Ford performance oil air separator

[DukeCanBuildit]

ok, that pic of a barrel brought back images of the guy below, appropriately known as The Barrelman, for many yrs was a fixture at Denver Broncos games, note the fans in winter garb behind him, if you wondered how he stayed warm - well I caught a whiff of him at a game once and he wasn't lacking in anti-freeze and not the ethylene glycol type although it wouldn't have surprised me if he had had his share of that. Who knows what toxic/noxious substances collected in that barrel . RIP barrelman.

Hmmmmm, he appears to resemble your avatar a bit, no?

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[Dgc333]

Catch cans are a total waste of money. If they did anything to make an engine last longer, every major car manufacturer would have them stock.

If you are truly that paranoid that your brand new engine needs a catch can, then look into walnut blasting your internals. That is an actual proven practice done to remove carbon build up.

The reason that manufactures don't install them is because they require maintenance. When you can't get folks to check (or change) their oil periodically it is a very real danger that the catch can would be allowed to fill up resulting in a slug of oil being sucked into the engine causing catastrophic failure. The high end exotics do come with them but they automatically drain back into the pan. Those systems are cost prohibitive for run of the mill vehicles plus the manufacturers have solved the issue by going to hybrid EFI where they now have fuel injectors in the intake as well as direct injection to keep the valves clean.

Waiting until you have enough build up to effect performance then paying the $500 or more to have the the valves walnut blasted is certainly one approach. Another is to use a catch can that will extend the time for walnut blasting 2 or 3 times. Another is periodically use one of the available top end cleaners that should keep the build up from ever being an issue. It's your money and your choice.

 

[txquailguy]

That is incorrect brother.....I can prove that too.

Ya'll should see what I just emptied from my CC....bunch of clay looking gunk and white water/fuel mixture. I don't care what anyone says....I'm very glad that is not going back into my crankcase...
Winter time catches are always nasty!

 

[txquailguy]

Catch cans are a total waste of money. If they did anything to make an engine last longer, every major car manufacturer would have them stock.

If you are truly that paranoid that your brand new engine needs a catch can, then look into walnut blasting your internals. That is an actual proven practice done to remove carbon build up.

I'm not paranoid at all brother....it's a very small price to pay for a CC. Have you seen what folks catch in the can during the winter? You might want to dig a little deeper. I don't really care what the car manufacturers are doing or not.....I'm sure they don't have my best interest in mind. BTW...The last thing on my mind is walnut blasting my intake....tell you what, I'll take a picture of the clay like gunk I catch in the winter next time I empty the can and you tell me if you would like that returning to your crankcase....

 

[dtech]

Ya'll should see what I just emptied from my CC....bunch of clay looking gunk and white water/fuel mixture. I don't care what anyone says....I'm very glad that is not going back into my crankcase...
Winter time catches are always nasty!

Not fair to tease - should be mandatory (a site rule) to post pics of your catch can collections if you boast how nasty they . No pics I've seen thus far match the nastiness of the pic I posted of the barrelman, a toxic lump of who knows what stuffed into an orange barrel , it would be a fitting mascot for the current Denver Broncos - a wretched, fetid, rotting mass of a fb team.

 

[dtech]

Hmmmmm, he appears to resemble your avatar a bit, no?

ok I changed it to be more in tune with site preferences. This ones shows my machismo

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

ok I changed it to be more in tune with site fashions.

Ah, a reference to our moderator, no doubt.

 

[dtech]

Ah, a reference to our moderator, no doubt.

The reptilian or the gleeful looking gent - beware smiling faces and snakes wrapped around them, for clarification I am not attempting to impersonate a moderator, the penalties are very severe.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

The reptilian or the gleeful looking gent - beware smiling faces and snakes wrapped around them.....

Haha, Actually, I was trying to connect the dots between catch cans and pythons and the thing that came to mind right away was snake oil, which naturally led me to think of @AzScorpion . ?

 

[Rp930]

3 1/2 years with no catch can and no engine failure. I must be one of the lucky ones.

 

[dtech]

3 1/2 years with no catch can and no engine failure. I must be one of the lucky ones.

Best be saving up those walnut shells, just in case. My wife is wondering why I'm suddenly requesting baked goods with walnuts and I have the can. I have a week stomach though and have learned to empty my can without looking directly at the contents and of course wear a gas mask. Some have posted that they don't want that blowby on their intakes, I'm equally concerned about an accidental spill.

 

[AzScorpion]

Haha, Actually, I was trying to connect the dots between catch cans and pythons and the thing that came to mind right away was snake oil, which naturally led me to think of @AzScorpion . ?

I'm going to need to start working overtime on you! ?

 

[Bravesfan1995]

Oh look, more fuel to add to this fire: I'm currently working on a video testing intake valve cleaner - the one from CRC, specifically. My truck just hit 30k miles, and I cracked open the intake and popped a borescope in there to see how the valves looked. Then I reassembled everything and did the valve cleaning with the CRC spray, then took the intake off again and re-inspected. For background, I run 91 octane (highest I can get in my area), always from a Chevron station.

There will be a full video when I finish editing, but here's a screenshot before cleaning:

And after:

It's a bit hard to tell with just screenshots, but in the after shot, the back of the valve is so shiny that the camera has adjusted it's exposure to compensate - so the darker areas look MUCH darker than they actually are. Note that the walls of the intake have a lot less carbon on them, and the valve itself is substantially cleaner. Most of the junk that was caked on the back of the valve is gone, the stem is cleaner, and the ridge of built-up carbon along the rim of the valve is reduced. Again - this is much easier to see in the actual footage, so stay tuned for whenever I can finish the edit.

My bottom line: These engines have a fair amount of junk that gets onto the back of the valves, starting from day 1. Catch can systems likely help a lot, but they are pretty expensive. It's much more cost-effective to do this chemical clean every .. say... 10k miles than to install a catch can. This cleaner runs about $12 at my local auto parts store. If I clean every 10k miles, that's $120 in cleaner per 100k miles driven. The catch can systems I've looked at cost north of $300... and you still need to perform a cleaning like this from time to time - just less often. For me, the math does not add up to install a catch can.

But you do you!

Did you ever finish this video? I visited your youtube link and didn't see it. Would be a great resource for those of us wanting to go the extra mile in maintaining ecoboost engines. Thanks!

 

[quangdog]

Did you ever finish this video? I visited your youtube link and didn't see it. Would be a great resource for those of us wanting to go the extra mile in maintaining ecoboost engines. Thanks!

Not yet. Life has been very busy this year, and I've had both rotator cuffs repaired so I've been physically unable to do a lot... but I'm on the mend, and this video footage has all been filmed... I just need to find the time to edit it and get it out there. I'll post a link here when it is available.

Thanks!

 

[Bravesfan1995]

Not yet. Life has been very busy this year, and I've had both rotator cuffs repaired so I've been physically unable to do a lot... but I'm on the mend, and this video footage has all been filmed... I just need to find the time to edit it and get it out there. I'll post a link here when it is available.

Thanks!

Best wishes on your recovery and thank you for the update. Really appreciate you taking time to share your knowledge!

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