Catch Can Experiences On 3.3T Sports?

[The_Sheriff]

Are any of you using a catch can(s) on your 3.3T engines? If so, what was the contents of the can like when you emptied it? Are you emptying it every oil change or more or less often than that? Are you happy with the performance of your catch can? Which brand/manufacturer of catch can are you using? I look forward to your replies. Thanks.

 

[Don88]

Are any of you using a catch can(s) on your 3.3T engines? If so, what was the contents of the can like when you emptied it? Are you emptying it every oil change or more or less often than that? Are you happy with the performance of your catch can? Which brand/manufacturer of catch can are you using? I look forward to your replies. Thanks.

Gotta ask, what is a "catch can?

 

[johnny3fingers]

Gotta ask, what is a "catch can?

2012 3.8 Oil Catch Can install

 

[Don88]

2012 3.8 Oil Catch Can install

Thanks for the lesson.

 

[johnny3fingers]

I just wish I could get some rain free days to get mine installed.....or am I just a lazy POS?
Its been here for 3months!

 

[pulsar]

There is another thread here by Mr Todd on catch cans. Detail install and good overall info.

 

[TinsleyC]

Sorry, but I'm still lost here. So a "catch can" is designed to catch old, burned oil from a PCV valve? My question is, where would that old oil go, otherwise? Does it go back into the engine, or onto the ground?

 

[johnny3fingers]

Sorry, but I'm still lost here. So a "catch can" is designed to catch old, burned oil from a PCV valve? My question is, where would that old oil go, otherwise? Does it go back into the engine, or onto the ground?

Goes back in to the top end and thus you have carbon deposits on your valves, older gdi engines dont wash fuel over the valves which helps to keep them clean

 

[The_Sheriff]

There is another thread here by Mr Todd on catch cans. Detail install and good overall info.

I wasn’t able to locate it by using the search. Could you post a link to that thread? Thanks.

 

[pulsar]

3.3T - SxthElement Catch Can install + review
Probably a better way to post a link but best I could do to get you in the right area. Hopefully it works? Good luck.

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[bubbaG80Sport]

I posted details on my 2018 G80 Sport 3.3TT Oil Catch Can (OCC) installation in the "Oil Catch Can (OCC) on 2017 G80 5.0L" thread.
Note link to OCC is broken today. Similiar/equivelant is MODEL: MMBCC-CBTWO

My lady drinks Mobil 1 5w/30 and I give her a fresh drink every 5K miles. I check/empty the OCC every 2.5Kmiles. Capacity of OCC is about 3 fluid ounces.

5K-25K miles the 0.5 oz collected oil was dark and oily same as seen on dipstick. See picture 1 below.
At the last check 28,590 miles it was 1oz, brownish and watery. See picture 2 below. I'm a little concerned and watching more closely.

 

[The_Sheriff]

I posted details on my 2018 G80 Sport 3.3TT Oil Catch Can (OCC) installation in the "Oil Catch Can (OCC) on 2017 G80 5.0L" thread.
Note link to OCC is broken today. Similiar/equivelant is MODEL: MMBCC-CBTWO

My lady drinks Mobil 1 5w/30 and I give her a fresh drink every 5K miles. I check/empty the OCC every 2.5Kmiles. Capacity of OCC is about 3 fluid ounces.

5K-25K miles the 0.5 oz collected oil was dark and oily same as seen on dipstick. See picture 1 below.
At the last check 28,590 miles it was 1oz, brownish and watery. See picture 2 below. I'm a little concerned and watching more closely.

View attachment 27938 View attachment 27940

I just emptied mine for the first time after the 5k oil change. It was more like the second contents of yours. Lighter/milky in color & it had some parts that were the consistency of spoiled milk. As this is my first turbo charged car & the first time dealing with what was collected, I wanted to see what others had experienced?

 

[pulsar]

I just emptied mine for the first time after the 5k oil change. It was more like the second contents of yours. Lighter/milky in color & it had some parts that were the consistency of spoiled milk. As this is my first turbo charged car & the first time dealing with what was collected, I wanted to see what others had experienced?

I’ve only emptied mine once. Was not milky, looked normal oil colored mostly but maybe a tad darker. I run Pennzoil platinum now but have not done a oil change with that oil yet. I installed my OCC at 500 miles on the odometer and changed that oil to Pennzoil at 1500 miles so I was looking at stock oil.

 

[Yes-itsme]

Are any of you using a catch can(s) on your 3.3T engines? If so, what was the contents of the can like when you emptied it? Are you emptying it every oil change or more or less often than that? Are you happy with the performance of your catch can? Which brand/manufacturer of catch can are you using? I look forward to your replies. Thanks.

HI, I'm new here but, not new to turbos. I raced and tuned Subarus for years. And from my experience catch cans are not needed. If it was needed the engineers would have added it to insure the engines last for the 10 year and 100k miles warranty. I would actually talk my customers our of it. Depending on the dealership the cans may actually void your warranty. Please don't waste your money.
My background. I have building engines for over 30 years and was the owner of Racer X Engineering for over 8 years where I designed , manufacturing, and selling FMIC and TMIC for Subarus. I was also a vendor that sold and installed aftermarket performance parts.

