Hey fells. I have been thinking, since our engines seem to suffer from cleanliness issues in the intake and most people seem to agree the pcv system is to blame.

Well I have been thinking about installing an oild catch tank...

It seems some kits are ridiculus and overly expensive like the steeda oil separator witch seems to be no more than a compressor dryer selling for 70bux where the parts for it cost 20bux at home depot....

and I have seen some e-bay generic kits that seem more resonable and offer larger capacity for about 35bux shiped.

I have also seen some high end catch cans (if there is such a thing) that sell for well over 150bux.

Anyone have one of these? Any input? Good or bad idea? Differences? I am not trying to rice my car out, but my intake being filthy is definitely something to consider.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

I have this on my car seems good for now, blends in. If your going for bling well there are many ways to go check out JEG's or sources online. Seems like the choices are endless on this mod.

Jed

 

That looks like the compressed air oil separator steeda sells.

Did you notice any difference in your car sfter using it a while? I dont mean hp, but does it sound the same? pull the same? In other words does your car run the same? How often do you have to empty it?

It seems every time I down shift I put oil in my intake, that's not good....

 

Here's the rig I'm running...



Very effective, looks good, and I empty it every oil change, and have around 2oz of oil in it. This car is run on a road course fairly frequently, so I know what you mean about sucking the oil in during the high-vac conditions under deceleration...

Stef's catch can, Earl's fittings, and braided covers on standard hoses...

 

Aaarh, I've got a perfect link for you saved on my home pc. RatFink, or something like that has easy directions for a $20 kit that seems extemely simple. Bump this evening/weekend and I'll post the link.

 

Alright, googled it here from work - $24

http://ratstangrestoration.com/oilse...stallation.htm

What's everyone think of this?

 

I have seen this set up the most, and it seems to be simple and effective.

 

I'm personally still not sold entirely on the need for a catch can...... search around, you'll find varying opinions. I guess my thoughts are that it may not help anything but it certainly shouldn't hurt anything either.

 

It's transparent as far as any seat of the pants sensation. They do help collect fuel vapors and oil from getting into your intake. My collector gets half full every 300 miles or so, I just dump it and on I go. Make sure your fittings are snug, don't overtighten the collection bowl it may crack and shatter. Any air feeds in this system are not good and may effect your A/F ratio.

Jed

 

I'm running one of the $35 aluminum jobbies from Ebay. Stuff it with a stainless steel scrubby to act as a subtrate for the oil vapors to condense on for better function. I empty a few ounces from it every few months, particularly after track days.

Not only does it keep your intake free of oil, it lowers the chance for detonation. Oil vapour in your intake charge lowers the effective octane rating--this is probably only in extreme cases of blow-by, but why chance it?

 

I don't think its extreme cases, I think its driving habits and conditions. A few months ago my car started to knock and it would shudder at anything above 3000rpm, it felt like I was running on water. So I chalked it up to bad gas at witch point I topped if off with 93 octane and ran octane booster, all seemed well. Problem is I always drive my car under load and use engine breaking allot. I think this oil in the intake is killing my fuel economy as well as killing my engine.

I think my very next mod will be a oil catch can. It seems the general consensus is that its safe on the engine. And that is exactly what I wanted to hear.

 

Yes, I agree with this. However, I've found that when you put a forced induction unit on, blow-by is significantly increased.

 

I wasn't convinced either, until I installed my CMCV deletes last year. When I saw a fine layer of oil in the intake and on/in the head intakes, my mind changed. I wasn't burning a noticable amount of oil and never experienced detonation, but I just don't want oil in my intake and air charge.

The arguments against them don't convince me at all, though.

 

Does the filter need to be elevated or are the kits elevated simply due to mounting location of the filter?

 

No need for elevation. What is drawn into the can is essentially air with oil vapor suspended in it. The separator simply adds a foam, wire wool, or plastic meshthat the air has to pass through, and all the turns that it takes to get through the insert knocks the vapor out of suspension, leaving clean air at the outlet of the can. The oil vapor that was trapped in the insert simply drips down into the can, waiting to be drained off. A larger can means a longer interval between draining, but other than that, there's no appreciable difference in performance. The very small "Home Depot Racing" inline style of separator, with a one-ounce capacity, however, can fill up pretty quickly, and once it does, it sucks the oil into the intake in one big gulp. Depending on how much vapor your particular engine generates, you may need to drain the filter on a weekly basis, and if you miss once, you have a mess to clean up in the intake. I run the Stef's one-pint can, and drain it every oil change (right before each track session), but I have a lot of reserve capacity, so if I forget, it's no big deal.

 

Why does it feed back into the intake at all? Why not just put a breather on it?

