Back in your grandpa's day, it was easier and cheaper to retune the carb, rather than fix the leak. Never mind it reduced the engine's power output and increased gas usage, until it wouldn't run at all.
My Grandpa? When he last worked on cars, almost nothing was vacuum operated... My Buick was nearly new when he passed away. New PCV valve and more (12 ft!) vacuum line in hand, I'll get to replacing a bunch more tonight.
that's true! Sorry Darcane, In my previous post I was referring to my f-100, which belonged to my Grandfather. Andrew was making note of that, but it makes sense that not everyone would know that. Here's the story on it: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/my-grandfathers-pick-up.29246/
A/C and the smog pump we're both not operating properly so I decided to remove them. I also changed out the water pump and alternator which were both having some issues. Still a mess in there, but a little cleaner.
You could get some engine degreaser. But, you may find that all of that grime is keeping fluids from leaking out!
I figured they are one-way valves... but just in case I took the hose going to the driver's side and connected it to the passenger's side (see pic), and plugged the one going to the catalytic converter. I don't want to accidentally release any more exhaust near the cabin than I have to.
That will eventually fail, if one or both valves have failed. The only true way to prevent it, is to physically remove the piping and cap the holes.
Maybe... but I don't really care. I plan on scrapping the whole lump powering this thing anyways, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm only replacing what I need to to keep it running while I collect parts for the engine swap. The more I can remove from under the hood now, the easier it is to do the swap later.