New Catch Can setup, pros/cons with a breather?
01-13-2011, 03:12 PM
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New Catch Can setup, pros/cons with a breather? Alright, I just dropped some $$$ to help alleviate my oil consumption issue. I bought an LS6 valley cover and some Saikou Michi catch cans. I took off the intake and stock valley cover, cleaned the hell out of the intake/TB, installed LS6 valley cover, catch cans, re-installed my intake, and ran B12 3 step cleaner through the intake and gas tank.
I kind of rigged the hoses due to being a little short of 3/8" hose (On 1 catch can outlet). A few days later, I pull the lines apart to fix the rigging and put appropriate length hose on the outlet. When I pulled off the outlet lines, there was oil residue on the fittings and the lines, after only 3-4 days!
I don't want any oil in my intake and the proper/extreme (read:expensive) way of doing this involves eliminating the PCV entirely, switching to a dry sump with a quality vacuum pump. That's thousands of dollars, what are the pros/cons to using a breather on the outlet of the catch can from the valley and the inlet for the fresh air (return)? See below for shots of the setup...
I kind of rigged the hoses due to being a little short of 3/8" hose (On 1 catch can outlet). A few days later, I pull the lines apart to fix the rigging and put appropriate length hose on the outlet. When I pulled off the outlet lines, there was oil residue on the fittings and the lines, after only 3-4 days!
I don't want any oil in my intake and the proper/extreme (read:expensive) way of doing this involves eliminating the PCV entirely, switching to a dry sump with a quality vacuum pump. That's thousands of dollars, what are the pros/cons to using a breather on the outlet of the catch can from the valley and the inlet for the fresh air (return)? See below for shots of the setup...
01-13-2011, 11:12 PM
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umm, I'm far from an expert on the matter but to me it looks like some things are wrong on your routing. The passenger side catch can is routed properly but your drivers side is routed backwards.
Again I would like to point out that this is my assumption as I don't know this brand very well or the dual can setup.
The catch can inlet should be the top, discharge is the side. On the drivers side catch can you're bringing in clean air from the intake and discharging it into your valley. This should be the other way around, otherwise there is no point using a catch can. It would be simpler to just run a hose straight from the intake into the valley as it would be clean air regardless. The can is only acting as a redundancy at this point.
Furthermore, with this dual catch can setup I would say you could also use a breather for your crankcase aswell. The simplest setup would be a breather filter on your filler cap. This should help alleviate some of the excess pressure and wouldn't blow so much oil threw the catch can before it can collect all the residue.
I hope I'm not just talking out of my *** but that makes the most sense to me.
Again I would like to point out that this is my assumption as I don't know this brand very well or the dual can setup.
The catch can inlet should be the top, discharge is the side. On the drivers side catch can you're bringing in clean air from the intake and discharging it into your valley. This should be the other way around, otherwise there is no point using a catch can. It would be simpler to just run a hose straight from the intake into the valley as it would be clean air regardless. The can is only acting as a redundancy at this point.
Furthermore, with this dual catch can setup I would say you could also use a breather for your crankcase aswell. The simplest setup would be a breather filter on your filler cap. This should help alleviate some of the excess pressure and wouldn't blow so much oil threw the catch can before it can collect all the residue.
I hope I'm not just talking out of my *** but that makes the most sense to me.
01-14-2011, 08:09 AM
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They are hooked up correctly. I had the standard design changed to incorporate the inlets on the side and the outlets on the top. That's how we design scrubbers and separators in the oil field and, IMHO, works better to not re-entrain the oil in the gas/air if the inlet is NOT directed towards the liquid settling section.
You don't want to simply add a breather to this current setup as that would allow for reversion and the possibility of drawing fresh air into the system that is unmetered. If I were to do breathers, they would be on the outlets of each catch can, that way the system is entirely contained to the crankcase/atmosphere and I would then block off both of the intake ports. I believe this will eliminate all oil getting into the intake.
I remember when I doing all of this research that were some negative opinions about doing it this way, aside from oil misting the engine bay, so that's what I am looking for, the pros/cons and a simple explanation.
You don't want to simply add a breather to this current setup as that would allow for reversion and the possibility of drawing fresh air into the system that is unmetered. If I were to do breathers, they would be on the outlets of each catch can, that way the system is entirely contained to the crankcase/atmosphere and I would then block off both of the intake ports. I believe this will eliminate all oil getting into the intake.
I remember when I doing all of this research that were some negative opinions about doing it this way, aside from oil misting the engine bay, so that's what I am looking for, the pros/cons and a simple explanation.
