This is probably a stupid question, however, I am going to ask it anyway. The hose directly connected to the air filter assembly (the mess of plastic housing around the air filter) with the other end going into the engine, does this hose pull filtered air in, or is this some sort of recycling item that puts sort of gas back into the intake system? The reason I am asking is that the 95 Neon I bought used, had a cold air intake on it, and the hose attached to it, has an extension that is kinked pritty badly. If this hose is to aquire filtered air, I would simply put a breather filter on it, instead of going through the hassle of replacing the hose.
that hose about 1" outer diameter is part of the P ostive C rankcase V acuum system. when you step on gas pedal(positive) sucks (vacuum) engine blow by (crank case) gases from the engine to the intake where they get burned so that they don't become part of the air pollution problem in the world. this system is required functional by law.
Blowby leaks generally come out the valve cover gaskets first since they are the weakest, and they don't leak enough to drip all over espically since the leak only happens when the engine is running (and I assume you don't sit in the garage with the engine running for long periods) What happens is the oil runs down the side of the engine where the hot engine turns it into sludge, and after years your engine is coated with black sticky greasy tar disgusting yech! Thats why I wear rubber gloves when working on my cars. (and I think most pro mechanics do)
However blowby leaks can also come out at crank seals too and if that happens you can get really screwed over since over time the seal will eventually fail then you get a big oil leak. A blocked PCV system isn't anything to ignore.
What I don't understand is why this hose is kinked pretty badly.
These hoses are pre-formed from the factory, there should not be any kinks on it at any of the bends. Usually what happens is as they age they get hard at the valve cover, then eventually crack there and start leaking.
I would suspect that if your not the original owner of this car, that a former owner replaced a cracked breather hose with a piece of scrap coolant hose that was too short. Since coolant hose isn't resistant to oil vapors it will probably disintegrate eventually.
If it were my car I would just go to the Dodge dealer and buy a new hose for the car that was correctly pre-formed for the configuration. They aren't that expensive, usually under $10. Certainly not more expensive than whatever chromed ricer breather your thinking of putting on there. (and that your emissions people will flunk your car over if they see it)
If your too cheap for that then just go to the auto parts store and buy a long enough length of the correct diameter hose and replace it. Most likely you will get vacuum line hose which isn't resistant to oil vapors and will disintegrate over time, but will probably last at least 5 years or so before getting softened up by the vapors and then you can buy another piece. It probably will be about $2 for it. And frankly I'm not too sure that the original factory hose was resistant to vapors either. The hoses in the PCV system that are fresh air intake hoses don't need to be - however if the PCV valve plugs then the system runs backwards and those hoses will rot.
As I had mentioned before, there was a cold air intake installed in the car before I bought it. The house comes off the engine and has an adapter connecting an extention hose to the cold air. (who ever make the cold air pipe put the PCV connection a bit too far away). Unfortunatly I will have to go with the $2 solution as a formed hose from the dealer will not fit this application anymore.
Well... It appears that the issue was the PCV valve and it's hosing, hidden behind the intake manafold. (who ever decided on this design should have been shot). Had to take the manafold off to get at the hose to change it.
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