Catch can contents

[pampadori]

Haven't drained my catch can since installing it about 3k miles ago. Might be more.
Today I opened the drain valve to see if any oil was in it and what came out was more like moonshine than motor oil!
Only about two ounces or less came out and it had an alcoholic smell to it. Looked like very, very weak iced tea. Watery viscosity. But the smell, like a homemade shine!

I guess I'm glad there wasn't a whole lot of oily sludge but what the hell was causing the fluid that was in there? More importantly, do you think I could catch a buzz from it by drinking it?

[2jmotorsports]

Do it!

Also, lets see the catch can setup and its contents.

[pampadori]

I didn't take any pics of the hooch that came out but I'll try to get a pic later today of the arrangement under the decklid.

[KTL]

As long as your oil tank hasn't been overfilled, you shouldn't find a large volume of "pure" oil in there. You want to find exactly what you've found in there, which is a mix of oil vapor and condensation. The catch can is just a vent to the atmosphere and it's simply letting air pressure out of the oil tank, caused by the violent spinning of parts & piston movement going on inside the engine. Most cans are baffled to trap significant liquid and the filter on top arrests the oil vapor + condensation caused by heating and cooling cycles.

[mreid]

It makes a great cologne. Women find it irresistible and men will want to hang out with you and invite you to all their parties. Use it with caution though, as some people have little impulse control.

[KTL]

Originally Posted by mreid

It makes a great cologne. Women find it irresistible and men will want to hang out with you and invite you to all their parties. Use it with caution though, as some people have little impulse control.

It's even better than Sex Panther by Odeon. This stuff works 90% of the time every time!

https://youtu.be/IKiSPUc2Jck?t=31s

[jpnovak]

That's Pungent. Stings the Nostrils.

[KTL]

Smells like a turd covered in burnt hair

[porsche930dude]

what the oil tank really should have is a line plumbed in to the pcv system to get some air circulation. Do these engines even have a pcv system?

[KTL]

Yes it does have a PVC system. This is what the 3.2L Carrera engine system looks like. 31 is an air recirculation valve and 36 is the typical PCV valve body

[mreid]

All IC engines have some sort of PCV (or the engine will make one!). In the old days, it was called a road tube or draft tube and was primarily responsible for the slick middle of each lane of a road (you know, the one you’re taught not to ride your motorcycle on). Later it moved to open breathers and then recycling through a valve into the combustion chamber. The valve simplified regular maintenance and provided some environmental benefit.

[pampadori]

I had built a turbocharged 2.0 4 cyl car almost 20 years ago that I just kept modifying and modifying. I had gotten it to the point where I was pushing about 25psi of charge air into that motor and was making about 500whp on street gas. It was a hoot! I could lay black marks while rolling about 65mph and using the clutch to break it loose.
But I had a few close calls with engine fires because the damn oil dipstick would blow out with the high boost and oil would get everywhere. Would make a helluva mess and send out huge smoke clouds when the oil would spray on the red hot exh manifold.
I ended up putting a tension spring on the handle of the dipstick and pulling it down to the tube so it couldn't pull out.

I had a catch can on that setup in addition to the oil seperator that was on it from the factory. It filled up VERY quickly if i was running it hard. I'd have to empty the can every couple of days.

The fact that this 3.0 has only pushed out some triple distilled corn liquor over the course of 3000 miles makes me feel pretty good about its condition. Actually, i wonder if the 10% ethanol is contributing to the smell of the fluid?

I don't have any plans to plumb the catch can vent into the intake however. It isn't as simple with ITBs and I'm not really experiencing any side effects besides more emissions letting it vent to atmosphere.

On a related note - do any of the serious race cars out there use pumps to evac the crankcase cases to limit high RPM losses? I've seen this on drag motors but seems like it would benefit any motor turning good RPMs.

[KTL]

Here's a good thread I recalled that touched on the crankcase vacuum a bit

Creating Crankcase vacuum