Modified PCV trap

[86bigred]

that little pad in the air cleaner is a filter for fresh air supply to crank case.you have a pcv valve on one side sucking blow buy and fresh air entering through the air cleaner assembly and that little vent to the rocker cover.

[86bigred]

could you not use a water seperator from an air compressor as a pcv trap.to me it looks like the same princapal.contamainated air enters and the liquid is left behind,as clean air enters. just a thought

[gto78]

I made almost the same exact thing. The difference is that I used copper wool instead, and I forced/packed the copper wool into a very small pvc pipe which is on the inlet/inside of my pickle jar. The copper "supposedly" causes a chemical reaction with certain chemicals and helps them burn better once they get sucked back into the engine. Also, the oil and other liquid particles are strained through the copper mesh and then simply drip into the bottom of my jar. Since the copper is inside a tube it's much easier to clean. I just wipe out the bottom of the jar once in a while. The copper is easy to clean, just poor some acetone through it.

[kamesama980]

Originally Posted by 86bigred

could you not use a water seperator from an air compressor as a pcv trap.to me it looks like the same princapal.contamainated air enters and the liquid is left behind,as clean air enters. just a thought

You could but you can build it yourself for MUCH less and have whatever fittings you wanted.

When I did this on my old cressida, I used clear acetate hoses or whatever they are from home depot/menards. they were too long and because of the material, got really soft when warm and collapsed under vacuum and didn't do a good job.

lesson: use good rubber hoses and make them short as possible.

[gto78]

I spent just a couple of dollars building mine, if you really consider what I did to be "building" something lol. Let's see first I used a pickle jar that was being thrown away (recycled)= $.00. Then I added a couple feet of 3/8" fuel line= $4-5.00. Then a couple brass fittings at about .79$ each. And the PVC pipe which was about 2$, and the copper/brass whatever it's called Brillo pad.

After building this thing I was disappointed because it was extremely hard to mount a pickle jar in an engine compartment filled with all kinds of stuff. After seeing how others used the air tool water separator I immediately decided that's a much better container to use. It's smaller, stronger, and easy to bolt into position. The fittings won't rip out of it because they actually have solid threads to attach to, unlike the lid of my pickle jar. This weekend I'm going to get a couple of these separators from harbor freight and build them for my 350z and the explorer. They're only like $5 anyways.

[kamesama980]

Originally Posted by gto78

They're only like $5 anyways.

really? what size are you looking at? course thats harbor freight price.

I used 2 3" pvc pipe end caps and a nipple, drilled holes and stuck fittings in.

[gto78]

here are two different separators I'm considering using. They are much easier to mount than the pickle jar I made, and look more professional. http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...ctId=100027474

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94346

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=43242

I personally like the third choice, the $9.99 harbor freight one since it uses a copper filter and also has a mounting bracket. I can get the NPT fittings from Home Depot to convert from 1/4npt up to the 3/8 hose size. Mount that thing on the firewall and then whenever its dirty just unscrew the glass and clean it. It's so cheap maybe buy a spare replacement. I was thinking of also replacing the psi gauge with a vacuum gauge, or possibly a schrader valve that allows me to run seafoam into the engine from that port. As for the regulator valve, just crank it all the way in so it's unrestricted.

[kamesama980]

I'd steer clear of the third one because it has the regulator... small holes get clogged easily. also, the vacuum gauge won't do you much good here because it'll be affected by how much air supply is going into the crankcase, restriction in the PCV system, and general distance from manifold

[8307c4]

This is what I was talking about...
First we have the breather cap, the main thing that plugs into the valve cover, looks like this:


I am aware the cap itself has a filter inside, but there has to be a reason why it insists on sucking clean air out of the intake via that rubber hose. That little pipe sticking out, there is usually a rubber hose that goes to the air filter, this is what I was after eliminating, that rubber hose itself (because it sucks air from my intake).

So then I bought a little air filter for it, like this one:

They call it a breather filter, maybe that's where I went wrong explaining...
It looks smaller in actuality than in that picture, or maybe not but it's awful tiny looking now the right part simply slips over the cap's outlet / inlet pipe.
Mine came with a hose clamp to secure it onto the cap's pipe.

