Since buying my C6Z and my first LS motor I have been reading about catch cans and benefits of them for the LS motors. This weekend I attended Super Chevy at Maple Grove and also went to an all Corvette car show on Sunday. I was looking for them on all LS motors and I found exactly 1 out of about 40-50 cars with a catch can installed.

So, now I am questioning if I should get one, why so many without if the benefits are there that everyone claims?

 

I do this stuff for a living, but instead of the sales pitch approach plaguing these forums;

Most cars on the road today indeed have no catch can, and the owners are satisfied.

All cars have some level of oil consumption, it is unavoidable. This can be negligible to the owner, or something you want improved.

There are also reasons that the ventilation system needs to be modified, for example as a support system to other HP modifications.

If you think you are like most people, let a dealer handle maintenance, do not run low on engine oil before the next change, and feel your car is performing perfectly fine, then a catch can is not for you.

But if you have measurable oil consumption, or mods increasing crankcase airflow (power mods), or interested in engine bay accessorizing, then a catch can is a great idea.

What I suggest to anyone on the fence is to take a few minutes to inspect the system. Unhook and remove the airbox filter assembly to the throttle body. Use a flashlight to inspect the airbox, and cold air tubing leading to the throttle body. Any liquid oil here can be improved. Then push open the throttle blade and look back into the intake manifold here. Is it clean and dry or a drippy mess?

If you are not bothered by what you saw, then you do not need a catch can. But if it did, then you my friend are in the market!

If in the second group, I would still invite you to not listen to myself or anyone else profiting, but to ask others in your similar driving type and mod level what has and has not worked for them. For sure not created equally. The first time buyer often assumes this, and finds the hard way that the $50 ebay unit does not have instructions, customer support, or even do what they actually wanted it to do.

Happy investigations!

 

David is correct..most put them on cause everyone tells them they need to and most dont.
179k lsx intake always gets a little wet but hasnt hurt a thing

 

Get a MMS catch can you won't be disappointed.

David,
I'll be ordering another one soon for my next build.

 

Oil in a combustion chamber can cause serious detonation. Broken rings & lands, cracked pistons are not cheap. PCV systems are needed to draw out crankcase pressures and hydrocarbon gasses, but oil and water vapor comes with it, and when the two mix it gets serious! Many or most detergent oils contain a small amount of sodium as one of their cleansing ingredients. If you know anything about chemistry, sodium doesn't mix well with water, especially under pressures encountered in a combustion chamber! Mix a little water vapor into an oil emulsion containing a tiny bit of sodium in the top ring land area and you have potential for(BIG BANG!)!
Many old dirt track and roundy-round racers wouldn't use detergent oils because of engine failures they'd encountered when they did, although they didn't understand why. A catch can can capture this oil and moisture and separate it from the PCV vapors so that the hydrocarbon bypass vapors can be safely reintroduced into the air fuel mix and be burned without dangerous preignition and detonation. The elimination of an oily mess is just a happy byproduct of the safe separation of water vapor and oil from these blowby gasses.

 

get a vacuum pump instead and gain some power ....

 

before/after results from your personal experience?