DIY - Cheapo Oil Catch Can - Team-BHP

DIY - Cheapo Oil catch Can - Team-BHP
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DIY - Cheapo Oil catch Can

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This is a discussion on DIY - Cheapo Oil catch Can within DIY - Do it yourself, part of the Technical
Stuff category; Since I had some spare time today, thought of doing this even though I know that an
oil catch can ...
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21st March 2012, 02:35
Amey
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Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: Pune
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Since I had some spare time today, thought of doing this even though I know tha
useful in a NA car but it won't be useless either.
Having seen readymade oil catch cans from big names like, Mishimoto,Cusco,Perr
premium for such a simple device,why not try to make one yourself ?
Thats how this attempt began. Headed to the local market for buying the necessary hardware to make one.
Here is a complete list of required parts,
Aluminum water bottle (you get these almost anywhere,they are shiny and come in attractive colours.) ~
120/Pneumatic press fit elbow fittings x 2 ~ 60/- (Both)
Brass elbow suitable for 10mm ID hose x 2 ~ 40/- (Both)
Braided plastic hose with 8mm ID x 2 Mt. ~ 60/PU transparent pipe for level indicator x 1/2 Mt. ~ 20/steel wool x 2 packs ~ 10/- (Should be available at your local grocery shop too,commonly used for
cleaning utensils)
M-seal/JB Weld/Araldite
Worm clips ~ 100/All put together ~ 500-600/Not bad for an experiment,what say ?
The following pics should make it easy to understand.
Hardware required -
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The bottle I got was dark red in colour, nothing wrong in that but had some stupid cartoons on it so removed the paint
with thinner and used a 1200 grit paper to roughen to surface,should help in good bonding for the adhesive/sealant.
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Holes drilled for all the 4 fittings. Ok so I did damage one of the holes in the excitement to finish and proceed.Haste is
not good
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Top elbow fittings installed and sealed.
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Side elbow press fit fittings installed and sealed.
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All 4 elbow fittings installed and sealed.Transparent PU tube installed.This will act as a level indicator as to how much
the catch can is filled,making it easier to check when to drain it.
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Steel shavings/wool being inserted in the container.This should help in faster transfer of heat from the oil vapours and
therefore condense them so that blow by oil can settle at the bottom.
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Bracketing and fitting trial on the car.
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Finishing the plumbing.
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As can be seen, the oil catch can is introduced in between the PCV valve - Intake Manifold passage.
The idea as many of you already know, is to reintroduce the ventilated gases from the crank case into the intake
manifold for combustion instead of ventilating them to the atmosphere.
What happens over a period of time is that there is a thin film formation inside the intake manifold. This film is that of
the vapours being ventilated from the crank case.These vapours is a mixture of oil vapour,air,fuel,minor traces of
water and so on.Basically dirty stuff that should not be deposited inside the Intake Manifold.
Although this isn't too much of a problem in NA cars, it is in turbo cars so actually this technique works best for turbo
applications and very high performance race engines.
Irrespective of whether your car is turbocharged as a performance mod or it is factory turbocharged, both would face
the same issue.
Therefore I feel that even if you have a stock turbo car (mostly all modern diesels) this mod should help in keeping the
intake manifold clean.A clean manifold would mean a happier engine and maybe improved engine life and
performance.
This is a very very simple device as is pretty clear from above pics and taking into consideration that it costs so less
but helps so much, I think its worth the effort.
(25) Thanks
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21st March 2012, 13:09
Amey
BHPian
#2
Re: DIY Cheapo oil catch can
Edit: Please note that this plumbing will work on a NA engine and not on Turbo engine. The routing would have
to be changed a bit.
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(1) Thanks
21st March 2012, 13:58
im_srini
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#3
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amey

Aluminum water bottle (you get these almost anywhere,they are shiny and come in attractive
colours.) ~ 120/Pneumatic press fit elbow fittings x 2 ~ 60/- (Both)
Brass elbow suitable for 10mm ID hose x 2 ~ 40/- (Both)
Top elbow fittings installed and sealed. Steel shavings/wool being inserted in the container.This should
help in faster transfer of heat from the oil vapours and therefore condense them so that blow by oil can
settle at the bottom.
Hi Amey, very nice DIY
Was just wondering if the extra long piping to & from the oil catch can would cause
the oil vapors to condense within the piping itself.
Also, if from the oil catch can inlet, there is a descending tube that disperses the vapors at the bottom of the
can, wouldn't it allow the steel wool to "catch" or "scrub" the vapors even more ?
Quote:

