Triumph Repair: Flame traps, british car repair, car repair shops

Question
Good evening Mr Fitzcharles, I have a 1971 TR6. Recently I have replaced all the hoses, water, fuel and breather lines. I alsi installed a new carbon filter. My father, the previous owner bypassed this canaster and used breathe lines connecting both carbs to the valve cover breather inlet. I wish to reroute this to factory specs, but I do not have a flame trap. How important is the trap? Should I leave the connections as is? Thank you.

Answer
Hi Ben,

If you are talking about the traps in the vacuum lines sometimes called "Flame traps", they are fuel traps to cut down on fuel vapor condensing into fuel liquid and migrating to a diaphragm like the EGR valve or the vacuum advance / retard units. The vapor lines off of the valve cover usually have an restriction on the carburetors and are routed to the charcoal canister or canisters on some models but I have not seen any flame traps in them.

The flame traps used on the vacuum lines are the same on most British cars of that era so you can usually find some at most British car repair shops.

Howard