Oil through the breathers!

[Sir Yach-o]

A few months ago, I installed my IC and intake, and to make things easier, I put small breather filters on the rocker covers instead of the hose system that runs it to the intake. Well, yesterday, after about 3-4 minutes of continuous hard driving, I pulled to a stop on my street, and to my horror there was smoke coming out of the hood scoop. Not good. Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that the smoke was coming from burning oil on the exhaust manifold, and the oil was coming out of the breathers, more from the passenger side than the driver side. Probably lost about 0.2 quart. The next day, I took off the breathers and cleaned them off since they were all clogged with oil, and put them back on. Extended normal driving was fine, and short bursts of WOT were no problem either, but out of curiosity, I put the pedal down for a good amount of time again, and the oil came back, roasting itself on the headers. This is proabbly the hardest I've ever ran the car, but, what gives? Do i need extra length to the breather filters, kinda like the stock setup? Is oil supposed to be flying out there at 6000+ RPM?

here's the (essential) info:

120k miles
Water IC
Custom PRM intake
AVC-r running about 11-12psi

thanks for the help,
-mike

[Legacy777]

You really should have some sort of catch can system to hook all the breathers up to. This will keep the oil from going into the IC & from spilling all over the place

[ciper]

How about running a catch can and connecting it before the turbo? From what I always have been taught you should always have a vacum applied to the crank case. Otherwise once your breathers clog up you are just ASKING for all your seals to leak, and not just dripping but blow by will push the oil out.

[Sir Yach-o]

Josh,

there's no oil going into the IC, save for whatever the turbo throws out. The oil is coming out of the small breather filters.

here's a pic from my install:

http://www.geocities.com/siryacho/breather1.jpg

The stock system tied the two crankcase openings together with hose, and sent them to the intake, post filter, coming off of the elbow to the turbo. So I just put breather filters right on both sides, and got rid of the hoses and plastic coupler.

This is the first time I've heard of "catch can". Is this just a small container for the oil to fall into, before it gets the chance to clog the breather? Would a longer length of hose before the breather filter
act as a sort of catch can? And how would the oil get back? Thanks for the help.

-mike

[ciper]

Your link gives

We're sorry, but this page is currently unavailable for viewing.

A simple catch can would be a coffee can with the outlet hose runing near the bottom. Fill the can most of the way up with that cotton stuffing you can buy at the fabric store then punch holes in the lid (or stick the filter in the top).

A longer hose will help oil from pooling in the filter but it wont keep it from getting clogged. The oil that is causing the most trouble is a mist.

[Legacy777]

I believe milehiAl sells a catch can type setup that you run the breathers & PCV in so you don't get any oil in the intake track

[mile hi]

Yep we sell all kinds of weird things( I don't but the company that I work with/for does). The one on my car catches all the oil from the breathers and drains it back into the valve cover. He has some that he sells with his turbo kits that are a little different but work about the same. One nice thing about catching all this oil is besides wasting it it doesn't get into your intake and intercooler. With a little dust this stuff makes a good insulator and decreases the efficiency of your intercooler significantly. But then again it protects your manifold from rust.

[Aaron's ej22t]

how much are your catch cans?
i have seen the greddy catch can for as low as $85, can you beat that? and do you have a pic?

thanks
--aaron.

[Sir Yach-o]

Sorry about the link, I'm having trouble getting it to work.

So let me get this straight. Oil is going to come out of the breathers no matter what, it's just a question of what you're going to do with it. In my case, the filters got clogged, and therefore began drawing out more and more oil? The stock system, then, just ran it back through the intake, so essentially the oil "mist" would be sent through and burned up in the cylinders. But I can avoid this by placing a container of sorts in between the breather hole in the crankcase and the breather filter to catch and "collect" this oil mist?

Is this a correct understanding of the situation?

peace,
-mike

[Legacy777]

Yes.....Mike you are right.

You're in denver too.......PM Al and stop by and see his setup.....if that's cool with him. I'm sure they can fab you something that will work.

[mile hi]

I will check and see how much he want's for them. I think you are right on the path of the oil that eventually ends up in the intercooler. The way I understand it a big part of the oil problem results from oil is being thrown all over in the valve cover because of all the busy little parts in there . The crank case vent system works good but as it goes through the valve covers it picks up this oil and because of the design blows it into the vent system. This gets picked up in the intake and is blown into the intercooler by the turbo.
AL(CO)

[Sir Yach-o]

Well, thanks, but I've got zero cash for car stuff right now (got a new snowboard setup on the way ) I guess, as long as I keep the breathers reasonably clean, I'll be fine. Plus, I'm not getting oil into my IC because the breathers are not routed into my intake anymore. If I need something, I might be able to fabricate something myself, but for sure I'll keep Joel and the boys in mind.
peace,
-mike

[mile hi]

Ok keep us in mind. I kind of like the oil catch on my car that drains the oil back into the right front valve cover vent. If there is any interest in this type I will try to get them to make some of them.
AL(CO)

[Legacy777]

Al,

Do all the breathers go into this can? ie: both valve covers & the one out of the back of the engine where the PCV goes?

Got any pics?

[Sir Yach-o]

I kind of like the oil catch on my car that drains the oil back into the right front valve cover vent.

Is that the vertical rectangular aluminum box you had there with all the hoses running to it?

-mike

[mile hi]

That's the catch can all the vent hoses go in there and it drains out the bottom into the valve cover through a small piece of hose. There is even a empty screw hole in the block to mount the thing. He has several that are almost done, seems like a lot of projects are like that right now we are really busy. (I will e-mail you a pic Josh)
AL(CO)

[Legacy777]

Thanks Al