The valve is a simple device. I'd pour a little gasoline through it to remove the oil and clean it up. No need to replace unless the spring is weak or gummed up or you have more than 30k miles on it.

Just follow the instructions. It may be more abrasive or corrosive than other products.

That's because the filter is normally expose to extreme pressure of >100psi. I have seen no ill effects on my unit in the year I've had it on, nor have I read the same from others.

Good luck

 

There is some very information in this post, but the question that I have is which hoses go where? I have the Accurate can (which, by the way, is a work of art.), and have been told that mine is hooked up wrong, and I thought that I'd ask someone who knows. I have the hose from the LS6 valley cover going to the bottom fitting, and the top hose (pcv) going to the top of the top of the can. Is this the wrong way, or is it right? Thanks guys!

 

Just thought some of you might be interested in an update:

I ran the per-instructions 1/3 pint of Sea Foam last night, after installing the CH catch-can last night in the reverse flow position. I waited 15 minutes then started the car. A small amount of smoke quickly dissipated within seconds, then I drove it about 2 miles. Sea Foam seemed to be gone.

I started it up today, which produced a single puff of smoke. I then put 20 combination city and highway miles on the car. Came back and checked the CH filter, and lo and behold, the white filter element is already showing spots of oil. Not enough to drip, mind you, but if only 20 miles is enough to show evidence of oil, then it's obvious that we're all ruining our motors over time. And, that's just plain disgusting.

My ping is still there and much more noticeable, but before I started the mod/testing I had filled up with 91 at a 76 station, which I now remember results in more ping than Mobil or Chevron, at least in my neck of the woods.

I think I need to retard my timing 2 degrees and lower fan temps to compensate for the low octane around here, but I'd sure hate to throw the $$ away to pay someone to tune it. Seems more sensible to buy my own software with the money instead. (Leaning towards HP Tuners.)

In any case, I'm going to try the Torco first to see if that really does eliminate the ping like MACINAMOUTH says it did for him. Then I'll know it really is an octane issue, and I'll have a better direction in mind for when I tune.

Interestingly, I've noticed the ping is only at the low part-thottle end, and when under load. Of course A/C exacerbates the condition, too.

But, at least I know now there's not going to be oil being burned, thanks to the CH mod. I'll run through this tank, run a full tank of some other brand of gas, then check the CH filter again, AND the output hose to verify results, and post results for anyone who cares.

So far, thanks DRCOFFEE!

 

It's been a few days now, and probably a total of 50 miles since I installed the DrCoffee PCV mod, having installed the CH filter in reverse flow direction. While I have no oil pooling up in the filter jar, the element is now all brown. I pulled the hose on the output side of the filter, right at the input side of the PCV valve, and wiped inside with a q-tip. It is bone-dry. Not a trace of oil. But, since not much oil has hit the jar in such a short period anyway, I thought some of you following this thread might find this result interesting. I'll know more later, but so far, so good.

 

Wait a minute! You said, " I pulled the hose on the OUTPUT side of the filter, right at the INPUT side of the PCV valve, ... " I'm sure you meant that you pulled the hose off the output side of the filter GOING toward the intake manifold -- right? You do have the filter connected between the PCV valve and the intake manifold, right?

I have the filter mounted with the flow direction going toward the intake (the opposite of drcoffee). After less than 100 miles I am showing a little pooling of oil in the bowl -- but the filter element is only slightly tinged with oil. Funny thing is, I have never had an oil use problem -- after 2000 miles I cannot detect the oil level being any lower on the stick -- but I am getting some oil in the filter bowl!

 

He's got the filter between the crankcase vent and the PCV valve to keep the valve clean.

 

If you really want to test it out, you'll have to spin the engine up to 5000 rpm. A few WOT runs with a quick let off the gas will stir up the crank case and then evacuate it thru the PCV system. Just driving around locally at the speed limit will not generate much at all. Thanks for the update.

 

Well, it's not as effective as I had hoped. Today I tested DRCOFFEE's theory, by reversing the revers flow. Allright, no more playing with words.

I installed the filter in the reverse flow direction. While the filter does catch a surprising amount of oil, over time I still notice oil in the output hose. I actually re-modded the setup to include a clear "sight" hose on the output side, and definitely see oil passing through the filter.

So, today I reversed the filter flow (to the proper flow direction). Yikes! In a short 5 mile drive I could actually see more oil in the sight hose. So, DRCOFFEE, you're right. Reversing the flow is definitely better. I think the problem is that the filter housing it too small, and the collected oil is slowly climbing back up and going out the output hose. Interestingly, CH makes another filter which is much larger in size, but I'm not so sure it'll work, either because it's the same design.

Now, I'm considering making a "real" can of my own, or buying one.

The Greddy is cool because it has a sight glass, but I've heard it has nothing inside, no baffle, nothing, so I think that one's out, unless someone pipes in here saying their output hose is completely dry, but are indeed collecting oil.

