homemade catch can mod
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homemade catch can mod
i did my first real(?) mod since i bought my car last week. HOMEMADE OIL CATCH CAN. i spent about $28 for the whole thing.The oil catch can is from home depot.
After the installation, i drove the car less than 15 miles and i see oil in the catch can...
not a good thing, i assume..
After the installation, i drove the car less than 15 miles and i see oil in the catch can...
not a good thing, i assume..
Smarty pants.
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After a week of installing this, it collected little bit of oil. It was enough to see it boil(?) when the engine is running. Today i took the car for some hard driving 
Always shifted above 3~4.5k rpm. i hit the redline a few times. Now that i checked the catch can, the oil is gone --__--.. what happened to the oil? Could it have gone to the manifold? If so, how do i prevent this from happening again?
Always shifted above 3~4.5k rpm. i hit the redline a few times. Now that i checked the catch can, the oil is gone --__--.. what happened to the oil? Could it have gone to the manifold? If so, how do i prevent this from happening again?
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When i got the catch can from Home Depot, it came with brown filter (?) kind but i took that out because that's what the DIYer did.
I assume the oil might have gone in to the manifold when i went hard on the car.
You need something in the catch can to "hold" the oil in, otherwise it's just going to be pulled back into the engine in a continuous loop, unless you vent it to the atmosphere and don't run it in a closed loop system.
Most true catch cans have a steel wool like media in them to retain the oil vapor and condensed oil.
I have this model catch can on my GTO and as you can see in that picture it has a divider in it, inside that upper portion there is a steel wool media that catches the oil vapor, as the oil condenses it drains down into the can. This also helps to keep it from being sucked back into the system as there is resistance to the oil being able to leave the can.
Most true catch cans have a steel wool like media in them to retain the oil vapor and condensed oil.
I have this model catch can on my GTO and as you can see in that picture it has a divider in it, inside that upper portion there is a steel wool media that catches the oil vapor, as the oil condenses it drains down into the can. This also helps to keep it from being sucked back into the system as there is resistance to the oil being able to leave the can.
Essentially the PCV system allows the crankcase of the engine to breath and in this process vapors, and in some cases oil, circulates through the PCV system and back into the intake. However what tends to happen is that oil will condense and settle in the intake tract, either on the blade of the throttle body or in the plenum. Over time this oil build up can be detremential to the engine's performance. We want the engine to burn gas, not oil.
So the basic idea of a catch can is that it seperates the oil from the normal crankcase vapors that are passing through the PCV system. It then (if working properly) traps this oil in a container and does not allow it to enter the intake system. I run one on my personal car (04 GTO) and typically catch between 4-6 ounces of oil between oil changes (7,500 miles). That doesn't seem like a lot at one time but over the life of the engine (mine now has 142,000 miles) it adds up. That is potentially well over 3 quarts of oil that would just be sitting in my engine's intake system clogging things up.
So the basic idea of a catch can is that it seperates the oil from the normal crankcase vapors that are passing through the PCV system. It then (if working properly) traps this oil in a container and does not allow it to enter the intake system. I run one on my personal car (04 GTO) and typically catch between 4-6 ounces of oil between oil changes (7,500 miles). That doesn't seem like a lot at one time but over the life of the engine (mine now has 142,000 miles) it adds up. That is potentially well over 3 quarts of oil that would just be sitting in my engine's intake system clogging things up.
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You need something in the catch can to "hold" the oil in, otherwise it's just going to be pulled back into the engine in a continuous loop, unless you vent it to the atmosphere and don't run it in a closed loop system.
Most true catch cans have a steel wool like media in them to retain the oil vapor and condensed oil.
I have this model catch can on my GTO and as you can see in that picture it has a divider in it, inside that upper portion there is a steel wool media that catches the oil vapor, as the oil condenses it drains down into the can. This also helps to keep it from being sucked back into the system as there is resistance to the oil being able to leave the can.
Most true catch cans have a steel wool like media in them to retain the oil vapor and condensed oil.
I have this model catch can on my GTO and as you can see in that picture it has a divider in it, inside that upper portion there is a steel wool media that catches the oil vapor, as the oil condenses it drains down into the can. This also helps to keep it from being sucked back into the system as there is resistance to the oil being able to leave the can.
Is the steel wool from kitchen appliance? Just cut a little bit of that and stick it in the catch can?
How often should i change the steel wool?
Essentially the PCV system allows the crankcase of the engine to breath and in this process vapors, and in some cases oil, circulates through the PCV system and back into the intake. However what tends to happen is that oil will condense and settle in the intake tract, either on the blade of the throttle body or in the plenum. Over time this oil build up can be detremential to the engine's performance. We want the engine to burn gas, not oil.
So the basic idea of a catch can is that it seperates the oil from the normal crankcase vapors that are passing through the PCV system. It then (if working properly) traps this oil in a container and does not allow it to enter the intake system. I run one on my personal car (04 GTO) and typically catch between 4-6 ounces of oil between oil changes (7,500 miles). That doesn't seem like a lot at one time but over the life of the engine (mine now has 142,000 miles) it adds up. That is potentially well over 3 quarts of oil that would just be sitting in my engine's intake system clogging things up.
So the basic idea of a catch can is that it seperates the oil from the normal crankcase vapors that are passing through the PCV system. It then (if working properly) traps this oil in a container and does not allow it to enter the intake system. I run one on my personal car (04 GTO) and typically catch between 4-6 ounces of oil between oil changes (7,500 miles). That doesn't seem like a lot at one time but over the life of the engine (mine now has 142,000 miles) it adds up. That is potentially well over 3 quarts of oil that would just be sitting in my engine's intake system clogging things up.
I did read a thread about someone putting in steel wool in the catch can. But Some other ppl said that it's not necessary, i think..
Is the steel wool from kitchen appliance? Just cut a little bit of that and stick it in the catch can?
How often should i change the steel wool?
Is the steel wool from kitchen appliance? Just cut a little bit of that and stick it in the catch can?
How often should i change the steel wool?
As for replacing the filtering media, I've never had my can apart and never replaced the media in it. It's going on 100k miles on the car now and still works well. If you don't have a way to keep the media above the oil level it will obviously need replacing from time to time once it becomes oil soaked and can not work properly anymore.
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I've seen different types of media used, steel wool, stainless steel mesh, I've even seen some catch cans that used metal shavings in them. Whatever you use for it to be most effective it needs to be in a separate chamber from the where the oil is actually captured at.
As for replacing the filtering media, I've never had my can apart and never replaced the media in it. It's going on 100k miles on the car now and still works well. If you don't have a way to keep the media above the oil level it will obviously need replacing from time to time once it becomes oil soaked and can not work properly anymore.
As for replacing the filtering media, I've never had my can apart and never replaced the media in it. It's going on 100k miles on the car now and still works well. If you don't have a way to keep the media above the oil level it will obviously need replacing from time to time once it becomes oil soaked and can not work properly anymore.
I don't see how you could separate the chambers from where the oil is captured and the steel wool with husky catch can.. I went back and read thread on HOMeMADE CATCHCAN. One of the guys just put the steel mesh in the catch can which soaks by the oil. I guess i'll just put it in there, not separating
You could fabricate something to create two chambers in the canister but it probably wouldn't be worth it. That's the primary drawback to a modified air compressor filter as a catch can, it's not really going to work like it should. It's better than nothing though.
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