Here's the one pic I took of mine.


Goes great w/ my blacked out engine.

 

Yeah, I put my catch can on about a month ago, a huge improvement. I ended up removing my intake manifold, cleaning all the oil out it, and cleaning up the intake ports on the heads of any build up. As an added measure, I ran some injector cleaner on the next two tank fulls, and made more than a few WOT blasts for good measure. I checked the intake recently when I ported my LS2 throttlebody. The catch can is definitely working. It is a must for sure.

 

So you guys mean to tell me that this being a real issue and GM has not addressed it, not even with the C6? Seems like to easy and inexpensive of a solution not to be addressed. Why haven't many other engines had this issue? Wouldn't hard driving of the engine instead just burn the excess oil and thus remove the problem?

 

Many other manufacturers do have this problem. My oil catch can was built for the Infiniti G35 and the Nissan 350Z. Dodge has this problem on the Stealth 3000GT, Neon, Stratus, Avenger, Ford Mustang, etc. The list goes on. If you go online, you will see how many. Hard driving will pull more oil into the intake. The oil mixes with the fuel lowering the octane as a result. Cars with high compression requiring higher octane, this can be a problem, making them more saceptable to detonation, especially on a hot day, or a hot running motor. GM is aware of the problem, but have not addressed it. They have made improvements to the PCV system design, but have not solved it. When I installed my oil catch can, I took it down to the local Chevy dealer here and met with the Maintenence Manager and some of the Technicians and showed them the solution. They told me that they have had Vette owners bring their cars in complaining of oil in the intake and ended up replacing the intake manifold.?? Ofcourse this did not cure the problem. Under vacuum oil is drawn from the oil valley tube and enters the intake manifold through the PCV valve that is mounted horizontally. This design of the PCV valve arrangement is poor, for proper operation. It doesn't work in that configuration. The catch can solves the problem of excessive oil, although it doesn't totally solve it. The good part is at start up. While the coolant and oil temperature are below 140 degrees the engine is condensing inside. This is why you see water dripping out the exhaust at start up. Inside the oil valley tube, water also condenses inside the tube. Fortunately this can be trapped by the oil catch can. An oil catch can is a mod. worth doing. The car will run much cleaner, and alot better.

 

So how can the manufactures cure the problem? A catch can has to be emptied, not something I think the manufactures want consumers messing with. Unless it can be incorporated into the service schedule, like with oil changes. But I'm not sure how long you can go before the catch can needs to emptied.

 

There are 3 different PCV setups on the LSx engines. Go look at the installation instructions (Appendix A) for Elite's Catch Can and you'll see the differences.

http://eliteengineeringusa.com/Insta...uctions_CC.pdf

All the LSx engines starting with 2004 don't even have a PCV valve ... they have a fixed 2.5 mm dia orifice in the valley cover hose fitting. They use the orifice to regulate the amount of flow through the PCV system.

The PCV valve on the LS1 and LS6 (pre 2004 models) is external, and have you noticed it is not spring loaded? Go wiggle it when the engine if off and it's quiet in the garage ... you can hear the valve rattle around. I think that under high manifold vacuum conditions (ie, throttle closed or small opening), the valve basically chokes down to no or super small flow. When the manifold vacuum decreased (ie, high throttle openings) then the piece that rattles around and seals falls free and more flow is able to go into the intake manifold. I don't think a spring loaded PCV valve would cure the oil ingestion issue ... if it did you would certainly think GM would be using one instead of the one they are using on the pre 2004 LS1 and LS6 engines.

 

I was about to ask for a flashlight
I know those guys, they're quality people, just like the products they make. They're about 50 miles from where I'm at. I need to go a check them out in person, and buy something and save money in shipping. Their jacking pucs are also A1
Goose

 

Welcome to the world of having to empty the catch can as part of your regular maintenence schedule is all I say. Right now there isn't any other alternative other than doing a home made setup that may work just as well. I haven't paid as close attention as I should to the mileage and amount of oil/water that I have removed, because my catch can has a sight glass on the side that you can monitor the amounts of oil/water externally, and empty the can when it is 1/4 full if you wish.