The idea as many of you already know, is to reintroduce the ventilated gases from the crank case into
the intake manifold for combustion instead of ventilating them to the atmosphere.
Can the crankcase blow-by be directed to the air intake upstream of the air filter ? Then the filter itself would
"clean" the blow-by...
Here's a very interesting document I'd come across some time ago on blow-by & breathers...
BreatherSystems.pdf
(1) Thanks
21st March 2012, 18:07
Amey
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Location: Pune
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#4
Quote:
Originally Posted by im_srini

Hi Amey, very nice DIY
Was just wondering if the extra long piping to & from the oil catch can would
cause the oil vapors to condense within the piping itself.
Also, if from the oil catch can inlet, there is a descending tube that disperses the vapors at the bottom of
the can, wouldn't it allow the steel wool to "catch" or "scrub" the vapors even more ?
Can the crankcase blow-by be directed to the air intake upstream of the air filter ? Then the filter itself
would "clean" the blow-by...
Here's a very interesting document I'd come across some time ago on blow-by & breathers...
Attachment 905530
Was just wondering if the extra long piping to & from the oil catch can would cause the oil vapors to
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condense within the piping itself.

I did think about that but the thing is there almost no place on the driver side engine bay area where the
distance would have been shortest.
Even though it does condense a bit in the pipe itself, it wont be going inside the valve cover thanks to the PCV
valve.
Also, if from the oil catch can inlet, there is a descending tube that disperses the vapors at the
bottom of the can, wouldn't it allow the steel wool to "catch" or "scrub" the vapors even more ?
Yes it will. Since this was a first attempt, didn't bother too much.The one I would be making after I go turbo, will
be a better design overall than this.
Let's just say I wanted to see if the concept actually works.Sort of an experiment.
Can the crankcase blow-by be directed to the air intake upstream of the air filter ? Then the filter
itself would "clean" the blow-by...
The PCV operates either by intake manifold vacuum when at idling or crankcase pressure at WOT and compared
to the breather outlet on the valve cover, PCV side port throws out more oily and sticky stuff. If the intake
manifold gets coated with this sticky stuff and turn completely black and sticky over the period of time,imagine
what would happen to the air filter.
Also at idle the PCV operates by vacuum, if you do connect it at air filter side instead of the intake manifold,
where would it get the vacuum from ? Which means it wouldn't operate until and unless it operates by the
crankcase pressure at higher RPM or WOT. This means the pressure would be relieved only at WOT ? until then
all these dirty fumes/gases are still in the engine itself ? and what about the pressure build up in the crank case ?
Not a good idea, is it ?
22nd March 2012, 00:50
Sutripta
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Location: Kolkata
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#5
Quote:
Originally Posted by im_srini

Also, if from the oil catch can inlet, there is a descending tube that disperses the vapors at the bottom of
the can, wouldn't it allow the steel wool to "catch" or "scrub" the vapors even more ?
Agree. Otherwise the vapours are shortcircuiting the bottle.
Have to be careful that steel dust (from the steel wool) is not sucked into the engine.
Regards
Sutripta
22nd March 2012, 08:41
Amey
BHPian
#6
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sutripta

Agree. Otherwise the vapours are shortcircuiting the bottle.
Have to be careful that steel dust (from the steel wool) is not sucked into the engine.
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Regards
Sutripta
Agreed. Actually wanted to make some sort of a partition and attach a tube for the inlet but then decided to save
all those efforts for the new one I would be making.
It is not steel wool as such.lets just just its a big entangled ball of stainless steel thread which is about 1-2mm
wide and around 1/2mm thick maybe ?
Basically, there arent any loose pieces in this to get sucked in.
This was purely an experiment. All drawbacks found in this contraption would be dealt with in the new 'model'
22nd March 2012, 09:07
Catalyst_delhi
BHPian
Join Date: Oct 2011

Location: Noida/Coimbator
#7
Quote:

