What Catch Cans are y'all running on the 2.3L EcoBoost?

[85_Ranger4x4]

It is mildly entertaining when people cheap out on the battery too.

A plain ol flooded battery can't keep up...

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Oh Btw, what's a catch can?

Not very new truck savvy. All of my vehicles are made of dented steel.

 

[Blmpkn]

Catch cans are to catch vapors in the pcv system before they get back to the intake.

 

[sgtsandman]

I thought it was more for red lights, where you are actually stopped for awhile...red lights are long and often around here. Freeway is literally stop and go, every few seconds, for miles....its quite maddening. Freeway my tuckus.

Any stop. Even stopping at a stop sign will activate it. It will often activate when you park somewhere to and restart the engine when you put it in park so you can shut it off.

 

[sgtsandman]

Oh Btw, what's a catch can?

Not very new truck savvy. All of my vehicles are made of dented steel.

A catch can is a canister with hoses incorporated into the positive crankcase system. There is a baffle system in the canister to force most of the oil vapors to settle before the air continues on to the intake.

The PCV system is an emissions system that takes unburnt hydrocarbons that escape past the piston rings and oil vapor that generates from engine operation and sucks it into the intake for the engine to burn them.

That is why there is a brownish residue and some liquid oil in your intake system. Good catch can systems all but eliminate all that from getting in the intake. The build up is not a huge deal for conventional engines as long as it’s maintained and preventative maintenance is done.

For direct injection engines that do not also have port injection or some other method to reduce or eliminate those oil vapors from getting into the intake, it is a big deal. The hot intake valves cause the oil vapors to collect and build up on them and left there long enough, will partially burn and coke up. This coking builds up over time restricting the area that the area passes through and causes engine problems.

The reason this was not much of a problem on carbureted, throttle body injection, and port injection engines because the fuel vapor in the intake air stream washed this oil vapor off the valves.

In a direct injection engine, the fuel is injected directly into the piston cylinder. So there is no fuel washing the valves.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

A catch can is a canister with hoses incorporated into the positive crankcase system. There is a baffle system in the canister to force most of the oil vapors to settle before the air continues on to the intake.

The PCV system is an emissions system that takes unburnt hydrocarbons that escape past the piston rings and oil vapor that generates from engine operation and sucks it into the intake for the engine to burn them.

That is why there is a brownish residue and some liquid oil in your intake system. Good catch can systems all but eliminate all that from getting in the intake. The build up is not a huge deal for conventional engines as long as it’s maintained and preventative maintenance is done.

For direct injection engines that do not also have port injection or some other method to reduce or eliminate those oil vapors from getting into the intake, it is a big deal. The hot intake valves cause the oil vapors to collect and build up on them and left there long enough, will partially burn and coke up. This coking builds up over time restricting the area that the area passes through and causes engine problems.

The reason this was not much of a problem on carbureted, throttle body injection, and port injection engines because the fuel vapor in the intake air stream washed this oil vapor off the valves.

In a direct injection engine, the fuel is injected directly into the piston cylinder. So there is no fuel washing the valves.

Copy that, so then why would just not come stock? Is it an emissions thing or something? Seems like its kinda necessary...just the aftermarket hasn't quite figured it out yet, or make a good one within affordable and profitable margins.

 

[HenryMac]

Copy that, so then why would just not come stock?

There is an oil separator on the truck. That's discussed here: Link

Is it an emissions thing or something? Seems like its kinda necessary...just the aftermarket hasn't quite figured it out yet, or make a good one within affordable and profitable margins.

More of a preventative maintenance thing, possibly created due to an emissions thing.

As @sgtsandman stated "The hot intake valves cause the oil vapors to collect and build up on them and left there long enough, will partially burn and coke up. This coking builds up over time restricting the area that the area passes through and causes engine problems."​

The kicker is, I haven't read or seen any reports of our 5th gen Rangers actually having a "coking" issue. Folks assume it will.

Time (& miles) will tell.

 

[Blmpkn]

It's also a performance thing, in a way.

If your setup/tune Is rowdy enough, those pcv vapors can cause detonation and other undesirable crap.

