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I would like to know if anyone has experienced any type of mechanical(engine) problem that they believe could have been prevented if they had installed a catch can. Also has anyone experienced a problem that they believe was from having a catch can installed. Did any corvettes come factory equipped with a catch can? Thank you for any replies.
No C6's with factory catch can. GM deemed them not neccery, since it would be a mantain thing with have to drain them before they over flowed, and the fact that both the valley cover and valve guide covers have baffle system that do a pretty good job at oil separation (so long as you are not playing rev ranger with the motor).
The problem with a catch can is a leak it it from the can not being tightened correctly during a oil drain of it, or in it hosing not tight and air leaking instead. This allows un-metered air into the intake manifold that the MAF does not see/meters, and causes lean condition problems at idle instead. Also, if you don't empty the catch can before it becomes filled with oil, then the oil on the can will puke a great deal of oil into the intake manifold at once instead.
To add, to do a catch can correctly, you need to catch both the clean side and the dirty side as well.
I've had my Catch Can on for about 30K miles and several high rev 1/4 mile passes. No problems at all.
I extract about 1/2 inch of oil from it every time I change the oil.
One small problem; the bottom kept coming loose and dripping oil, so I put J-B Weld around the inside bottom perimeter, and I extract the collected oil with a turkey baster.
Someone told me that the Catch Can could affect upper cylinder lubrication, but I have no idea if that's true.
I bought a nifty little unit from Corvette Mods. $49.99. Have one on both the C5 and C6 GS. Works great .... with a glass bowl so you can see the oil accumulation.
Probably nothing major without a catch can. I have heard that oily intake air does effectively lower octane though so you -may- lose some power. Probably very minimal unless you have bad amounts of blowby. I did it mostly to keep oil off of the intake tract.