So, after facing the heat at Willow Springs last month, I set out to do some things to keep the S14 cooler. One of the mods is this Greddy Coolant Breather. It functions to keep air out of the system through a funky swirl-pot system. If you’re wondering, yes I painted it. Low-key is the way to be for a daily.

One of the parts included with the kit was a hose barb that takes the place of the stock coolant breather screw. It plumbs here, and goes to one of the inlets of the breather tank. Unfortunately, I destroyed that barb with my godly strength as I screwed it in. Imagine my face as I paused there for a good 5 seconds at 1am. Luckily, I didn’t kill the threads, just the barb itself. I was able to get the barb out and re-install the stock breather plug.

But I was determined to make that part of the setup work. So, I went to the local Autozone and Oreilly Auto Parts and bought a 1/8″ NPT Barb to 1/4″ Hose Fitting and a tap to create the thread for that new barb. Compared to the stock thread, this one was about twice the size. I was worried I might accidentally screw things up because the water neck is made of aluminum — soft!

Luckily, things turned out just fine, and I managed to screw in the new barb without breaking anything. (whew!)

Here’s how the system comes together. One of my friends was curious about how this thing worked, so I put this little graphic together. What’s nice is that it works, and you can see what’s going on as well. The Greddy kit comes with clear tubing so you can see the coolant bubbles flow around and disappear. Great, but I like being a ninja, so I replaced 3 of the 4 clear silicone tubes with black rubber ones from Autozone. The tube that goes to the lower radiator hose (blue line) is still clear, but I covered it with wiring cover for the toned-down look. If I ever want to check the flow out of the coolant out of the breather tank, I can peel the wiring cover off the tube.

So far, I give this part 5 stars. It’s really handy — no need to bleed the coolant ever, and keeping the bubbles away helps you stay cool at the track. Shakedown test this Saturday. And custom radiator cooling panel coming soon.