Topic: My DIY Homemade Oil Catch Can

[Jebsmith]

Well here are pics... Ill will write up instructions later tonight.

















Here is the finished can, standing up right


This is installed in the car, notice the nipple and air filter are at the top.  Filter media filles the bottle




where I routed the hose

[Jebsmith]

reserved for more pics and more write up

[idkfa]

!!!  looks great

[Arabas]

does it have integrated filter in it?

[Jebsmith]

Not yet, ill be finishing it today.  I was tryin to decide to vent it or rout it into the intake.  I'm going to vent it.

[Sly Bob]

Wouldn't venting it to the intake allow the intake vacuum to assist the air flow?

[Arabas]

As Dave from DDM has said, venting it is probably NOT a good idea...
you might want to re-think about it Jeb!
just my 

[Jebsmith]

If you look at the designe of the stock intake, where the check valve connects, there is a nipple inside the intake.  The opening faces the flow of air.  Seeing as how there is a check valve, and air being forced in, that they want air to circulate through the valve cover in one direction.  so hooking this back into my non stock intake with out the nipple would serve no purpose. Imo

[shabby]

Plenty of catch can threads here, do a search, you need to hook up the catch can inline with the hose that goes from the valve cover to the turbo.

[spider]

Best start over. The lower nipple needs to be higher than any oil you may accumulate as to not percolate vapors through it (1) you have to overcome the weight of the oil & (2) Its spitting it back up through your filter media. What filter media are you using. bronze colored scrubby thingies? The one way valve cover to intake pipe can stay where it is or have its own baby air filter. The  other hose from the valve cover should go down to the catch can, as to not pool oil in it. Then it should go back to the front of the turbo compressor. The next thing to consider is water/alcohol injection to further keep the backside of the intake valves clean.(big problem with all direct injection engines!) Google "catch can" to become a bench expert before you start. I need to do the same. Almost forgot ---put a petcock on the bottom.  

[Jebsmith]

spider, I made it correctly, you are looking at it upside down.  I do have water meth injection.  I am using stainless steel wool as media to collect the water and oil vapor. 

[Jebsmith]

Plenty of catch can threads here, do a search, you need to hook up the catch can inline with the hose that goes from the valve cover to the turbo.

Thanks, but I am going to vent it.

[spider]

spider, I made it correctly, you are looking at it upside down.  I do have water meth injection.  I am using stainless steel wool as media to collect the water and oil vapor.  

Ok, cool. Venting it you may find it raises your idle. Also a bit of negative pressure in the crankcase is better than any positive pressure which boosted cars typically produce. Realizing now whom is doing this your high 30 PSI will produce positive pressure past the rings draining power & trying to force air out -- again the rings, seals, weak gaskets etc. Have you considered a sump evac. system tying your crankcase to the exhaust. Free HP. I haven't opened up my old engine to see where a safe place is to tie into the crankcase. valve cover not a good place.

[Dave@DDMworks]

As for venting the catch can to atmosphere, it can be done as some of our customers have choosen to do that with our catch can. The only concern that I have doing that is the possibility that air can go in through the filter, through the catch can, into the valve cover, and out through the other line into the intake system and cause un-metered air into the system, especially at idle. This is something that is possible under certain conditions.

Jeb - Get a filter on that other nipple on the boost solenoid, you do not want to get garbage down into that, at least run some vacuum line off that nipple in a loop so that the splash (evident in the pictures) does not start getting debris in there. Also why did you go with 1/4" line instead of 3/8"?

[Jebsmith]

Dave-  Lol, I didn't know that the line on the valve cover was 3/8.  Oops, and I didn't want to take out the nipple I had in there and buy a new one.

Also, thanks for pointing out the boost solenoid issue, ill be fixing that tomorrow.

-spider. I have not read about a sump evac system yet.  It seems a bit out of my relm of diy though.

On a side note to everyone... this project was enexpensive to do, and it was fun, however comparing mine to the build quality of ddm's I will most likely purchase the ddm to replace my diy.

