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I pulled my fuel vapor cannister (EVAP) to tighten some bolts, and I found the filter media at the bottom totally deteriorated, and missing a bit, as well as charcoal falling out, with little left. Its a Rochester 7028131.
My question is:
is this something that can be rebuilt / refilled, or should I just buy a whole new one. They're not really cheap. Any thoughts from experienced folk out there?
If you have the time to putter with it, you might be able to fix yours. I can take some pictures for you, but what I remember was something like a thin layer of fiberglass insulation looking material holding the charcoal in. So possibly add charcoal to replace what's lost. Then put some filter material over the open end. If your not happy with the results I think I've got an extra used one I'd sell you at a reasonable price. John
The air inlet filter, which is on the bottom, is replaceable in these things. What year/model is your car? I bought a replacement filter for the canister in my '78 Toro for $5.00 on Amazon. Rockauto has them for less than $2. And, yes, if you're not careful, the charcoal pellets will fall out. The filter holds them in.
If you replace the filter as Jaunty mentioned you should be good to go. Unless of course all of the charcoal fell out of your canister. As far as I know the charcoal doesn't get "old" or "loaded" with hydrocarbons.
As far as I know the charcoal doesn't get "old" or "loaded" with hydrocarbons.
Correct. The charcoal absorbs fuel vapors from the fuel tank, and then the fuel vapors are drawn off of the charcoal and into the carburetor to be burned. The charcoal does not get "used up."
On mine 98% of the charcoal fell out. The filter disintegrated, so I guess it just emptied itself.
I have a beautiful empty black cannister.
I feel I should just buy more charcoal, fill it, and slap on a new filter.
Is this silly thinking?
I feel I should just buy more charcoal, fill it, and slap on a new filter. Is this silly thinking?
It is not silly thinking at all. It is exactly what you should do.
What you need is activated carbon. You can get it at a pet store as it is used to absorb odors as well. I'd just buy something like this from Petsmart for $12. I don't know how many of these it would take to fill your canister, but I would be surprised if it's more than two.
I would recommend buying a service replacement vapor canister (e.g. from rockauto) and using the guts from it. No idea if the carbon is "special", but it's held within a filter bag and that's what keeps the engine from sucking it out of the canister and into the engine.
If you don't care about appearance then the service replacement is a drop-in. It uses fresh air on the top instead of through the bottom, so it looks a little different.
SO, I know this is not a fresh post, but I'm hoping for a quick solution.
I WANT my charcoal canister, and I want it to work. I have replaced all my fuel lines and vapor lines. But, the EFI I'm installing does not have a provision on the throttle body (we can pretend I have a new carb, if you don't like EFI).
So, in short, where can I connect my vapor line to, which used to connect to a port on the Q-jet?
On the carb it's just a restricted ported vacuum port.
Assuming your throttle body has a ported vacuum spot (it should!) just run a hose to it from the canister, but stuff a pipe plug or similar something in the hose with a 0.050" (up to 0.100" would be fine I bet) or so hole drilled in it. On the qjet it feeds into the horizontal slots in the base plate right above the throttle blades.
If you want a super fancy setup, then you can also use a late model solenoid so the vacuum is only turned on after the car warms up.
On the carb it's just a restricted ported vacuum port.
Assuming your throttle body has a ported vacuum spot (it should!) just run a hose to it from the canister, but stuff a pipe plug or similar something in the hose with a 0.050" (up to 0.100" would be fine I bet) or so hole drilled in it. On the qjet it feeds into the horizontal slots in the base plate right above the throttle blades.
If you want a super fancy setup, then you can also use a late model solenoid so the vacuum is only turned on after the car warms up.
yes it has a ported vacuum nipple not being used. It is the only thing that can connect to at this point. I just wasn't sure if the ported thing was going affect its operation or not.
not sure about a plug with a .05 hole in it though, is that necessary?
It needs to be ported because you don't want the extra airflow affecting idle. The OEMs turn on all the emissions gadgets (EGR, evap, etc) at cruise because the engine is pretty forgiving at that point.
Depends on how much air that port flows. You don't want a significant amount of air - that'll throw off your EFI controller because it's unmetered, and the canister isn't meant to flow a lot of air. The canister doesn't have a restriction in it, so it depends on the vacuum source only pulling a sip of air to clear out the captured fumes. The carbs and EFI don't have to adjust for it if it's a small enough air leak (e.g., a 0.050" hole) above idle.
By default the ports on a throttle body aren't restricted. You can just hook it up and see what happens. It'll suck (har har).
As far as I know the charcoal doesn't get "old" or "loaded" with hydrocarbons.
