DocP

Looking at a 62 4-door with a 283 and have a question about a hose. It starts up at the top back of the motor kind of by the distributor and runs down towards the passenger side around the bell housing and ends below the motor. The end below the motor is not attached to anything, but is held with a bracket. Does anyone have an idea of what this hose is for?

Keesee

This is called a draft tube and they are normally made of metal. The older engines didn't have a PVC system that routed gasses back to the carburator to be burned off, so the only way to vent the oil smoke from inside the engine was to simply let it flow out below the car. Air flowing past the open end of the tube would create a low pressure area to pull the gasses out.

Chevy small blocks built before the 1968 Federal emissions regulations also used a canister filter located inside the engine underneath the intake manifold to trap excess oil before exiting the engine at the site you discribe next to the distributor.

Hope this helps,

Mark