Question to those of you who use oil catch cans

Question to those of you who use oil catch cans or anyone who knows a lot about them... I’ve been running an oil catch can on my 2015 Tacoma pretty much since I bought it new, the truck has just under 30k on it now... I’ve noticed that it catches a lot more oil and what looks like a water mixture in the winter time. I’ve read it’s due to the colder weather and denser air and all... I live in southern pa where it gets pretty cold. I didn’t think anything of it, I thought I was doing my truck good by catching some if not most of the blow by and increasing the life of my engine... fast forward to today when I was changing my oil at the 30k mark, I emptied the oil catch can, it was about 3/4 full of the tan oil and water mixture as usual for winter. Didn’t think anything of it. Opened up my oil fill cap and saw the same colored tan oil on the bottom of the fill cap and half way down the fill neck... I about shit ten bricks. I read that oil catch cans actually collect condensation and can deposit it into the engine when it’s ran vs no condensation in just the regular hose the truck came with. When I drained my oil, it looked completely normal like used motor oil, no discoloration. So long story short, is this all normal? Are we actually doing more harm than good by running these oil catch cans? I’m about to rip mine out and put the stock hose back on... here’s some pics of what I saw, don’t mind the red in the jar I dumped the oil in, it’s a recycled hots jar lol.

 

There has been a lot of people posting pics recently of oil caps that look like yours. It seems to be a pretty normal occurance in the winter months, short trips and the engine oil not getting up to temp to burn all that stuff off. You could try doing some longer trips on this oil and see if it goes down.


Over all you are fine don’t worry about it.

 

Awesome, thanks for the reply... my truck isn’t my main vehicle, I’ve got a beater I take to work, trying to keep the miles low. Guess I need to take the truck out more often. Thanks again

 

do you do short trips in the truck?

 

Take for a couple highway runs and it’ll be fine. Even if you don’t, you will just see that stuff in the top of the oil cap and filler neck. Nothing to worry about

 

that looks terrible.

I ran an oil catch can on a race car, but it was more for crank case ventilation than to catch contaminants. I really see no reason to need one unless you’re seeing some serious gunk on your MAF sensor (these ARE MAF engines, right?).

My take on it is that I have a warranty that covers the engine. If I keep it stock I may never have to worry if I just do my preventative maintenance. Adding things like an oil cooler, catch can, even a breather... may not void a warranty per say, but it’s going to raise an eyebrow if you bring it in with something oil related wrong.

 

Yea usually

 

I talked to a tech at Toyota before and he said he runs one as well... I let Toyota take care of my oil changes for the first two years and they never said a word about it

 

that'll do it. swap it out once every week or two for the daily driver and should be alright in the future. gotta get up to higher speeds and temps for a bit to burn it off.

 

drop it off here in Utah........

I'll warm here up & put some miles on it !

 

Short driving trips cause what you have,Drive longer trips until your engine is warmed up and the problem will go away.

 

Catch can's are really not needed,these trucks are not race car's.

 

Agreed, it was more of a boredom/curiosity install