Catch Can II

Continuation to https://georgesblogforfriends.blogspot.com/2018/12/catch-can.html

Break time could be blogging time. Got the catch can in the mail at an Amazon locker. They sent me the code in the email, Angela picked for me from the locker at a convenience store.

As i was expecting at that price and level of complexity, many small problems with it. "Blue irregularities" on the inside. Aluminum shavings (removed, not seen in picture). Missing o-ring at the dipstick, vacuum leak (as i read on some reviews).

Two pairs of connectors. 3/8, with very small holes inside and an am even smaller passage, about half that diameter. 5/8, with huge holes inside, had no hose to connect to.

I tried to enlarge the 3/8 with a 7 mm drill bit on my hex ended screwdriver. However the hole started to go out of alignment with the initial one. Finally drill bit locked.

So i ran to Home Depot but there only plumbing connectors which are tapered. One of them almost fit. I could had put it in with Teflon. However the guy who was selling it looked very grumpy and discouraged me from doing it. Maybe he wanted me back on the road for more show.

Was really sick from some smoke here in the apartment coming from the backyard earlier. Shortness of brath, wakness, fainting like feeling.

However i tried to go to a machine shop and have them drill the small connectors on a small lathe. The owner was in vacation, there was a trainee who didn't know how to use the lathe.

Came back home. Out of frustration i tried and pushed a 3/8 vacuum line on the 5/8 connector. With a little grease, i did it (after all, it's rubber). Wondering if it's not gonna break. However, i don't think it even needs a clamp. Can't take it out no matter how hard i try, needs to be cut. (Right on the picture).

On the car originally there was a hose two size ended, 3/8 at the PCV valve side and i didn't know the other that goes into the composite intake. So i went outside to measure it. It was coming out hard (probably no more oil in there, the plastic catch can i already installed has something like half ounce of milky emulsion (oil and moisture but i wonder if it works during summer, now oil and moisture condensates easier on the cooler walls of the can) but i don't like it totally because of the relatively small connectors.

I needed a long nose pliers for the clamp and when i tried i saw there was some metal filings on the tip of the pliers. I cleaned it, i didn't see any on the clamp, i pulled the clamp, the hose, measured the connector, it was 9/16 or 15 mm. Then i remembered where the metal filings where from on the clamp, from me building a metal catch can out of a paint can, but cannot believe they were so many (basically the tip of the pliers where covered by it).

Again during the whole time of the procedure i was still under the influence of that smoke in the morning.

Anyways. I am really paranoid about getting stuff in there, this time i was lucky because i went to measure that connector first an was during daytime and there was still enough light outside for me to see the fillings on the pliers.

Then i went at NAPA and got a 5/8 which is for water heater and they say it's not oil resistant. However i don't expect oil to get past this catch can again.

But ever since and the main reason i'm writing this post is i realized why is so bad to have oil in the intake (besides burning on the valves and make them stick and have hydraulic lifters squeeze oil through and make the oil foamy and the risk of bending valves).

Any contaminant that can make its way in there, be it through the filter, past it (last time i changed oil at Jiffy Lube i found mine on the truck not fully closed in the box from a previous oil change at again Jiffy Lube in Salem, or basically air getting past it, and filter perfectly clean after months) ends up in the unwanted oil coating the intake on the inside. Those particles slowly but surely will travel through the intake all the way to valves. There they can get on the aluminum valve seat and if are hard particles they can get embedded into the aluminum valve seat contributing to the wearing out of the engine. Also when i got the car, before i removed most oil from previous trickling through PCV system, i found oil on the spark plugs to the point one of them came loose, damaging the seat, prompting me to resurface the seats with a special tool i designed myself. So dust or contaminants basically do not fly through the intake, through the valves, burn or pass the cylinder through exhaust valves, but stick on the intake, valves and ultimately cylinder walls contributing to wearing out of the engine.

So in a way unwanted oil getting in the engine through PCV system acts as a magnet for dust and contributes to the wearing out of the engine after the initial break in when blow-by gasses start to pass the cylinder, pressurize the engine and open more the PCV valve, and finally spitting oil through it.

Not talking about contaminating the intake gasket (In 2015 i realized i had a vacuum leak at the truck and on Halloween's eve the guys at Meineke in Tigard found a twisted gasket probably from that reason.

Got an open window because i'm drying laundry and it's hot in here. I think smoke from outside is building up in here and i start to get sick again.

This is the final result, the next day. Again, apartment surrounded by smoke. I noticed some holes next to the building's foundation built and plugged them. Also in the grass in front of the car where i was working they were some small holes like finger diameter i don't know from what animal, maybe big earthworms. After i covered all of those the smoke disappeared. Starting to clear now. Went for a test drive. Bigger hoses and connectors made a world of difference in power. Blow by basses from the now a bit worned out engine (50k) vent better through those. Now i'm curious to see if the new can with bigger hoses and flow actually catches more oil than first one made of plastic seen above. BTW, i found a drop of oil in the intake connector, which means that one was escaping a bit.

Thinking about what a pressurized crankcase does to gaskets. Oil pan gasket. If oil blows by the gasket due to pressure inside and made it's ways to the bolts, then you're in for a permanent oil leak. Hopefully this didn't happen yet. This car has one more valve for this reason. In case PCV valve gets blocked, it opens and lets the gasses go into the air duct before the throttle.