What accumulates in a catch can?
What accumulates in a catch can? I had always just assumed it would be just oil but what I dumped out a week ago was far from just oil. I have a cheapo ebay can that I stuffed with scratch pad material to catch oil vapors from my crank case. I was tearing things down for the winter build last week and emptied it out after about 1000 miles of driving. Out came probably a full cup of rusty looking water that had a burnt oil smell to it. Are these the vapors that accumulate in your crankcase that a PCV system gets rid of? Just want to make sure nothing is totally out of the ordinary. Thanks!
yea when i emptied mine for the first time and found like 2 oz of water in there, i freaked out. my tuner then told me it was condensation, cause if i did indeed have water in my engine, it would not run very long!
Condensation forms in the crank case, totally normal. When the engine warns up, it vaporizes, and collects in the catch can. Without the catch can it just gets sucked back into the engine and sent out the exhaust.
In addition to condensation, there is the water that is the byproduct of combustion which is accumulated when the engine operates at lower temperatures and the oil temperature is below 212F. Finally, there can be some fuel from fuel dilution that hits the oil catch can before the engine is warmed up.
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That makes sense because dropping oil out of the vapor stream requires coalescing material. This why filters designed to drop water out of the vapor stream, which only requires a change in pressure/temperature, such as those used on pneumatic lines do not worik well as oil catch cans.
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Brett Foote
FormerVendor
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 77
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From: Sandy, UT
That makes sense because dropping oil out of the vapor stream requires coalescing material. This why filters designed to drop water out of the vapor stream, which only requires a change in pressure/temperature, such as those used on pneumatic lines do not worik well as oil catch cans.
Not all catch cans are created equal. Most catch cans help a little, only a few help a lot!- Jeremy
Launching!
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 273
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From: California
Damit to Hell Just received my catch can today.
I looked for the normal place to install and found nowhere to install it.
I have more **** + AC in there than your hand can grab.
For the life of me, I cannot fit the can into the engine compartment.
It's a CA car and as such there is a ton of crap attached to the engine.
There is already some fricking thing attached to the passenger side head that wreaks of smog ****.
Any ideas?
I looked for the normal place to install and found nowhere to install it.
I have more **** + AC in there than your hand can grab.
For the life of me, I cannot fit the can into the engine compartment.
It's a CA car and as such there is a ton of crap attached to the engine.
There is already some fricking thing attached to the passenger side head that wreaks of smog ****.
Any ideas?