The AMW catch-can LOOKS nice, and sounds like a good one in design, but has anyone actually installed one and looked at the output hose? The company seems great in that they said if it didn't work for me I could return it, but I would prefer to hear from someone (TopCat?) who's installed it. Also, while I like the fact that there's a drain petcock on the bottom, there doesn't appear to be a site glass of any sort.

Anybody got feedback on the already-built catch-cans out there, or have some tips for me to make one? What about you, CorvetteBob1? For example, do you have any sort of baffle in your setup, or do you just plumb the inlet straight down (2/3 of the way), have the outlet right up at the top, and only have PCV filter material at the top?

Thanks to any and all.

 

MrLF.

Thanks for the vindication. But I have to say something here. What you are looking for is a PCV "purifier." The CH filter removes a large amount of oil and will keep your engine clean. The huge volume of air passing thru the intake will dilute any remaining crank case oil vapors and safley burn them as it should. IMO that's acceptable. The volume of liquid I collect in the filter is signifcant and whatever else passes thru is minor. There is no baffle, filter, or other design beside complete removal that will stop all the fumes from being burned and/or restricting the air flow beyond design limits. The AMW can will give you the exact same results as the CH and infact, I'd lay $20 on the fact it would be less effective than the CH filter. It just looks prettier. This is one mod that needs to work better than it looks. If you want to stop more oil install 2nd CH filter 6" down line and in a cooler location. This will let the oil cool further and condense out. Thanks for continuing the research and keep us informed.

 

I put desicant inside the jar and there is no trace of oil downstream. The desicant was saturated in less than a week, I might try a larger drier. But it is not too hard to change the desicant either.

 

Ahhhhhhh, I did not know that there is an "acceptable" amount of oil that can be allowed to pass. Now that I think about it, there is oil in gas anyway, right?

OK, so maybe this setup is working, as I do trap a significant amount of oil in the CH filter. Before I read this, I was in the garage examining the filter. It looks to me that the reason the normal flow direction passes so much oil is because the filter element is right up against the normal flow's output. That means in the normal flow direction any oil in the element is just being suck right off the element! Yikes! So, to me that means you might as well NOT have the filter installed. It just prolongs the inevitable.

On the other hand, based on the filter design, if you install the filter in the reverse flow direction, there's no way the oil can "jump" from the element to the output, because the outlet is "protected" well by the baffle that surrounds the element.

And, I can see now that for our application, this filter is by no means working at all like it would when it's used as an air compressor filter. In other words, when used as an air compressor filter, it looks like the filter works as a centrifugal WATER de-vaporizor, and once the water is pulled, it is meant to be drained from the bottom of the filter. And, the element really serves to prevent any particles that may be left behind from the process from getting back into the output line.

But, in our application, we're installing the filter backwards, which causes the air coming into the housing to contact the element FIRST, which causes any oil being brought in to get trapped by the element. The oil then drips off the element down to the bottom of the bowl. This is a HUGE difference, because the air coming from the crankcase is not really vaorized with oil, like the water-vaporized air that comes out of an air compressor. It's more like the crankcase pressure is pushing oil up and out along with the air, which is a significant difference. Therefore, the oil can be filter out of the crankcase air much more easily than the water being extracted from compressed air, that's for sure. And, that's why the reverse flow installation is much more effective.

So, if all of what I said above is true to a certain extent, then the question is how can that extracted oil get into the output? I mean, by the sheer design of the filter, when installed properly (for our application, it obviously MUST be installed backward), the air does not flow straight through from the input, throught the element, then right back out, so the oil bypass MUST be the result of creepage of the collected oil back up the sides of the bowl, because that's the only way the oil can get around the "protector" and up to the outlet.

In an attempt to reduce oil sitting in the bowl, I created a way to enable the collected oil to run out of the bowl into a remote reservoir. But, because of the shape of the drain at the bottom of the bowl, there needs to a be a little oil collected first to start the oil running. And, because I haven't collected enough oil since installing it, the drain isn't operating yet.

So, this morning I thought if I were to find a large o-ring that could be line the inner wall of the bowl, and be placed at about the halfway point in the bowl, that would really help make it difficult for any oil left in the bowl to creep up the walls. In fact, two o-rings places slightly apart would probably work even better.

But, alas, I didn't have any o-rings of that size lying around. However, what I did find was something designed for capping round heat-vent-holes in aquarium hoods, of which I happened to have spares. The cap is plastic, round, and perforated with holes near the outer circumference of the cap, with a hole in the center of the cap, as well. After slight trimming, I was able to get this cap to fit very snugly into the filter bowl halfway down. Theoretically, the oil should now drip off the element, drip through the cap via the holes, then be deposited into the bottom of the bowl where it can't creep back up the bowl sides.

