Breather

Hey Guys. I was wondering If I can route the head breather and pcv to a catch can with a breather and drain? I hate how nasty the intake, IAC, and throttle body gets. Thanks for the input! Also I know I need to plug the breather holes in the intake from them if I would do it.

The short answer would be "probably".

The long answer is it may be better to find out what is causing the problem...do a compression test, change the PCV if you haven't already, and a few other tests that might tell you why there is a problem with gunk or foamy oil.

I nursed a wonky 2.0 for about two years before finally swapping it out for a 2.3 block with better rings by using a catch can and some thicker oil...but it would have been cheaper to replace the engine and less headaches.

Do you have pictures or an idea of what the cause is?

EDIT: not sure if you've seen this but it was my attempt to keep the old engine going...there are some good suggestions by other members and images that may not show up now...

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131097

It nothing abnormal at all. A little oil mist over a long period of time eventually makes a mess.

OK, then it might work for you and help keep the mess down. When I hear the words nasty and breather it triggers vivid images of how the oil was forced out of the dipstick tube covering everything on the driver side of the engine bay. There was also a brown slime that would build up inside the old carb breather and required regular cleaning...which was what prompted me to try to shunt it into another location. Those air filters were getting more expensive and harder to find.

The mist by comparison would take weeks or even months sometimes to be noticeable but it certainly does build up and coat things.

Do you have information on the available catch cans and where to buy them? A couple of guys posted their home made or store bought cans and they were happy with the results. Mostly for forced induction engines where the pressures can be quite high so more oil makes more mess...

Yes, if throttle body/IAC passage is getting an oil coating then there is a problem with PCV system, even over a long time.

First the oil vapor itself only comes from the Blow-by, the hot gases from combustion, blow-by vaporizes some of the oil on the lower rings, piston sides and cylinder walls as it escapes into the crank case area
Bearings and valve train can't vaporize oil, unless there is a major engine failure, , they do not get hot enough to vaporize oil.
Cheaper oil causes more blow-by oil vapor, just FYI.

PCV system is there to create a slight negative pressure in the sealed engine, crankcase valve cover areas.
The breather/vent hose is there to allow fresh cooler air to be pulled in to help condense some of the oil vapor.
No oil vapor should be flowing out of Breather/Vent hose unless there is a problem with the system, so throttle body should not get coated with oil, ever.

Over time blow-by will increase as rings wear down, high miles, so the amount of oil vapor will increase, this is why Catch Cans were used, but between PCV Valve and intake, not Vent

And you could also change to a different PCV Valve, increase negative flow in the engine to compensate for more blow-by.
All gas engines operate with approx. 18" of vacuum at idle, 4cyl or V12, but blow-by is higher as cylinder numbers increase.
PCV Valves adjust flow by vacuum but allow for more flow on a V8 vs a V6 or 4cyl
So if you have an older V6 you may want to use a V8 PCV Valve, they are often a common size

Common old school test for PCV system was to have engine warmed up and idling then pull out dip stick, there should be a slight negative air flow down dip stick tube, it should be sucking in air.
You can use small piece of paper towel or toilet paper sheet placed on tube, it should be sucked to the tube, not pushed away.
If there is an out flow if air from tube then PCV system is not working as it should, and yes Blow-by could be going out Vent hose causing oil coating on the throttle body.

If engine is not sealed well enough then at higher RPMs, higher blow-by, the Vent hose can become an out flow point, because air is being pulled in from other places.
The PCV Valve is setup to maintain the negative pressure thru out the RPM band, thats what the weight inside is for, it adjusts the vacuum level in the crankcase/valve covers

The catch-can is added because of higher oil vapor levels, it is not uncommon for PCV Valve system to include a fiber filter with the valve on 4cyl engines, and on the under side of valve cover on V engines, this allows oil vapor to condense from air stream before being pulled into the intake, which is what a catch-can does, cooling the oil vapor out of the air stream

Thanks Guys!