Cost about $10 at Advance, for the performance element.
Now there's that rubber hose left over...
Like I said, make sure to plug up either the hose that is no longer used, or what I did is I sealed the hole in the intake and eliminated the hose all together.

But I do like the DIY project with the can, there might be additional benefit but is also along the correct lines of thinking, imho.

[psmithrt]

Originally Posted by 8307c4

Oh, that might work, depends what you're thinking.

One thing I did is bought a high performance breather cap so as to keep the engine from sucking air out of my intake.

I don't have pictures but on OEM breather caps there is usually a rubber hose that leads to the air intake of the vehicle. This hose allows the engine to suck clean air that it needs (for some unknown reason lol) but my problem with this is that it is taking this air from the throttle body! That is, this air it is taking is also intended for the cylinders, it's already past the filter and it should be heading into the combustion chamber but I've got this little hose that constantly is drawing some of it out.

With a high performance breather cap this assembly gets its very own tiny little air filter, thou you do have to make sure to plug up the hose or the outlet from where the hose gets disconnected so that the air intake is air tight again.

Voila, your engine no longer sucks air out from your intake via the valve cover.

First off, it doesn't really suck enough air out of your intake to effect engine performance so your better off just leaving it the way it was originally. It is partly setup this way so that during 3/4 to full throttle, when the intake plenum vacuum drops considerably there is not enough vacuum to clear the crankcase blowby that is usually pretty high during wot conditions so it instead uses the somewhat higher negative pressures of the intake to clear the crankcase. Some racers with turbo's or superchargers actually put another catch can on that hose also so oil vapor doesn't muck up thier MAF and what not. In older cars with the big round breathers that had the little intake pad filter, sometimes when floored this would bring oil back up into the round metal tray that held the air filter. Have you ever seen oil in one of those? I have.
Second, there is a big difference between a catch can and a condensator. Most of what comes out of the crankcase (pcv valve) is not oil. It is vapor comprised of mostly water and some raw gas. Some oil is carried with this vapor though. Some vapor will accidently fall out of the air through a water seperator and any is better than none. Even more will seperate in the steel wool type filters as there is a small temp differential. Water seperators are made to catch water out of air. Water is quite heavy before it has changed phase to a vapor (steam).
In order to catch more of this vapor (steam) there needs to be a temperature differential. Case in point. Hot shower in the bathroom, cool mirror, condensation droplets. Ice cold tea glass on picnic table during a muggy day, droplets form on outside of glass out of the air.
The link I will give descibes a cheap knockoff of the original condensator that you can make for about 20-25 bucks. I can't find the link to the test, but I read where one guy put one of these in line after a so called air compressor water seperator and was amazed that they both caught about the same amount. That means that the first was only about 50% effective. I can't attest for any great mpg gains yet as I have only had mine on for a tank and a half now plus I am still on winter gas in central NY and everyday the weather is different. I have in the past summer kept maticulous records and look forward to summer gas so I can see. I can say that in that short time (1 1/2 tanks about 600mi) I have about a tablespoon of goo in the jar already. This unit uses copper BB's as the first temp diff and filter, then the coolness of the glass as the second. Plus a rather large area inside the jar for the gasses to slow down while the gas further precipitates. I have seen one design I considered better that used a little venturi with a swirl inducer inside a machined aluminum canister for $200, but didn't consider it $175 better than this one. HA.
A few words of advice after making one. Use a quart Ball Canning jar and lid. It is two piece and just makes things easier. Where is calls for a small v8 juice drink can, use a small tomatoe paste can as you can put much more torque on the clamp. Don't look for silica beads that he talks about, just use the 1500ct copper coated BB's.
On hook up look closely at where the vacuum source for your PCV system goes into the plenum. If it only goes into one cylinder runner look for another source that more evenly distributes and tee into it if you have to. Mine came factory into two runners and there was a capped off one above it that looked like an extra for some option my car didn't have or was put there to hook up a vacuum gauge for testing. It went into the other two runners. Can you say SWEET. I just added an extra piece of hose and a tee.
Anyway I have always been into function over form, I won't say this is the prettiest thing I've ever made, but function it does. I didn't use the coffee can mount. Just found a place to stuff it and put half an old towel around it to protect the glass and keep it from vibrating. Here is the link and good luck!!

http://www.himacresearch.com/books/hydro8.html