Ok....

Here is an excellant write up on catch cans and why exactly the type I put on (Home Depot air compressor water seperator) and many others like this will not work properly or even at all and actually hinder the fresh air system needed for back and forth air flow depending on vacuum/boost levels.

I put it on to actually test and see for myself if it would catch the suspended aresoled oil particles, seperate them out dropping them into the bowl and the clean air moved on to the intake. It actually misses pretty much all of them as they pass right through the filter and on into the intake just as before because this is not the type of catch can design for pulling aresoled oil droplets out of a cars engine hose system, plus underhood temps make it even more useless as the article below refers.

Its all in the very imformative article below and is interesting reading that everyone considering this needs to read. A bunch of Z06 owners and mysef use very expensive catch can designs and when put side by side in testing proved beyond a doubt the cheap HD/other type of air compressor water seperators are not good to use at all. True they will seperate a tiny bit out possible, but almost all of the contaminated flow will pass right on through to the intake just as before, but when I checked my empty can this moring I then pulled the intake hose off and found just as much oily vapor in it as before.

True its better than nothing, but the negine heat will in short order trash the carbonate bowl and seal and its not rated for over 125 degrees heat and when its mounted on the back firewall area its subjected to way over that.



Read the article below:

http://www.conceptualpolymer.com/PCV...oval%20101.pdf

 

Good info sscobaltscZ06. What about a catch can like this Jegs catch can?

 

Unfortunatly even the Jegs can is not much better than the HD air compressor filter as neither one is a coalescing filter type of catch can. Its basically the same thing. Yes it will trap and catch some oil droplets given enough time/miles, but if a correctly designed can was installed you would see a difference right away in oil collection.

Im gonna remove my catch can off my Z06 and install it on the Balt for a week soon and ill post some pictures of the differences in whats actually caught between the HD can and a actual desgined catch can for a car.

There are many designs and they all work in their own little ways. Some are just better designs than others but anything is better than nothing.....but the polycarb bowl ones are not really for hot underhood applications at all especially mouted in back over the exhaust area.

 

Cool, sounds good. Can't wait to see the results.

 

Yes the jegs type are exactly like the home depot and other cheapy ones. I've used all kinds of things for catch cans in the past and had good results with most. Maybe they aren't 100% but I've had great success with them. Another thing I've used was a clear glass fuel filter from a carburated engine. Just simply remove the filter element and install the casing horizontally. One of my brothers and a couple friends have these on right now (turbo applications) and collected decent amounts of oil. If you want to skip all the oil just take off the breather tube completely, cap off where it connects to the intake and stick a small breather on the vavle cover. Technically it'll leave in a small amount of air into the crankcase and create a little vac leak, but it shouldn't effect anything. I know LOTS of people running MAF cars doing that. I guess what I'm saying is maybe these ways aren't 100% effective (except removing the tube completely), but if it was that serious of a problem car companies would have done something about it by now since the pcv has been around for decades and it still ingests oil. BTW, I've never had one actually melt, even the polycarbonate, so who knows (watch mine melt tomorrow haha).

 

I agree Blueta any of them will work and probably good enough to leave as is even with the polycarb bowl. As you commented ive never seen one melt or lose a seal from heat yet either.

I would not use a breather though on the back of the valve cover in this particular closed system new car until I run some vacuum and pressure tests with ring sealing, leak down % and such using a s/c. I have 4 race cars and a couple bikes and plumb all of them differently cause they are all designed differently with and without pcv systems and different ring designs and blowby characteristics with some turbo and blower applications as well as NA engines from 300 rwhp to 790 rwhp and tune on a buddies 930 rwhp Viper and now this fun little toy.

 

Although $45 is a awesome price, Greddy has some too.

http://www.tntautosport.com/index.ph...ex&cPath=12_75

 

Those are very nice TCarter.

 

IMO.. they are a waste of money...

In terms of performance, i have seen superchargers that perform better after they have ingested oil into them. Excess oil is retained within the supercharger and builds up to reduce clearances.

