Oil Catch Cans- anyone running them and their experiences...??

Now that is constructive advice,...thanks guys!...

 

TW is Fam

 

There are emission regulations on cars and trucks for them to be sold in the US. Toyota wants to keep making and selling cars and trucks in the US. So, if re-routeing some of the exhaust back around and burning it again lowers the bad emissions out the tailpipe and allows the truck to past standards, while not doing any great amount of harm to the engine, then Toyota will take the cheapest route and just send those gasses around again with no catch. Can you run your truck its whole life without doing anything about this and staying 100% stock while not seeing anything major happen? Yes. Will installing a catch can and trapping some of this re-circulated burnt oil/gas help your engine? Possibly. Will it cause issues? I am confidant in saying that no, it will not cause you issues if installed and used/maintained properly. It can only help by removing the waste from re-entering your engine that Toyota is trying to remove the cheap way. If the can only catches 1% of the re-circulated trash, that is worth it to me. Do I want that sludge pumped back into my supercharger? Hell no!

It's one of those mods that is really up to personal preference. Like the secondary air pump filter mod. Dear lord, the debate about a $15 filter for the secondary pump is insane.

 

A little late but am interesting read nonetheless.. I thought catch cans were better suited in forced induction systems (SC or TC). And engines that were direct injection vs port injected where the fuel spray cleans the gunk off the valves??

 

I believe all motors can benefit from a catch can. I installed them on both our Tacos. I wasn't thrilled about the OEM system of allowing all those contaminates running back through the motor. That said, the benefits are arguable, but it can't hurt.....

 

I've had frost plug up crank vent systems when its cold, and not even with a catch can. Two different vehicles. Both times blew out the RMS. In fact, my Tacoma's RMS is seeping just enough to keep the bottom of the transmission "wet" due to this phenomenon. Adding an aluminum can can only make this worse.

 

It also can't help. Your engine doesn't mind burning a tiny bit of vaporized oil.

 

It's not just vaporized oil. Water and blowby are in there as well. I haven't read of anyone doing an analysis of the muck from a catch can. That would be interesting....

 

You think that WATER is going to hurt your engine? LOL.

 

I'm sure it's not just water but don't don't know for certain. Blowby is more than just water. Combustion gasses are in the mix...

 

Love mine, you wont believe the amount of shit it catches

 

You're using a lot of language like "don't know", "imagine", "uncertain".

So basically, you're building up imaginary problems based on not knowing. That is a very important thing to avoid. If you don't know something, you should not jump straight to conclusions that "bad things will happen".

Nothing in the crankcase short of nuts and bolts and other chunks of metal, will hurt to feed back through the intake, and if your crankcase barfs out large pieces of metal, you have more to worry about than whether or not its ok for your intake.

So just sit back and don't worry about it. You don't need to manufacturer imaginary problems to "repair" with things that may ultimately cause worse problems to arise.

 

You're right. I use those words carefully. I make no pretense of being an expert. I don't believe I said that bad things will happen and I was very careful in doing so. I did say it was arguable. Read back.

Just based on some of the pics of what other members have pulled from their catch cans I don't think it's a stretch to say that if given the choice, I'd rather not have that muck running through the motor.
This is fairly representative....

 

That looks like about a teaspoon worth of frothy water/oil (nothing bad there). Over, lets say 10,000 miles, I promise you that its eating a lot worse of stuff just by inhaling air 2 feet off the surface of the highway. The air filter will stop large chunks of solids (like sand), but it won't stop gas (and by that, I mean as in solid/liquid/gas/plasma -- state of matter, not as in gasoline) or liquid.

 

I’m on my 4th Toyota truck. My last one I drove for 17 yrs. Never had a problem without a catch can.
They do appear to catch some visible crud,but I’m not sold on if that is good or bad. I do see a problem if you install these on a truck that you also have a warranty on. You may have just altered yourself right out off a covered claim. I’m going to stay a virgin.

 

I'm sure there are combustion gases passing through the PCV system and into the engine... every vehicle has some amount of blow-by or leakage past the piston rings. But think about this: many cars run happily for decades with EGR valves -- exhaust gas recirculation -- which put a small amount of exhaust (i.e., combustion gases) into the intake. So I still don't see any reason for concern. 100% stock engines live very long lives with just regular maintenance. A catch can may help an NA engine in some incremental way but it would be very hard to prove. Also, nearly all manufacturers have some amount of oil burning that is considered "normal." Some are up to 1 quart every 1000 miles, or more.

Showing the muck inside the catch can does not prove a benefit. Showing all the money saved by *not* buying a catch can, along with a perfectly-running stock engine... this might prove a benefit!

 

The only thing I really see it helping with, is with a serious oil burner. I.e., one of those chrysler/fiat's that drink a qt through the pcv for every half hour on the highway.

 

I'll post you a pic of what mine catches. I empty it every oil change and it is horrid nasty black oily crap.

 

Lets propose two positions on this...

One, the catch can is a waste of money and does nothing...

Position two, it removes junk....
What are the risks?....

Back to postion one..it works,...but in cold climates blocks the system,..and causes a complete blockage and blows some seals.
Not a good idea huh!

Position two,..it catches water, oil, blow by gases etc....very caustic etc...

The gases in question only return to cylinders 2,4,and 6 as the pcv are sucked in on the right side of the engine....so not completely divided accross the engine in terms of recirculation..

Here are my very non scientific observations since I installed a catch can at 29k to 30k.

The can accumulated about 2 ounces of coffee like fluid.
Two onces of anything looking like this is probably not a good thing.

so doing some math ...1k = 1 ounce...so 100k= 100 ounces...

What do you think?

 

Ive used one on my 13 since the first 5k miles. I empty it every oil change and I have been filling jars with the oil I have collected in mine. I have gotten some real nasty stuff out of mine, stuff that I am glad I didn't put back into my motor. Theoretically it burns cleaner, less carb build up and piece of mind. Is it necessary, probably not, but at the low cost, I feel it will save me more than it cost in the end.