Agreed. Actually wanted to make some sort of a partition and attach a tube for the inlet but then decided
to save all those efforts for the new one I would be making.
It is not steel wool as such.lets just just its a big entangled ball of stainless steel thread which is about
1-2mm wide and around 1/2mm thick maybe ?
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Basically, there arent any loose pieces in this to get sucked in.
This was purely an experiment. All drawbacks found in this contraption would be dealt with in the new
'model'
This would be helpful in keeping the TB cleaner , the airfilter lets some of the oil film go pass, so to understand
the basic working of this is that the steel wool is cooler and the oil condenses on the steel wool? am i right
22nd March 2012, 10:12
Amey
BHPian
#8
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catalyst_delhi

This would be helpful in keeping the TB cleaner , the airfilter lets some of the oil film go pass, so to understand
the basic working of this is that the steel wool is cooler and the oil condenses on the steel wool? am i right
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Pune
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I shall upload 2 images which I have attempted to make in MS Paint, hope you can make out from it what I am trying
to say. Please bear with me for the kid like drawings
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In a normal stock car/engine this is what usually happens,
Now instead of this setups, this is what I have done,
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You see that the breather port sucks air from the air intake line after the MAF.Now since this port doesn't have a one
way valve or a non return valve as such, if at all there oil mist blowing out of this hose, the hose would get oily and
making the intake sticky till the TB and maybe even the TB inlet.
For this I have used a breather filter so this issue is taken care of.
As for the PCV routing, that has been discussed above and the image above too should be pretty self explanatory.
Therefore, both possible contaminating passages have been cut off/rerouted in order to avoid TB,Intake Manifold from
getting dirty. Clean TB and Intake Manifold = Happy Engine. Happy Engine = Happy You
(6) Thanks
23rd March 2012, 04:54
Rash
BHPian
#9
Re: DIY - Cheapo Oil catch Can
Very Nice explanation Amey!!

I am still interested in knowing the diameters of the PCV and breather ports and also their locations. If both the
ports are on the valve cover itself ( some cars have the PCV port on the crankcase and breather port on valve
cover) then I find it very intriguing that there is no outward flow from the breather port under pressure.
Nevertheless looks like a nice exercise!
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23rd March 2012, 09:42
Amey
BHPian
#10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rash

Very Nice explanation Amey!!
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I am still interested in knowing the diameters of the PCV and breather ports and also their locations. If
both the ports are on the valve cover itself ( some cars have the PCV port on the crankcase and breather
port on valve cover) then I find it very intriguing that there is no outward flow from the breather port
under pressure.
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Nevertheless looks like a nice exercise!
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Thanks Rash.
Haven't taken the dimensions of both the ports but the PCV valve side port is definitely larger than the breather
port.
The port location is exactly as shown in the illustration above.
I am aware that certain cars have the PCV on the crankcase but in my case, it isn't so.
Yes there is no outward flow from the breather port because if there would have been, the breather filter should
have shown traces of oil sweating but that is not the case. The filter is completely dry.
23rd March 2012, 17:34
#11
1self
BHPian
Amey, in the first diagram, the direction of the arrow is from the breather port to the intake, NOT the other way
round.
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23rd March 2012, 17:40
#12
V-16
Senior - BHPian
Great DIY Amey. My kinda guy

sharing your VFM DIYs with us.
VFM stuff which works. Let the good advice keep filtering in and do keep
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23rd March 2012, 19:14
#13
oxyzen
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Since you are filtering blowby gases which consist of a huge amount of water (from burnt exhaust gases leaking
through the rings), there will be a mixture of water & oil.
the water is pretty much harmless. But the oil can create a sticky surface and even hamper function of some
parts. Throttle body wetting is a pretty common phenomenon although that happens due to the oil flow through
breather circuit.
It will be very interesting to see how much volume is accumulated in what Kms.
Great Job
23rd March 2012, 23:26
Amey
BHPian
#14
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1self

Amey, in the first diagram, the direction of the arrow is from the breather port to the intake, NOT the other
way round.
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No, it is the right direction. The following extract from the Mitsubishi Manual should clarify that,
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Quote:
Originally Posted by V-16

Great DIY Amey. My kinda guy
sharing your VFM DIYs with us.
VFM stuff which works. Let the good advice keep filtering in and do keep
Thanks for the kind words Sir,appreciate it

(1) Thanks
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