Sometimes a car with 90k miles has a better performing supercharger than a brand new one!

 

Better performing at 90K for a supercharger....OMG I'm at a loss for words but I think you are actually serious.

Supercharged engines are prone to accumulation of an oil sludge mixture forming inside the intake tract. This is a result of crankcase pressure and inefficient combustion. While this condition is normal it is a hindrance to making higher horsepower and increasing engine longevity. Oil vapor is forced out of the cylinder head and redirected through vacuum hoses into the intake stream. The oil vapor then condenses onto the inside surfaces in the intake system. This is especially prominent in the intercooler core. A thin film of oil coating the inside of the intercooler will insulate the air to air exchange and lower the ability of the intercooler to cool the intake air charge.
Horsepower is increased by eliminating the engines current requirement to try and reburn this relatively noncombustible oil. Engine longevity is lengthen due to this oil not having the ability to gum up the valve train, supercharger, and various other moving parts and sensors. Intercooler efficiency is also increased. Valuable for daily driven street cars but truly a must have for track cars and those cars with our high boost supercharger pulley.

Next non believer step right up.......

 

Wow...nice find! Id give you rep points, but I gave too many away earlier haha...I owe ya one!

 

Ive talked to a few people tonight that are running the HD type seperators and the general consensus is to take out the white stone filter. It becomes saturated/clogged and the flow is impeded greatly which you dont want since air must flow both directions through the filter. Once the stone filter is taken out it actually begins to trap the oil more effictivly in most cases. Unfortunatly the supercharged Balt doesnt use a true pcv valve fitting system and thats what works best with a oil seperator catch can. This fresh air hose just doesnt work that well for what we are trying to do.

 

I forgot to mention that! I actually did on another post about those but for got all about it here. Yes remove that stone! And yes the better place for the catch can would be between the vavle cover and intake manifold/anywhere after the tb like most normal pcv systems (which we don't have) because of the constant vac source until WOT. Thanks for the update.

 

haha.. ok.. you need to read.. i said better performing supercharger.. not intercooler. and yes it happens.

BTW.. there is oil and oil droplets all over the valvetrain.. dont know how you will justify keeping that clean with only a catch can..

Can i keep this oil from gumming up my crankshaft as well?? Dang oil.. why does it have to get all over my cylinder walls and in my bearings and gum them up.

 

Im sorry that you dont understand exactly what a catch can does but....

A catch can has absolutely nothing at all to do with keeping the valvetrain cleaner as you commented above. Its function is to keep oil mist/droplets out of the throttle body and intake system, NOT the valvetrain or crankshaft areas.

 

I think what is meant by vavletrain in this instance is not the cams, springs, etc, but more the vavles themselves. They can get pretty gunked up from all sorts of things, oil consumption being one of them and impede air flow. It's just one way to help keep things like that cleaner. And of course keep sludge off the inside of the intake/tb too.

 

Yes, but valvetrain in context generally means under the valvecover area of the cams etc.. Agreed it can be confusing and thats why I was cutting some slack instead of flaming.

 

dude.. this was a joke.. i was being sarcastic ( i know it doesnt work on the net)

but it said to keep it off of your valvetrain... thats why i made the comments..

Valves.. yes that helps... but valvetrain (i.e. springs, rockers, cams.. etc) No. Thats why i took it one step farther and 'asked' if it would help keep oil off my crankshaft..

I know its hard to tell who knows what they are talking about on the internet.. but i can assure you, any dumb comments i make like that will be sarcasm..

 

ill get the home depot one..found out many people like that better and works much better than the 45 bux ones u can buy from performance shops..had the home depot one on my srt and it worked fine

 

Sometimes its ok to claim ignornace or just lack of knowledge instead....

But as they say, you the monkey flips the switch. And that wasnt sarcasm...

 

yup.. i guess im just lacking knowledge..

.. if you only knew...

 

I'm listening to TVS_SS on this one... he's a pretty knowledgeable guy.

 

i think im going to go with the greddy one

 

going to home depot now, seeing as i'm just running a filter.

 

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