- Joined
- Jul 11, 2011
- Messages
- 1,860
- Reaction score
- 443
- Points
- 83
I've been running an ebay catch can for a while now, I've also had a smoke issue for a while which I believed to be stem seals but recently some people have been finding cheap catch cans causing smoke problems. The theory is - the cheap catch can does not flow air quick enough causing crank case and cam cover pressure which pushes oil out the turbo seals and can kill off already tired stem seals.
I've actually just had a head rebuild, and while the car was apart I decided to beef up the catch can... So I suppose we'll never know for sure what was causing my smoke issue! But here's what I did, take one ebay catch can:
The two hoses coming off the crank case and cam cover are 19mm ID. The barb attachments on the can are 19mm OD, so should provide antiquate flow, HOWEVER, when I measured the spout that's supposed the vent these gasses, it was only 8mm ID. Doesn't take a genius to work out there's a massive imbalance there!
First, I got my trust hole cutter (recently purchased from Lidl lol) and hacked a 42mm (ish) hole in top:
The only things I bought for this was a 44mm ally hose coupling, a 44mm air filter (for a mini moto) and a 75mm p-clamp, all of which cost under £15. I had to shave the beaded ends off the coupling, and after a bit of filing on the can it was a snug fit.
There was 2 problems I could see with the filter - 1, although it was 44mm attachment it still went down to about 25mm at the neck. And 2, even if I had trimmed the coupling down so the filter would fit all the way down, with the length of the rubber neck the can would still look like this:
Which I think you'll all agree, isn't great! So I got my Lidle hole cutter out again (Good ol' Lidl!) cut a bigger hole in the bottom and filed it until it was a loose-ish fit over the coupling. I then nicked a few inches of twin core cable of a lamp around the house, and sliced it length ways to use to make the filter a tight fit:
I also wasn't happy with the flimsy bracket for attaching the can, so I put the p-clamp lower down for added support:
I'm going to get my mate to tack in a bit of perforated plate ally at the bottom of the coupling, which will also allow me to put a bit of brillo or something in there if I really want to:
Once that's done I'll put a bead of chemical metal around the base of the coupling to seal the join, and then the finished product will look like this:
Much happier with that and have so much more confidence in it than before. As said it cos me less than 15 quid to convert into the "ÜBER CAN", and wasn't actually that difficult to do. And when you think some of the Mishimoto cans are over 200 quid (!?), it's well worth a punt.
Hope you like what I've done and that it inspires some people to do something similar.
I've actually just had a head rebuild, and while the car was apart I decided to beef up the catch can... So I suppose we'll never know for sure what was causing my smoke issue! But here's what I did, take one ebay catch can:
The two hoses coming off the crank case and cam cover are 19mm ID. The barb attachments on the can are 19mm OD, so should provide antiquate flow, HOWEVER, when I measured the spout that's supposed the vent these gasses, it was only 8mm ID. Doesn't take a genius to work out there's a massive imbalance there!
First, I got my trust hole cutter (recently purchased from Lidl lol) and hacked a 42mm (ish) hole in top:
The only things I bought for this was a 44mm ally hose coupling, a 44mm air filter (for a mini moto) and a 75mm p-clamp, all of which cost under £15. I had to shave the beaded ends off the coupling, and after a bit of filing on the can it was a snug fit.
There was 2 problems I could see with the filter - 1, although it was 44mm attachment it still went down to about 25mm at the neck. And 2, even if I had trimmed the coupling down so the filter would fit all the way down, with the length of the rubber neck the can would still look like this:
Which I think you'll all agree, isn't great! So I got my Lidle hole cutter out again (Good ol' Lidl!) cut a bigger hole in the bottom and filed it until it was a loose-ish fit over the coupling. I then nicked a few inches of twin core cable of a lamp around the house, and sliced it length ways to use to make the filter a tight fit:
I also wasn't happy with the flimsy bracket for attaching the can, so I put the p-clamp lower down for added support:
I'm going to get my mate to tack in a bit of perforated plate ally at the bottom of the coupling, which will also allow me to put a bit of brillo or something in there if I really want to:
Once that's done I'll put a bead of chemical metal around the base of the coupling to seal the join, and then the finished product will look like this:
Much happier with that and have so much more confidence in it than before. As said it cos me less than 15 quid to convert into the "ÜBER CAN", and wasn't actually that difficult to do. And when you think some of the Mishimoto cans are over 200 quid (!?), it's well worth a punt.
Hope you like what I've done and that it inspires some people to do something similar.