 

[pulsar]

HI, I'm new here but, not new to turbos. I raced and tuned Subarus for years. And from my experience catch cans are not needed. If it was needed the engineers would have added it to insure the engines last for the 10 year and 100k miles warranty. I would actually talk my customers our of it. Depending on the dealership the cans may actually void your warranty. Please don't waste your money.
My background. I have building engines for over 30 years and was the owner of Racer X Engineering for over 8 years where I designed , manufacturing, and selling FMIC and TMIC for Subarus. I was also a vendor that sold and installed aftermarket performance parts.

Are Subaru’s direct injection or port injection? If you raced them I assume engines were frequently disassembled, cleaned and reassembled? So your advocating allowing the oil mist and vapors to go ahead and coat the backside of the valves so they get caked with carbon deposits? Plenty of videos and borescope footage to show what happens to our engines out there. Now how much performance or fuel degradation occurs for the average Joe who changes cars every 3 years or so, probably a subjective discussion.

 

[bubbaG80Sport]

HI, I'm new here but, not new to turbos. I raced and tuned Subarus for years. And from my experience catch cans are not needed. If it was needed the engineers would have added it to insure the engines last for the 10 year and 100k miles warranty. I would actually talk my customers our of it. Depending on the dealership the cans may actually void your warranty. Please don't waste your money.
My background. I have building engines for over 30 years and was the owner of Racer X Engineering for over 8 years where I designed , manufacturing, and selling FMIC and TMIC for Subarus. I was also a vendor that sold and installed aftermarket performance parts.

I agree an OCC is a waste of money on most daily driver non-GDI engined vehicles whether it's a sucker or a blower-turbo/super charged. It's an inherent issue with GDI engines that an OCC can help mitigate. Turbo/super charging just exacerbates the issue. Subaru didn't start using GDI engines until 2019. Hyundai/Genesis has been using GDI engines longer.

There have already been several "holy war" discussions on the merits of an OCC on a G80 in this forum. It's your/my money do what you/I want. I am just providing feedback to someone who asked about OCCs.

 

[Yes-itsme]

Are Subaru’s direct injection or port injection? If you raced them I assume engines were frequently disassembled, cleaned and reassembled? So your advocating allowing the oil mist and vapors to go ahead and coat the backside of the valves so they get caked with carbon deposits? Plenty of videos and borescope footage to show what happens to our engines out there. Now how much performance or fuel degradation occurs for the average Joe who changes cars every 3 years or so, probably a subjective discussion.

First, the way that I feel about forums are for people to share information and experiences. Me telling my background was not to toot my own horn but, to give a understanding of my point of view. If it was taken that way it was not my intent. Now let me answer your response. You said a lot so, let me do my best answer in order.



No, the Subaru’s were not GDI they were port injected. After your comment, I started doing research to see if I was not understanding the differences with GDI that made catch cans necessary. I found some interesting things. More on that later.



Yes, I tracked (and street raced in my youth) cars that I have built from my ’69 Mustangs w/ 351 Cleveland, 390 big block, my’ 56 Ford w/ Chevy 327, ’70 VW bug w/ 2.8l Ford V6 hanging out the back mounted to a VW drag tranny built when I was17yrs, Honda civic, and a ’05 Subaru Legacy GT 2.5L wagon that I modded, tuned, and dyno’d at over 370whp on e85 I had for 10 years as a daily driver, just to name a few. If I was racing professionally where .1 of a sec was important it may be necessary to rebuild every race. But, I build my engines to last. I might tweak a thing or two but, not a full tear down unless something goes wrong. I don’t abuse my engine and take them past their limits mechanically or by tune. Also what is your hands-on practical experience with engine building and tuning so, I can better understand your point of view?



Next, nowhere did I “advocate on behalf of oil mist or vapor coating valves and taking power.” Here is my point. To only blame the oil mist from the PVC for carbon build is a bit short sighted and not looking at the whole picture and all the things that are going on in the engine. That is why I asked about your hands on experience with engine building. You have several things that can lead to build up on your intake valves since you don’t have the fuel from the port injector to clean the valve

These are just a few

You have:



Oil leaking pass turbo seals



Oil leaking pass valve guides



Contamination from combustion chamber when valve is open (engine cams have overlap where intake valve can be open for a period during compression strokes)



EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) : It sends exhaust gases which can have particles from the engine back into the intake and can cause build up . I can’t find definitively if this car has one.

I found a video from "Engineering Explained" that covers the facts I stated above. I found it very informative.

After my research my opinion hasn't really softened toward catch cans. Because catch cans do stop some but, it doesn't stop any of the other things that can cause carbon build up that I listed above. So, you will still have carbon build up with catch cans. I couldn't find anything except for advertisements that shows how carbon build up is cut in half over a period of time with catch cans or something like that. If you or anyone else have any info, I would love to see it. I feel you can never stop learning.

Also do catch cans void your warranty?
Thanks

Sorry for the long post.