 

[Roert42]

The auto start/stop in my wife’s Subaru will deactivate itself in stop and go traffic. Has cooldown period before it will activate again.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Any stop. Even stopping at a stop sign will activate it. It will often activate when you park somewhere to and restart the engine when you put it in park so you can shut it off.

Well yea and that is the problem lol...it I needs to do a little more thinking to be actually helpful, just like most hired help lol.

It would be nice to have at long stoplights or at drive thru's etc....but in stop and go traffic jams it just makes things worse for the vehicle, driver, and everyone else too.

 

[sgtsandman]

Well yea and that is the problem lol...it I needs to do a little more thinking to be actually helpful, just like most hired help lol.

It would be nice to have at long stoplights or at drive thru's etc....but in stop and go traffic jams it just makes things worse for the vehicle, driver, and everyone else too.

I think it’s one of those deals where it sounds good on paper but in actual real life, benefits will vary. I’m sure in the right circumstances, it does make a difference. I don’t think most of my areas are conducive to the beneficial side of the concept. If I lived in a more urban area, the story might be different.

 

[sgtsandman]

There is an oil separator on the truck. That's discussed here: Link



More of a preventative maintenance thing, possibly created due to an emissions thing.

As @sgtsandman stated "The hot intake valves cause the oil vapors to collect and build up on them and left there long enough, will partially burn and coke up. This coking builds up over time restricting the area that the area passes through and causes engine problems."​

The kicker is, I haven't read or seen any reports of our 5th gen Rangers actually having a "coking" issue. Folks assume it will.

Time (& miles) will tell.

I haven’t seen anything either but I don’t spend time on the forums more dedicated to the new generation of Rangers. It may be that the oil separator is doing what it’s “advertised” to do.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

From what I am gathering here, it comes with an oil separator, and the catch can is an improvement?
Also if you tune or mod the engine catch can is more necessary?

 

[HenryMac]

From what I am gathering here, it comes with an oil separator, and the catch can is an improvement?

Think of it this way. If you're healthy and feeling just fine, would you consider wearing an oxygen mask 24/7/365? Is that an improvement? It's only an "improvement" if it something that you need.

Also, if you tune or mod the engine catch can is more necessary?

Yes, it's more likely that the factory oil separator won't have the capacity needed, if you modify the motor to perform beyond the parameters that the oil separator was designed for.

The higher the combustion chamber pressure (boost in our case) and the longer that pressure is occurring (pedal to the floor) means there will be more blow by that occurs. That's just the nature of an internal combustion engine. 12:1 compression produces more blow by than 11:1, than 10:1, etc. And that has always been the case.

Prior to the 60's, motors had tubes on the crankcase that just allowed those vapors out of the motors, called "down tubes". They just let the oil and oil vapors drip out onto the road.

Then they started the Positive Crankcase Ventilation, PCV, which routed the crankcase vapors through the intake to be re-burned. As was previously discussed in this thread that wasn't a huge deal since the gasoline / air mixture would wash most of this oily gunk off the back of the valves.

But with Gas Direct Injection, GDI, the fuel is injected into the combustion chamber, so the crankcase vapors on the back of the valves never gets washed off by fuel. Instead, it just bakes onto the valves.

It's kind of like a cookie sheet. All that oil just keeps getting baked on, every time you put it in the oven. If you never clean that cookie sheet, it eventually gets so much crud on it you throw it away and buy a new one.

Our question is... what's "eventually" for this specific motor configuration?

 

[HenryMac]

I haven’t seen anything either but I don’t spend time on the forums more dedicated to the new generation of Rangers. It may be that the oil separator is doing what it’s “advertised” to do.

Here's a photo of the back of the valve that forum member grammat95 posted over on the Ranger5G site. His truck had 25,000 miles on it when he took the photo with a borescope. No catch can is being used.

Maintenance / Habits​

- Full synthetic 5W-30 (Valvoline) from the first oil change. No more than 5k intervals.​

- Lots of towing (often times at max cap.), I would guestimate around 10k miles​

- Most trips are at least 20 minutes​

- I have not noticed any fuel dilution issues with oil​