Oddity file: Cleaner Brush?

[Douglas Broussard]

Hello SE-R and SR20DE owners:

I've got a champion of a G20, now indicating something north of 150,000
miles with Dino oil for the first 50k miles, and Mobil 1 every 5-7000
miles in the subsequent 100k miles. The engine has been nothing short
of dependable and fun, but at times it's been a bit cranky.

Cranky? In particular, when the A/C clutch disengages or when the drive
clutch is released at low speed, the car sometimes drops into the
500-600R.P.M.  range. It's what I call a 'stumble'. The engine always
regains composure within a second or two (back to the 800 R.P.M. range)
and never stalls. Re-timing  "by-the-book" and a general check after a
clutch, rotor and distributor replacement a few months ago turned up no
problems that might point to this stumbling behavior - nor a cure.

Yesterday, while changing my Mobil1, I decided to use my throttle/carb
cleaner on the airbox (quite a bit of solid fallout under the K&N). I
dismantled everything leading from the throttle body to the outside
world.

Oddly enough, I found what appears to be a wire brush inside the valve
cover ventilator hose. I won't go into detail about the discovery, but
here's the URL of a picture of the hose and the brush found within:

http://www.alternativelight.com/hose.jpg

I've held the the 'tool' in a relative position to where it was found
in the breather hose for this picture.

My question is: Is this a 'tool' inadvertently left in the breather
hose five years ago by Crescent City Infiniti after an oil overfill
incident, or is it some kind of baffling mechanism employed by Nissan
within this hose? The lack of anchoring seems to indicate an accidental
"tool loss", but I'm interested in hearing from other SR20DE owners
about whether this might be apart of the breather hose.

The stumbling problem cleared up for about 30 operating minutes after
the removal of the tool, but it reappeared today. Any help diagnosing
this is appreciated. I've never seen a check engine light on this 1996
G20.

Thanks for any input. Looking forward to another 150k trouble-free
(knock on wood) miles on my car.

Doug Broussard
Technical Writer
Digital Imaging Consultant
http://www.alternativelight.com