Bergs FJ Build: BRC Diff Breather - Installation (Part A)

Time again for another installation instalment.... This time around its a new BRC Competition Breather Kit, which has 5 intake ports for: rear diff, front diff, transmission, transfer box and winch. The kit comes with a stack of Billet Race Craft branded poly tubing, adapters, the breather unit itself, K&N filter, a piece of laser cut steel to be used for a mounting plate and the pièce de résistance, a BRC stubby holder! Perfect for the work ahead.....

Components:

BRC Competition Breather Kit
M6 Stainless Bolts and Nuts
Etch Primer and Paint
13mm Split Conduit
Incidentals (Cable Ties, Grinding / Cutting Discs, etc)

Installation:

First off, as anyone with an FJ knows, space under the bonnet is at a premium (I've probably harped on about this a few times by now!), so locating a place that's out of the way, yet easily accessible and viewable from a maintainence perspective was my first mission. I located a bracket on the passenger side of the engine block - directly opposite the OEM Fuse Block, which fitted the bill nicely. It had only a single tapped M6 hole to use, but if I needed more support for the bracket, I figured I could weld some sills onto the back of the bracket to stop it moving around.
Now that I had a mounting point, it was time to put the breather core onto the supplied mounting plate. This was a simple task as all the hardware required came with the kit and included 3 x M6 hex head bolts and 3 x Nyloc nuts.
Trial mounting the package onto the bracket located previously in 1 highlighted a couple of small problems. First the bolts were too long and fouled against the bracket, second, the supplied mounting plate had some sharp edges that were close to digging into an electrical conduit run underneith it. So out came the trusty marker to make some adjustments...
I had figured to remove about 20mm from each side of the plate and round off the edges to make it more finger friendly when fishing around in the engine bay. I used a 4" angle grinder for this purpose, cutting away the majority of the excess, then cleaning up with a grinding blade. To get rid of the rough edges and burs I used my trusty little Dremel.
Once I was happy with the final shape and again trial fitted it in the engine bay to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I used some wet and dry rub to remove the surface protection and clean up the plate ready for priming.
Before priming (like anything paint related) you need to clean the surface. I used some 3M surface prep stuff I had lying around which cleaned off the grease, oil and other gunk on the metal plate. Once I was happy that it was clean, I hung the plate from one of the bolt holes suspended across a spare box I had lying around the shed.
Following the instructions, I covered the metal plate with 4 coats of etch primer, then left it overnight to dry. Apparently you only need to leave it for 1 to 4 hours, but it was getting late and I figured the longer it had to completely dry the better.
Now that I had the metal bracket primed, I rubbed it back slightly with some 600 grain paper (as per the instructions) and then cleaned again with the 3M surface prep product. I then re-hung the bracket in the box and sprayed it with 5 coats of 3M Gloss Black paint I had lying around. Again, I left this overnight for it to completely dry.
Now that I had the bracket done to my liking, it was time to reinstall the breather system onto it and fit to the engine bracket. I used an M6 Stainless Bolt which threaded straight onto the tapped hole in the bracket. As there was only one bolt holding this in place I put some Loctite on the thread, cranked it up then put a nut on the exposed end of the bolt at back of the bracket to make sure it couldn't rattle loose. I was surprised how solid the mounting was and doubt at this point in time it will need the welded sills to make sure it remains in this position, however time and rough roads will be the true test....