Oil Catch Cans

[WhizkidTN]

Originally Posted by 69Torino
Coworker has a catch can on his 2018 F-150 5.0. It works. He empties it about every 1k miles, out of boredom. It usually has 3 or 4 ounces in it. Oil not it the intake is a good thing. I have taken intake manifolds off lots of GDI Kia engines and dumped 12 ounces of oil down the front of my pants as soon as it clears the core support.


FWIW: Hence, why on my turbo Optima I have one on the PCV side and one on the crankcase intake side (which reverses flow during significant boost). These are the Saikou Michi brand made for my car. I have ball valve drains with hoses that drop past my belly pans on both for super easy draining. I normally get ~2 oz of oil/water mix between 4K mile OCI (a bit more in the winter and it is more "watery"). I've NEVER gotten any on the crankcase intake side and deem this just not needed but it is installed and I'm leaving it alone.

When I replaced my engine at 77K miles (long-block under warranty) and took a good look at the intake valves, they had deposits but it was not super bad (I've seen much worse on the interwebs) but bad enough to need walnut blasting at some point IMHO, so I can only hazard a guess that this has help slow the accumulation but will not totally prevent it - at least on my car with my mods and the way I drive it (DD, 20 miles to work). I like the OCCs and will continue to run them and started life with my new engine with them installed from the get/go. The picture below was the worst of the four (Cyl#2):

 

[wtd]

I run a catch can on my 14 Mustang GT and on my fiancee's 07 GT and her 17 F150 with the 5.0.

Putting one on the 07 GT made it stop blowing blue smoke on startup which was happening when this car only had about 10K miles. The 4.6 pulls a ton of oil through the PCV valve and into the intake. When I removed the factory hose to install the catch can, it was soaked with oil.

I bought my Mustang about four years later and put one on it when the car had about 200 miles on it. Same thing with the F150. On it since new.

Whether or not it extends engine life, who knows but I don't think it's hurting anything.

Also, not all catch cans are created equally. There is a big difference from buying an empty can on ebay vs ones from places like Elite Engineering, Bob's Auto sports, JLT, UPR and others.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Al
I think I will actually install it on my '19 Crosstrek. I will see how much it collects.

Most of me wants to believe that its not a real issue in engines in the last few years.


I haven't kept up on all that is Subaru in a while, but if you can do a neat, discreet install, why not.

I'm kind of interested in something like this for my DI Nissan VQ35. IMO, all the top tier fuel and premium motor oils in the world aren't going to prevent crankcase vapors from collecting on our nice hot, dry intake valves.

What's the alternative for our DI engines from a DIY standpoint? A yearly can of CRC intake valve cleaner like mentioned above?

My fear there is will these spray cleanings shorten the life of the catalytic converters?

 

[The_Nuke]

"If the engine needed a catch can, they would put one on it from the factory."

Wrong.

Automotive history is littered with the carcasses of engine designs which were best avoided once built out and put into vehicles. They either had been poorly designed and included unnecessary items that caused more problems or lacked things they needed and required more maintenance service as a result.

Some engine have been designed and built correctly. Some have not. Neither Engine designers nor engine builders have carte blanc when doing their respective jobs. So don't think for a second any given engine has everything it needs to operate to its maximum potential and remain trouble-free for as long as possible. It's at least as likely it doesn't have all it needs as it is it does...

 

[Excel]

I run one in my F150,5.0 and it catches oil
It helps keep the cyls clean and piston tops as well. The EPA would rather me
burn the oil and slowly degrade my engine..Folks there is not one device
on an engine for emissions thats good for the vehicles health..

 

[Railrust]

Originally Posted by dave1251
Even with the over amplification of the internet there is not a lot of L83 owners complaining about either oil consumption or intake valve deposits.

The Silverado/Sierra is GM's cash cow without this platform GM does not exist. If there was such an apocalyptic problem as you claim there would be a lot more than a TSB issued. Also if the problem could be solved by a $5 part of the factory of course every manufacturer would have installed one rather than redesign and reengineer their most produced engines costing tens of millions.

It's not a matter of the manufacturers "caring" it a matter making money and if they could solve the issue with an easy and inexpensive fix such as a catch can it would be done.


No offense, but there's so much wrong here with what you wrote that it's to the point of laughable.

Let's start with paragraph one -- Yes, GM's "cash cow" is their trucks...same for Ford, Dodge. The sedan market is dead. GM, Ford and Chrysler hardly even bother building cars anymore, it's trucks and SUV's. So I don't get your point. And no, no manufacturer would spend $5 dollars to improve their product, especially if that improvement means nothing in terms of successfully making it through the warranty period. You won't get a manufacturer to spend 5 cents on a vehicle unless it HAS TO. And that would take moving heaven and earth. A simple nickel would be extremely expensive for a manufacturer...engineers would literally be laughed out of the room if they suggested that. So they aren't going to spend on catch cans, and they certainly aren't going to tell their customers they have to open up their hoods and empty them every two weeks...you kidding me??? Could you imagine?! Oh my lord, no! Not going to happen.

And no, I don't think the GM Silverados or Sierras have apocalyptic problems with oil consumption and valve coking, but it does happen. A "five dollar can" does collect oil that otherwise would go into your intake and bake onto the backsides of your intake valves. That is widespread enough that it has gone past the over amplification of the Internet. Now does anyone really care? No. Does it make these trucks junk? No. They sell 500,000 of these trucks a year, half of them use them for work/fleet/construction...never even open up the hood. No care, no problem. They will be traded in at 150,000 or less. Beat to [censored]. The other half barely drive them. So it's not a "problem". However why is spending "5 bucks" and emptying a can every 2-3 weeks such horror if it helps? Easy to install, easy to empty, relatively cheap, doesn't hurt anything. What's the problem? What's the big deal? [censored], people do a lot crazier things with their vehicles than that. There's some people that still change their oil every 1,000 miles because their uncle Eddy did it 20 years ago.

 

[demarpaint]

I guess another DYI fix for a DI engine?

 

[WhizkidTN]

Originally Posted by JTK
Originally Posted by Al
I think I will actually install it on my '19 Crosstrek. I will see how much it collects.

Most of me wants to believe that its not a real issue in engines in the last few years.


I haven't kept up on all that is Subaru in a while, but if you can do a neat, discreet install, why not.

I'm kind of interested in something like this for my DI Nissan VQ35. IMO, all the top tier fuel and premium motor oils in the world aren't going to prevent crankcase vapors from collecting on our nice hot, dry intake valves.

What's the alternative for our DI engines from a DIY standpoint? A yearly can of CRC intake valve cleaner like mentioned above?

My fear there is will these spray cleanings shorten the life of the catalytic converters?


I really don't think that the CRC GDI intake valve cleaner (likely a really good product) can totally clean intake valves that are badly gunked up. I think a more manual approach (walnut blasting being the best option IMHO) would be required in that case. BUT, if you yearly use the CRC cleaner (following directions carefully) from a new engine or one recently manually cleaned, it might do some good to keep if from getting out of hand over time. I'd just be sure to change the oil/filter after doing that service. Maybe combine it with a good tank of Redline SL-1 fuel cleaner a couple hundred miles before you use the CRC cleaner and then do the oil change after some miles on it. YMMV.