 

A little PCV system theory... Under normal operating conditions, the crankcase is slightly pressurized with combustion by-products (burned fuel, carbon, other assorted nasty things) primarily due to ring blow-by. These contaminants can shorten the oil life dramatically, the pressure actually robs power (more resistance to the crank and rod movement), and when they do leak out of assorted small openings (they blow gaskets apart if there's no venting), they contribute to atmospheric pollution. All of the above is bad. The earlier engines simply used a breather in the valve cover to vent the pressure, but that did nothing for the contaminants or emissions issues. IIRC, it was the mid 1960's when the PCV system was developed. PCV stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation, and like it's name implies, the design creates a moderate vacuum in the crankcase, eliminating all of the negative issues listed above. The racers had been doing something similar for years, either with draft tubes under the car or with venturi tubes in the collectors of their headers to generate the vacuum. Additionally, belt-driven evac pumps were (and still are) used in some cases. The manufacturers developed the PCV system most common today, namely plumbing a line from the valve cover to the intake, and using engine vacuum to relieve the pressure in the crankcase, via a balancing valve (PCV valve).

With the current generation Mustang system, the valve itself is eliminated, but the rest of the system remains. In the S197 4.6L motor, fresh air is drawn into the passenger-side valve cover through a small hose (important: this is AFTER the MAF sensor and air filter!), and returned to the intake on the driver's side. By sourcing the fresh air post-MAF, the computer already "knows" the total amount of air entering the engine, and the diameter of the inlet hose will determine how much is routed to bypass the throttle body. You'll notice that we have no IAC valve on the car, which isn't needed given the bypass routing of the PCV line.

Unfortunately, when the valve is deleted, certain cars (exact factors unkown) tend to exhibit a lot of consumption of oil into the intake under high-vacuum conditions (like engine braking during deceleration). There are essentially two fixes available: Oil separator or PCV delete. The separator is discussed above, so that leaves us with the PCV delete setup. To do a delete setup properly, you will need to cap off both the nipple on the intake tube (just forward of the throttle body) as well as the nipple on the manifold on the driver's side. At that point, you're left with two nipples sticking out of the valve covers. I've seen people run straight breathers, and that usually results in a thin film of oil vapor deposited on the valve covers in the general vicinity of the breather. I've also seen hoses run from the valve cover to a dual-inlet catch can with a breather on top. That way most of the oil vapor is trapped in the catch can, reducing the amount of vapor escaping into the engine bay. Either way, the best you can have in the crankcase is atmospheric pressure, which means that there is a slight parasitic power loss due to windage inside the crankcase. To help combat that, I've seen setups that go right back to the Bonneville Salt Flats racers from the '50s, with draft and venturi tubes, and a lot of LT-1 'Vettes are running an electric evacuation pump to help lower the crankcase pressure. If the delete is not done properly, capping both sides, then the computer is operating under the assumption that a certain amount of air is being drawn in through the PCV system when it's not, with predictable results to the air-fuel mixture.

Given that our PCV system works pretty well, has shown NO power gains from bypassing, and is relatively inexpensive to modify with a separator, that's the route that I've gone. It's not that expensive (excepting "bling" factor), and it keeps oil vapor from turning a clean street engine into a Gunk commercial "before" photo. Other opinions abound, of course, but I stand by the end results of the inline separator.

 

Now that is how to bring the tech! Thanks, SoundGuy--great explanation.

 

Thanks! I used to wear one of those shirts with the "gold gear" patch on the sleeve... It's been a few years, though!

 

Well I put in the oil separator, I bought a Chinese knock off of a gretty unit. The whole unit was poorly asembled and had metal shavings and cutting oil in it. The lines were very restrictive and the paint was grotesque. The other problem is that the can was completely empty, so no real media stopping the oil from being suddenly ingested into the engine when cornering.

I cleaned the can with wd40 inside and washed it out with dish soap. Looked inside and it was now clean. The next step was to bore out the elbows for better air flow, I did not want a rough idle. I also extended the elbow that meets with the valve cover down with copper pipe. Then I filled the can 1/2 way with a brand new commercial sponge that's resistant to heat and harsh oils and chemicals. I did not trust putting scotchbright pads or anything metallic for fear of having flakes go into the intake.

The fittings on the can were machined nicely though but no teflon tape was used and the fittings leaked under pressure tests, not good. So I resealed all the fittings, then I sanded off all the paint and painted the unit with engine enamel. Black in my case because the car is black.

I installed it about a month ago.

here are my findings so far.

1-maybe its me but my fuel economy has gone up slightly ~1mpg
2-the engine seems to run better
3-it does not interfere with the normal operation of the engine

the total cost for this was $25shiped for the machined alu can and fittings + 5bux for the paint + 3bux for the heater hose from autozone +3bux for a yellow home depot contractor sponge.

total ~$36 bux, I don't thinks its a bad investment to keep the engine clean

Also on a side note, after removing the factory hose I looked at the inside of the hose and it was dripping, what looked to be petroleum mixed with oil. Certainly does not smell like oil.

I don't know about others, but my commute is basically stop and go traffic 99% of the time. This makes the engine fluctuate and I believe the oil problem could have been a problem sometime down the line.