hood. Who knows. Anyway it looks like I could go either way with it.
I know a lot of people that just remove it. My opinion is that it doesn't rob any power and you need to vent the gas tank fumes somewhere. You cant just plug it up because it keeps the internal tank pressure equal to atmospheric pressure. If you plug it up, the fuel being sucked out could cause a vacuum in the tank and eventually the gas will stop flowing. I have never heard of any problems by just leaving the metal line open but gas fumes will vent out of the end of the line. As Derrick stated, the charcoal part is old and not sure what it really does at this point, but I'd still rather route the fumes to the ingested by the carb. If your going to leave the line open, putting a small filter on the end as Jamie did would keep anything out to keep it from getting plugged up. Another alternative is to make your gas cap a vented one. Then you could just remove the canister and plug up the line.
