what Is catch can? tommy

 

From what I understand (pasted below)
Every engine during the normal combustion process, has blow-by. Engine Blow-by is excess combustion gases that leak by the piston rings and escape into the engine crankcase. During each compression or power stroke of a normal engine cycle, a very small amount of gases leak by the piston rings. This happens because the piston rings do not create a perfect seal. This Blow-by of gases is very small, but the higher the RPM and the more pistons, the more the blow-by starts to create pressure in the crank.

This pressure needs to be released, and is done so by crank case vents. Because manufactures have to keep environmental issues in mind, these gases can’t just be vented to atmosphere. So the OEM’s vent these gases back to the intake system to be re-burned. This all sounds good, but Blow by is nasty stuff!

Engine blow-by contains gases and oil from the crankcase. The gases aren’t really a problem, but the oil is. This oily mess coats everything in its path as it makes it way back to the combustion chamber. This nasty oil mess gets into intercooler, into the intake manifold, and finally back into the engine. As the oil creeps in between couplers, it can cause the connection pop off under boost. This oil then gets into the intercooler coating all the cooling fins. This greatly effects the ability of the intercooler to cool, and the efficiency of it will drop! This will cause a huge loss in power and can cause detonation. The last place this oily mess sees before the combustion chamber is the intake valves. Because of the temp differences and the oil impacting them, the oil will start to build up and form sludge. This adds up over time, and can cause many other problems, and hurt performance.

As describe above the oily mess goes from the crank case to the intake system, and generally through a rubber hose. An oil catch can simply intersects the hose and the oily mess before it reaches the intake system. The top of our Oil Catch Can has 2 fittings, one in and one out. The oily mess goes in the can, gets trapped because of either the media inside the can, or from the change in direction, or from a change in temp. This separated the good from the bad, and collects the bad.

As the fluid fills the can, the end user can use the sight tube on the side of the can to determine when to drain it.

 

FIXT
Deleted the part about the intercooler, etc because unless we are talking ZR1, the last time I looked there wasn't one..The oil mist will coat the inside of your intake manifold, and cause carbon deposits on the pistons, which over time start to develop hotspots which will cause detonation. Eventually the engine will not be able to run as much timing causing a loss in efficiency. In the short term, the oil mist reduces the octane rating of the air/fuel mixture.
Catch cans are not 100% effective. They will trap the majority of the oil, probably on the order of 80%-90%. But other than bypassing the crankcase vent system entirely, it is a pretty good solution.
Here is a pretty good can:
http://www.mikenorrismotorsports.com...atch_Cans.html

 

missed that part, I deleted the turbos is why and missed the intercooler.....

 

BTW, I emptied mine the other day, about 2 oz of mobil 1 in 2100 miles..

 

Probably a newbie question on my part, but if these cans are as important as they sound, why has GM not used them in all these years?

 

That's like asking why GM didn't put a bigger cam in them or why GM didn't put on real headers.

 

Catch as catch can





Actually I just installed one. Works.

 

Another newbie question, and probably an important one. If this "catch can" is installed would it void any of the GM warranty? Thanks.