[Brad Kenny]

Think of all the things you learned in the process of building your own. All the things overcome, and still to be worked out. Buying it is not always the answer. Imagination is the father of invention. Never know, you may have come across something totally new. Keep it up Jeb, you have a great car and are pulling more WHP that most of us ever will! I have enjoyed watching this thread just to see the creativity portion of the build.

[JimVonBaden]

Think of all the things you learned in the process of building your own. All the things overcome, and still to be worked out. Buying it is not always the answer. Imagination is the father of invention. Never know, you may have come across something totally new. Keep it up Jeb, you have a great car and are pulling more WHP that most of us ever will! I have enjoyed watching this thread just to see the creativity portion of the build.

Absolutely! I love seeing others DYI this kind of thing!

Jim

[Jebsmith]

ill keep on keepin' on guys

[Dr. Gronk]

Jeb did you decide on the internal material for your OCC? Alot of the oil catch cans online show in and out ports very close together... makes me think why even bother as oil vapor wouldn't have much time to condense? The more sophisticated show fairly tightly packed stainless steel wool over a condensing plate of some sort, or a pipe down through the can.  But maybe these are overkill and not necessary... what are the groups thoughts?

Also I assume we should be careful the lines from the value cover shouldn't ever dip as oil could potentially condense in the line and have nowhere to run (ie to catch can or back to value cover).

WARNING SEMI-THREAD-JACK
I had another question for the group based on Dave's feedback in this thread.

Jeb - Get a filter on that other nipple on the boost solenoid, you do not want to get garbage down into that, at least run some vacuum line off that nipple in a loop so that the splash (evident in the pictures) does not start getting debris in there.

I'm trying to determine if that boost solenoid should run to the intake after the MAF or be open to atmosphere in the bay? I've read with a few turbo installs online having it open to the bay and others that run to intake.

Anyone know the function of this boost controller solenoid (mine is labeled Pierburg PA6-GF80<3). What I though it was doing was comparing the pressure difference between the compressor and wastegate relative to atmosphere rather than acting as an outlet for air from either compressor or wastegate.

I have a Hahn recirculating BOV which I'm trying to get recirculating (and waiting for a response from their tech support), but in my case the same boost solenoid that's open in Jeb's case is currently ported into my intake post MAF where the BOV should be recirculating (see pics).





I'm thinking of pulling the white plug and just coiling it to avoid any major grim from getting in there and then reattaching the BOV to the intake.  I just was wondering if that solenoid is releasing air that should re-added to the system or if it's just for pressure comparison.

[Jebsmith]

semi thread jack?  jesus.  I would hate to see a full thread jack by you.

[Critterman]

Jeb - come on now if something is worth doing it is worth doing right and the Doc did it right

[spoolin]

Anyone know the function of this boost controller solenoid (mine is labeled Pierburg PA6-GF80<3). What I though it was doing was comparing the pressure difference between the compressor and wastegate relative to atmosphere rather than acting as an outlet for air from either compressor or wastegate.

I have a Hahn recirculating BOV which I'm trying to get recirculating (and waiting for a response from their tech support), but in my case the same boost solenoid that's open in Jeb's case is currently ported into my intake post MAF where the BOV should be recirculating (see pics).

I'm thinking of pulling the white plug and just coiling it to avoid any major grim from getting in there and then reattaching the BOV to the intake.  I just was wondering if that solenoid is releasing air that should re-added to the system or if it's just for pressure comparison.

What that port that Jeb has open and you have recirculated actually does is bleed off boost so not as much is seen by the waste gate actuator. As the duty cycle increases it bleeds off more so the actuator doesn't open the waste gate as soon.

Since the solenoid is getting it's source from the compressor cover in stock form i guess it would be considered metered air but the amount coming out of there would be so tiny I would not worry about it.

And now back to our regularly scheduled thread

[Jebsmith]

Correct spoolin.