I had my eye on a and pulled the trigger recently when the price dipped to $20. There are of course lots of other options out there and you can spend any amount you want, but I'm on a pretty mild budget these days and didn't want to spend $$$.

For starters, my 2001 Z06 has the "upgraded" 2004 LS6 valley plate and PCV hose, which means there's no PCV valve. This makes hose routing easier.

Anyways, the fun part for me was figuring out where to place the thing and how to mount it. I do a lot of CAD modeling (Solidworks) and 3D printing for fun and work so that seemed like a natural solution. Also I have a high-performance material, CF-filled polycarbonate, that should withstand engine/engine bay temps and needed an application to try it out!

Catch can subject, with a view of the patient:


Location where it looks like the catch can will fit, in front of the passenger side head / valve cover:


3D printing the first bracket iteration. This is my prototype printer that I've been slowly working on for 6 years.


Shown below are 4 bracket iterations but the first one isn't shown (5 total):


Finished product... I really like how the 3DX Tech ezPC+CF filament prints/looks even with 0.25mm layers from a 0.4mm [hardened] nozzle:



And installed with stainless steel M10 bolts:


Hose routing shown on an earlier bracket iteration. Valley plate goes to IN, OUT goes to intake manifold. This is the included crappy hose for mockup.


Also worth mentioning that the can is easily unscrewed from the bottom for quick emptying. So far it hasn't caught a lot but we'll see how it fills up.

 

This is why it’s so cheap doesn’t even come with mounting hardware I can guess you have to buy the hoses too, glad for you that you have a 3D printer unfortunately the majority here doesn’t.

 

Nice job making the bracket and that is the normal mounting location for catch cans - at least it was for my Elite Engineering one I ran on my 2003.

 

That bracket you made looks really nice. Are you willing to sell these?

 

That's some pricey filament! Is it pretty hard to print with? You seem to have it dialed in nicely!

 

Cool bracket, looks good.

 

Nice job!!

 

Thanks for the comments guys.

Without being a forum vendor I can't publicly sell these, but we can certainly talk privately. Regardless before printing more I want to put more time/miles/heat into mine to verify it will be good for the long term.

Long parts like this in general can be tricky to keep from lifting/warping when not using a heated enclosure (my printer is open / not enclosed). I tweaked the design to help with some lifting on the first ezPC+CF print. Also I use Magigoo PC on a glass bed which yields great adhesion.
Otherwise, I pretty much just use my PETG print settings... it's that easy! Didn't have any issues with layer adhesion/separation and it prints cleanly.

 

Interesting! I usually print PETG on my neptune plus with pretty good results. Why do you use that filament vs a standard or carbon PETG?

 

Damn, I bet you put more thought and engineering into that one bracket than the thought behind that cheap CC!

Came out nice. I, like you, design A LOT in CAD on a daily basis for work and have been thinking about a printer. I just keep failing to find a recurring purpose. Plus there are a TON of printing vendors out there these days.

 

PETG's Tg (glass transition temperature) is only about 80-85C / 176-185F. For an application in the engine bay that temperature rating is kinda low, and even more so for a part bolted to the cylinder head.
3DX Tech's ezPC+CF rated Tg is 127C / 260F
For the record, I also have a spool of PETG-CF and have used it successfully in plenty of other applications not requiring higher temperature resistance.

Probably

I started 3D printing as a hobby about 7.5 years ago. Got into it CHEAP with a $200 modest printer, and spent a lot of time upgrading it. After dialing it in pretty well that printer made a good number of work parts that helped build the case to justify my work buying its first 3D printer.

The way I look at it, now for $200 you can buy a reasonable printer and get a foot in the door. It's the kind of tool that once you have it, you'll just start discovering/realizing applications. At my current job there are 2 printers and they print all sorts of things from assembly tooling to non-structural prototype parts, and even getting into production parts (with more exotic materials, still cheaper than injection molding or machining plastic). Engineers there are always finding new applications / innovating.

And yes, there are tons of printing vendors out there. But you can't beat having a machine at your disposal during iterative design, especially when you can get a fairly good printer for $1k. It's just too easy.

 

Agreed, I'm doing similar things at work. We bought a Stratasys $100k jetted printer at work that I was the sole operator for back in 2013 and just recently had to get rid of it due to it being broken and hit "end of life".

If we buy another it would be a FDM version since that process has come a long way. The FDM machine is much more simple and cheaper.