You're a post *****.

No, I'm not, you are.

No, you. Am not. Are too! Am not...

lol...

With that out of the way, I thought I'd pipe in with the results of my own catch can R&D.

There are two sources of the oily crap that coats your intake tract; the PCV hose and the crankcase breather hose. There are two crankcase breather lines (on wrx's); they both enter the metal tube in front of the intercooler on stock wrx's and come out as a single line which is plumbed into the intake tube.

From what I've read, some people have plumbed both the PCV hose and the crankcase breather hose into the same can. This is apparently a Bad Idea because the two lines see boost and vacuum at different times. Net result has been, in some cases, turbos that fill up with oil (search on NASIOC for catch cans in the 2.0 forum).

So there were three options that I could see. Get a catch can, and stick it in line with what I think is the worst source of oily vapor. Get two catch cans and eat Ramen noodles for a couple weeks and put one on each of the lines. Or make two of my own for way less $.

So I poked around online for some options for bottles. My requirements were 'small', 'cheap' and 'metal'. I settled on a pair of 11oz fuel bottles from: http://www.backcountry-equipment.com...el-bottle.html

Went to the local hardware store and got an assortment of fittings and some epoxy. Drilled some holes in the bottles, screwed the fittings in and epoxied them for good measure. So for about $40 total (fittings weren't cheap) I have two new catch cans. Now I just need to get some fuel line to connect 'em up with and to build a bracket to hold 'em. And maybe to paint them.

*EDIT* Here's pics of one of them in their current state. http://www.fireswamp.net/~sjhiller/can.jpg

I'll probably try to finish the project this weekend; I can take some pictures when it's done if people are interested.

BTW- I started building these last month and forgot about them for a few weeks unitl... I installed a set of Perrin intercooler hoses last weekend and despite having only 4800 miles on my wrx the stock Y hose, throttlebody, and intercooler were *coated* in oil. Pretty disgusting.

 

lol, well i just didnt appreciate his commments

hey thats koo you want share any photos?

 

Does it really matter how many times the man posts? come on.
It doesn't affect me in one bit what your level in some internet forum is.

 

thank you ilivas...i appreciate that very much

 

Enough of the off topic blather fellas. Stick to the topic.

 

You could use a crank case breather filter, but there are a few problems with them...

First is you're venting metered air to the atmosphere. Your ECU will have to figure out how to compensate for that.

Second is that venting that nasty air to atmosphere is sure to **** off the tree huggers out there.

Third, the vacuum that sometimes exists in the intake path may be important to helping suck the oil vapor out of the crankcase. You'll give that up if you go with a breather filter.

Fourth, they make an awful mess. At least the one I had on my last car did. Covered the whole engine bay with a fine layer of pretty skanky looking filth and made working under the hood way messier than it needed to be. Should've built a catch can for it.

The catch cans were pretty cheap and easy to make. And you get bonus karma points for being responsible about emissions.

In case anyone has an idea, I'm interested in suggestions for a material to use as a filtering medium to disrupt the air flow in the can to help condense the oil vapor. Steel wool is commonly mentioned, but I really don't want to risk having little bits of it break off over time and run through my turbo and motor.

 

It might be possible to put an filter medium inline with the breather hose. In the old days, carbureted engines used a plastic mesh filter inside of the baking pan air cleaner to filter out some of the oil vapos from going down the carb throat. When it gets saturated with oil it might be a restriction. The catch can takes quite before it's necessary to drain the thing, and in the meantime it allows unrestricted flow.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

I think Wingless Wonder is referring to something like what's shown here: http://www.tgilmore.com/talon/catchcan.html

I considered it, it should definitely work; it just won't hold very much and you'll need to keep a pretty close eye on it.

I figure that with a pair of 11oz cans I should definitely be able to just empty them when i change the oil and ignore them the rest of the time.

 

Actually, I did use a Fram fuel filter like the one in your link on an old Camaro. I can't remember how effective it was - too long ago. Can't beat the price, though!

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

So in Cal catch can will have to be removed during smog checks?

 

Yes. Stupid, but at least it's not that hard. The reason is that it's considered tampering with emmissions controls.

 

Thanks ***.

 

You appear to have misread my post. Let me try again.




Yes a catch can would have to be removed for smog inspection. The rule is Stupid, but at least it's not that hard to remove and replace the catch can. The reason is that it's considered tampering with emmissions controls.

 

so would an Oil Catch can be a useful purchase? and are they any differences between.. Perrin, Cusco, and Greddy?