Anyone fooled with oil catch cans?

[bmerr98]

Ahoy All!

Been a few months since I was in the General Discussion area. Some of you may remember that when I went to full sized I kinda went to the "Dark Side" (GM) and got a Silverado. Let me just say that I miss my Ranger. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, I started reading about guys using oil catch cans to combat oil consumption issues with the GM 5.3, which mine has. The idea made sense to me and I've been experimenting with them, using a cheap Amazon/Ebay can and making my own internal baffling system.

I'm actually testing mine against the base can from RXPerformanceProducts (if you Google search them you'll get taken to SpeedWorks or something like that - corporate hijack job selling cheap Chinese knock offs...long story, just email them @ RXProducts@aol.com if you want to talk to them.)

They simply install inline on the PCV hose and an effective can will spearate the oil mist, combustion byproducts, water vapor, etc being evacuated from the crank case before it gets returned to the intake manifold. Any engine with a PCV system can benefit from them.

Is this old news or something to look into further?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

More common with boosted engines, the modern PCV systems pick up more stuff than they used to.

My brother got a tuner for his '11 GT 5.0. Ran like crap and threw a code (don't remember if it was rich or lean) '11 and midyear '12 cars had piston cooling jets that squirted oil into the backside of the piston, the backspray put more oil into the air inside the crankcase. Ford Racing (where he got his tuner from) said to get a catch can and it will go away or they will give him his money back. Said they haven't had one yet (and only 11-12.5 cars have complained) that it didn't fix. He does get quite a bit of oil out of it too (well more than you would think it would) but it runs great now. He has the JLT kit.

My 28 year old 5.0 that while it runs good has never been rebuilt and the old school PCV valve stuck in the valve cover... intake has been bone dry every time I have pulled the carb off.

 

[RonD]

Yes, on some engines they are almost required even when new or just rebuilt.
Generally the higher the compression ratio the more need for a catch can, which is why turbo or super chargers benefit from them.

The Oil mist comes from the oil coating the cylinder walls and piston sides.
When cylinder fires you have "Blow-by", all piston engines have blow-by.
The very hot gases from the explosion of a firing cylinder "blows-by" the piston rings.
These very hot gases vaporize some of the oil coating on cylinder walls and piston sides.
In the old days there was just a vent tube on the upper oil pan or lower block pointed down, and the oil vapor exited the engine and dripped on the ground.

Positive crankcase ventilation(PVC) was added to end that type of pollution.

They added the PCV valve to the valve cover and then to the base plate of the carburetor.
And in some cases directly to an intake manifold port, like on fuel injected engines.

A catch can is certainly not required on every engine, but can benefit some and a must have on others.

And some automakers build in a series of baffles in the valve covers to act as a catch can, so reduces the amount of oil in the air reaching the PCV valve, and the condensed oil on the baffles just returns to the system.

Some complaint that the fuel contaminants also return with internal baffle type systems but the amount would be so small that it couldn't be a concern.
As long as your engine coolant temp is above 180degF it will "burn off" as oil is circulated.
The bulk of the fuel contaminants remains in the crankcase and is "burned off" when oil is warmed up.

The quality of the oil you use can increase or decrease the amount of oil vapor in the engine.

 

[bmerr98]

I know the Ford Ecoboost motors have been having problems with hydrolock, hesitation, etc. The RX catch can solves the problem.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3mFpPPd1Rk

This is Tracy from RX down in Florida. Smart fellow.

 

[Mark_88]

I built my own with dozens of modifications and different materials...and I also used the air compressor water separators like a few guys on YouTube did...

Over all it was too much farting around...but it did actually pull quite a bit of gunk that would have otherwise gone into my intake.

High performance forced induction engines should have them as stock equipment. I did see on one presentation a few built-in catch cans that were implemented by Ford (maybe others too) but they were not working according to some testing and required additional ways to remove more oil vapours.

I posted a how-to build one a while ago and kept it updated through the process, but it eventually got too much blow-by for the catch can so it was literally blowing the oil out of the can and back into the intake...good move!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I know the Ford Ecoboost motors have been having problems with hydrolock, hesitation, etc. The RX catch can solves the problem.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3mFpPPd1Rk

This is Tracy from RX down in Florida. Smart fellow.

The EB problem was mostly from water condensation in the intercooler. Ford fixed that years ago.

A hesitation/shudder from water is all they did, NEVER heard of one hydrolocking.

 

[ghunt81]

I put an oil separator on my Mustang a couple years ago after I had to clean the throttle body due to all the oily gunk built up on the backside of the throttle blade (it was idling too low and throwing codes). I just used a universal one from Jegs.

Seems to do the trick, I don't know if the 4.6 3V has oil squirters but it captures a lot of oil (probably at least a tablespoon during a 5000 mile oil change interval)...took the throttle body off last winter to see if it needed cleaned and it had a pretty minimal amount of gunk on it, so it must be at least somewhat working. A lot of Mustang guys with the 4.6 3V and new 5.0 are running oil separators due to the amount of oil vapor that seems to move through the PCV system on them.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I put an oil separator on my Mustang a couple years ago after I had to clean the throttle body due to all the oily gunk built up on the backside of the throttle blade (it was idling too low and throwing codes). I just used a universal one from Jegs.

Seems to do the trick, I don't know if the 4.6 3V has oil squirters but it captures a lot of oil (probably at least a tablespoon during a 5000 mile oil change interval)...took the throttle body off last winter to see if it needed cleaned and it had a pretty minimal amount of gunk on it, so it must be at least somewhat working. A lot of Mustang guys with the 4.6 3V and new 5.0 are running oil separators due to the amount of oil vapor that seems to move through the PCV system on them.

I didn't know anything about them until I started looking at Challengers, they seem pretty popular across the board.

I don't think the 4.6 had squirters.

 

[stmitch]

I recently bought this one: https://www.radiumauto.com/Universal-Single-Catch-Can-P178.aspx

It was about the smallest one I could find, and its a very well made piece too. Install was easy, but I dont have any road miles on it yet because Ive been fighting a fluky TPS.

 

[cody93]

yes i have.. home brew variety.... worn out 2.3 with 400,000 miles.. puked out a quart every 100 miles.. pulled the head eventually to find "oblong" bores...... dont know how it made it...

incase you cant see, its a milk jug with a piece of fuel line duct taped to it.. its crude an effective...

 

[guitardude2007]

the common problem with that engine is the drivers side valve cover. the baffling in it is allowing oil to pass into the pcv system. gm has an updated valve cover you can get from the dealership there is a bulletin on it. I would look into it. I can get you more info on it if you would like. (I am a mechanic at a gm dealership).

 

[bmerr98]

yes i have.. home brew variety.... worn out 2.3 with 400,000 miles.. puked out a quart every 100 miles.. pulled the head eventually to find "oblong" bores...... dont know how it made it...

incase you cant see, its a milk jug with a piece of fuel line duct taped to it.. its crude an effective...

Wow...That's straight out of the "There, I fixed it!" files!