tedesco

During the last days I unwanted tesed the effect of different crakcase breathers. The stock installation connects the breather back to the inlet infront of the turbo. On my current set-up I just put a small K&N filter on top of the bottle instead of routing it back to the inlet. The idea was to avoid oil in the intercooler, decreasing heat exchange and knock resistance.
After a long time driving around like this, I discovered that the oil pan gasket started to leak. I also needed to do the yearly technical inspection of the car to keep it road legal, so I removed the shiny crome filter to make it look more like stock. With the oil pan freshly cleaned I drove to the inspection and passed it. After about 200km more I checked the oil spillage again and noticed that in this configuration hardly any oil dripped out. This made me think that without the filter crankcase pressure must have dropped which reduced the oil leaking past the gasket. Checking the small filter proved that it almost got "blocked" by the oil mist that normally would pass the filter (blowing through the filter clearly showed increase resistance). All the porosus material of the filter got sucked with oil which exagerated almost leads to a blocked filter and as a consequence to increased crakcase pressure due to lack of ventilation.
I know that some already recomended to use the stock set-up but as there was no explanation, I did not want to listen. Now I can only say: You were right, leave it as stock! For all of you running those small crankcase breather filters it might be worth checking their condition. Anyway I could not achive my primary goal which was to avoid getting oil into the intercooler: Still all of the intercooler tubes showed a small film of oil. I will convert back to stock again.

special tool

Thank you for seeing the light and being HONEST about it, my son.

That was one thing I liked about that big fat bowl of lasagna Rolex,
he always told the truth with regard to this(and other) issues, even if he made a mistake.........................

eniac

Honestly I can say I have been running a straight filter vented to the ATM off the AOS with no catch can since May. The oil in my intercooler pipes has drastically been reduced along with the amount of oil out of the tailpipe which often made a good attempt at turning my white car black. My car has always been plagued with oil leaks seemingly coming from everywhere. Given that, I am happy to say this summer the largest oil stain in my driveway is from my power steering and for once not oil.

Real world results tell the truth. For your cars the stock way works best. For mine and a few others, venting to the atmosphere works best. I have no idea why this is, but it is.

This is a pic I took a couple weeks after I installed the filter to check if oil was getting blown up into it.



This is a pic I took tonight which still looks as clean as the day I installed it even after a summer of 23-27psi daily driving, and a few road trips.



Notice the sunlight still shinning through nicely.

DrZ1

+2 on no problems w/ LR catch can w/ open element filter.

I placed this on after replacing a severly blown oil pan gasket in attempts to decrease CC pressure until I could find a problem, this was about 10k miles ago, and all still looks good. Be honest I havent really looked yet as the car runs well. The element looks clean, like above posted. Although I am learning alot from these forums and will follow this thread.

Steve

Skip Wolfe

You don't have to go completely back to stock. There are closed loop catch cans such as this one that are plumbed in the stock recirculating configuration.

http://www.saikoumichi.com/951_page.htm

Cory9584

The closed loop cans work great

Fluidplay

eniac and DrZ1, did either of you drill out the AOS to a larger diameter? When speaking with LR regarding installation, this was suggested to increase flow. And eniac it sounds like your saying the LR breather tank works better without the filter? Skip, I thought that the "saikoumichi" was a catch can where as the LR can is basically a "breather". It's my understanding they accomplish almost the same thing, though as you mentioned the saikou is a recirculating system maintaining pressure in the CC. Very interested in this due to I'm about to install the LR tank.

David Floyd

The can Skip posted is a better choice that what was around a few years ago, I had to modify my can by adding internal mesh and found a way to reciculate back to the intake.

I will most likley switch over to the Saikoumichi can.

eniac

NO my AOS is not drilled. I belive others have issues with fumes that have drilled thiers. The LR unit works good as it is. On mine I just use a filter and no catch can as I have seen absolutely no evidence of blow by in my engine, others however, may require it.

marksportcts

I bought my LR can before I found out about Saikoumichi. I like the fact that Saikoumichi has the stainless steel mesh in it to catch the oil fumes. My friends suggested putting in the mesh and change it when it gets too oiled up. Just stick some long nose pliers in and pull it out.

DrZ1

Neither is mine, Did not want to chance debris contamination. I do notice fumes though. The firewall rubber strip is shot though. I plan to change it 1st then if I still have fumes I may try closed loop.

I looked at the Saikoumichi can, and I too like the look of the mesh, I have one question is the mesh removable and washable?? If not would it not block up and not be as effective?

tedesco

when I took my filter off it looked clean too but blowing through it showed increased resistance. I am running without any filter but just a longer tube connected to the top of the can now. Not the slightest trace of oil around the tube exit and the area onto which it is blowing. Still have not routed it back to the intake. The filter just leads to a resistance that is bigger than nothing so as a consequence I am convinced now that crankcase pressure should be higher with such a set-up compared to stock install. If that balances the positiv aspects is another question to which I don´t know the answer.

eniac

Ok I understand what you mean now. I was under the asumption you already reconnected it back into the intake but I see now you are just referring to the resistance of the filter element alone. It is true some filters may give too much resistance which would in effect not allow the crankcase to vent to true atmosperic pressure. I have a different filter element then what is used on the catch can kits so there could be some difference there.

The reason for the pics of the clean filter was to show that I am not getting excessive pressure. When a crankcase is overpressured, the oil will be blown out the holes with the least amount off resistance, namely the open vented AOS. The fact that my filter, and hose to it, have no signs of oil tells me there is not excessive pressure in the crankcase. I have had cars with bad rings before and seen the effects of blow-by. Routing the AoS back into the intake will seemingly hide some of the effects from a worn engine, thus reducing blow-by. An engine in good order should not need this.

toddk911

How do you have the filter mounted or hooked up to the AOS if you didn't drill it out? Or can you post a pic fro mthe side showing the mounting?