The only doubt I have is that because the the filter may be too small for this particular design, the oil may creep up the sides BEFORE it drips off this plastic cap. If this turns out to be the case, then that means what I really need to do is let the oil drip off the element directly to the bottom of the bowl, and instead of using the cap, figure out something that would work to line the walls of the bowl, like the o-rings I mentioned above. But, squared-edge or-rings/washers would be better that regular smooth o-rings, because the squared edge would make it that much harder for the oil to creep around the o-ring.

I'll keep you posted.

 

I hope you were on a lunch break for that last post. LOL

K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid (a principle I try to live by).
Rather than an O-ring, Let's try a bead of red or blue RTV Silicone. You can place a ring around the bowl and shape it to help stop oil creap. My guess is that the oil that is getting by the filter is very small and will not be problematic. A second filter would catch the remaining oil, but is what you are seeing in the clear line discoloration from the oil vapors chemically reacting to the hose or is it oil. Is the hose chemical resistant?

 

I guess I get a little long-winded at times, huh?

Good idea about the Blue silicone. I'll go to that step next if what I've done this time around is not so effective, which I suspect will be the case, since the jar is probably too small to utilize a baffle properly.

What I'm seeing in the clear hose is most definitely oil. The clear hose is inches from the outlet of the filter, so it's not like oil being culled from the vapor as it goes down the tube.

The clear hose I believe to be a PCV hose. It contains a criss-cross white braid of some sort for the re-inforcement. I don't believe it is chemical resistant. I got it at Home Depot. The only reason it's there is for evaluation purposes, and so far it's done well to give me a heads up. Once I get something worked out, I'll remove it.

FWIW, I was seeing oil in the fuel injection line I'm using for the modded PCV line, that's what prompted me to investigate the potential problem. There's enough oil down at the PCV valve that when I pull the hose off the PCV valve (PCV valve still mounted), I can actually wipe wet oil off the end of the connector at that point, without having to stick something inside the hose, you know what I mean? Maybe I'm now overly paranoid, but given what I've been dealing with with the detonation and all, to me, being able to see wet oil at that point indicates too much oil getting by the filter, although the mod IS trapping quite a bit of oil. What do you think?

 

Disconnect the PCV and plug the intake port. Take the car out and see if you still get the detonation. It would not harm it to be without the PCV for a few minutes. If you still have the detonation then the pcv system is not the cause. All engines use the PCV system and some amount of oil vapor is going to be ingested. The LS1 seems to bring up too much oil though. That's why the filter is essential but you'll never get the air completely clean on any car without completely removing it. Then you'll not evacuate the crank case and the consequences would be undesirable.

For what it's worth, I disconnected the 1" hose that connects my check valve to the intake ports and swabbed the hose and intake port with opposite ends of a Q-tip. This is what I saw(after 4000 miles);


Virtually dry. I'm not up to pulling off the throttle body to look inside but this gives me peace of mind.

 

Now that I've gotten my coolant temps down to 178-185, with oil at 187-199, compared to coolant as high as 228 and oil as high as 230-ish my detonation is gone. But, I figure that since those temps are common for stock LS1s, what with the hight temp stat and high fan temp settings, I fogure something else must've contributed to the detonation.

When I installed your mod, I could plainly see that the amount of oil going into the intake was quite alot, so I'm sure there must be an exorbitant amount of carbon being built up on my pistons. Thus, I'm ready to use the Top Engine Cleaner to decarb the pistons and such, but I didn't want to do it for naught, if the PCV system is still allowing so much oil in, you know what I mean?

Now, compared to your q-tip after 4000 miles, my system would be wetter than yours. I mean, I can take the car out for a drive, go 10 miles in city driving, and see wetness on the connector at the PCV valve. Now, if I eyeball the black fuel injection hose, it APPEARS dry, but if I wipe it barely inside the hose with a napkin, I see a thin film of new oil on the napkin. But, maybe like you said, a little bit of oil is not as harmful as the amount that was going into the intake before the mod.

The home-made baffle I installed in the filter had a side hieght of about 1/4 inch. Interestingly, after driving it today, I can see oil between the the baffle and the wall of the baffle, so it is obvious that the oil does in fact want to creep up the walls. Nevertheless, I'm thinking of keeping the baffle in for a couple of days and see what plays out with it.

If there is still oil creeping up, or the oil gets sucked up into the output before it has a chance to drip down off the baffle, I'll remove the baffle and try the silicone bead next.

Thanks so much for sticking with me on this issue, and for explaining that some oil is ok. I guess I'm safe to do the decarb. I'm going to do it tonight because if the filter is indeed working to trap extraneous oil, and some oil getting by is ok, then at least I won't be immediately building up so much carbon again, right?

EDIT: Oh, and based on what you said about trying to keep the filter cooler, I just finished re-routing the hoses, so the mod is now inside of the battery compartment.