 

I agree. That would have to be one calibrated spring with too many factors on it causing it not to work properly. There has to be a rpm range where oil is entering the intake. I was thinking this could be happening during coast down from high rpm, throttle in the closed position.

 

The way a PCV system is supposed to work it that it flows the most vapors when the throttle is wide open. When idling, the PCV valve is ideally supposed to close or flow very very little. The external PCV valves on the pre 2004 LS1/LS6 should basically close or flow almost nothing due to the high vacuum at idle or during deceleration.

The PCV system on the 2004+ models uses the fixed orifice, which to me seems like the system would flow the most during idle or high rpm deceleration since the "driving force" (ie, vacuum) is the highest then. I've heard some guys say that on this PCV systems with the orifice setup, that they also might see quite a bit oil in the fresh air hose too. I could see this happing because the fresh air hose has less restriction than the orifice path, and at high throttle openings the engine is probably sucking from both paths into the intake system. To me, this actually sounds like a step backwards in a PCV system unless I'm not seeing the whole picture.

One way to check the valve's function is to remove the hose from your catch can that goes to the PCV valve/intake and see how much flow is being sucked by the valve. There shouldn't be much if any.

From what I can tell, the PCV valve on the LSx engines aren't spring loaded, but have a free floating "valve" that gets sucked closed by high vacuum, "floats" when the vacuum level is low so it doesn't seal and lets flow through and will close and seal the other way if there is a backfire or if there was boost pressure in the intake to prevent the crankcase from getting pressure. That probably the reason they are orientated horizontally.

 

Yes, on high vacuum at idle. I haven't thrown a gauge on mine, but being cammed it should be approx. +14.0" at idle. I know the PCV valve just rattles around, nothing in there to close it except vacuum. Most other PCV valve designs are mounted it the vertical position. This one horizontally does not work properly. I was thinking that a coast down from 6000rpm to approx. 1500rpm is where oil could be drawn in as vacuum increases. The can has eliminated most of the oil getting in.

 

Yes, it's a must cure for the excess oil getting into the intake system. Not only will it prevent all the negative issues of excess oil going into the intake, but it also gives you a good idea of the engine's condition and actual oil burning through the piston rings by subtracting the amount caught in the catch can from the total oil loss over time.

So you said you have seen some water in the catch can also? How much is usually mixed with the oil?

 

A small amount of water gets mixed in at start up while the car is warming up and the coolant temp. is below 140 degrees, there is some condensing going on inside the tube. It makes the oil look alittle brown when you drain it.

 

Got my Elite Engineering catch can this week and studied the threads both here on the forum and the information supplied by Elite on the installation. I must say, the information Elite supplied to install the device on a newer model LS3 Corvette is not very helpful and the spacer supplied for LS3 is NOT applicable to installing on a 2010 LS3 Corvette. The spacer places the catch can too far forward and prevents installation of the air cleaner and attached air box. If do not use a spacer on the bracket, the catch can prevents installation of the fuel rail cover! I improvised by installing two small spacers I had in my "Junk" drawer that placed the bracket in the perfect position to clear both the fuel rail cover and the air box. (See the photos below).

I really appreciated all the threads on the forum (found using the search feature) that were posted. Hopefully the photos I have posted here will also help someone with a late model LS3 with their install!

This is a shot of the finished install showing the catch can properly installed with adequate clearance - an added advantage is, I can unscrew the lower half of the can to drain it without dissassembly


Here is a shot of the spacers installed between the engine head and catch can bracket. (The supplied spacer was too long)


See how nicely it fits between the fuel rail cover and air box?


I know this is one of the older threads, but there are always newbies coming on board (like myself) who haven't seen all these threads about the oil catch can installation. Plus, some of the older threads are back when the LS3 first came out and changes have been made requiring different thoughts on installation.........hope this helps someone?

 

45 day rule aside, your post/images would probably be best placed in the C6/Z06 forums...

 

This appears to be only related to the LS3 with the airbox. It fits fine on the C6Z.

 

Old thread brought back to life