SquireSCA

LOL. Ok, I was like, "Does he know something that I don't and something is gonna blow up??"... In theory, if there is no performance reason for this, if it is simply because the EPA doesn't want them venting the crankcase to the open air... then there should be no downside to doing this... Taking hot, oily contaminated air and injecting it into the intake manifold on a GDI motor... I can't think of any way it could possibly be a good thing, but there is absolutely at least one way for it to be a bad thing... We shall see if this holds true. If the filters start dripping oil all over the place, then a cheap $30 catch can from Amazon to simply catch the oil and I just have to empty it occasionally, will be my next step in this...

Meaning? Can't tell if you are being serious or sarcastic. If sarcastic, give me your ideas on why this might be a bad idea?

Ok, so here is what I did. Got the K&N Vent filters, and fitted them right to the click-on vent connectors. Then removed the hoses going to the intake tube, and capped the openings with rubber caps, and then safety wired them to make sure they don't loosen or go anywhere... I will drive that way for awhile, see if anything changes... I can't imagine that I would feel any difference, the question will be if there is any oil that makes it through the filters and onto the motor... So I will be checking for any drips. My guess is that it won't do that... that the oil we see in the intake normally, is because the system is sucking on that vent tube and drawing it out... that if it was just left to it's own pressure, not much would be coming out at all. I feel like this is merely an "emissions" thing and that there is no benefit to having it routed to the air intake, and that with GDI motors, it causes more harm. I only have 19k miles on the truck, so I am hoping that my valves are not too gunked up... I will have them do the BG Products valve cleaning at my next oil change and I should be good to go, as no new oil is being introduced into the intake. No $300 catch can, nothing to maintain, if this works as I hope it will...

What I am gonna try, is not capping the vents... Those will go to those K&N vent filters and allow the water to evaporate through the filters, the oil will mostly stay in there and drip back... What I would block, is the holes in the intake tube, in my case an Airaid MIT performance intake tube. The vents would not be blocked, they would vent, but through the pod filters... If you do regular oil changes with quality oil, you aren't gonna get sludge... and if the tradeoff is not killing your intake valves, I feel like it may be worth it.

I understand the desire to get that stuff out of there... But taking caustic materials like acid and oil and dumping it into the intake and all over the intake valves, hardly seems like a good idea... Aren't you just trading one problem, for another? I get why the car makers don't want to, or can't vent to the air... but if I personally am not under such constraints... I mean, I live in a county in GA that doesn't even do emissions testing of vehicles... LOL Then venting into a filter like the one I linked to, would allow excess pressure to escape, taking some of that water and oil with it.... would work, no? Or are you saying to work properly you need the vacuum to DRAW that stuff out? Also, if one changes their oil pretty often, would that not mitigate contaminates building up? I can't see a modern synthetic motor oil building up sludge in 4-5k miles, which most of us accumulate every few months, right?

Well, I ordered two of those washable vent filters from Amazon Prime for $15 delivered tomorrow. I will install those, cap the holes in the Airaid MIT where the hoses formerly connected, and have them do a BG Products valve cleaning at my next oil change(20k miles) and monitor it from there. I will make sure that whatever I do, it's easily reversible... in case it doesn't work as I hope.

I mean, a couple of these would do the job, I would think. It's what they are made for: https://www.amazon.com/62-1600RD-Vent-Air-Filter-Breather/dp/B009774GCA/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=crankcase+vent+filter&qid=1566229385&s=gateway&sr=8-7

I guess my biggest question is... How much of this is FUD/Hype and how much of this is a real, valid concern? I get that the catch can companies help promote this notion that all new cars and trucks have motors that will wear out and break down without the use of their products... But is that really true? I have read about how the warranties were reduced and the assumed reasons why... But you would think that if this was going to cause premature wear, which could impact warranty claims but more importantly, brand image... If the "Longest lasting trucks on the road" image becomes, "Good for a year or two at best", I can't see how this won't cost them big time in the end... These companies tend to be strategic and you would think that if this was the case, they themselves would just have an OEM crank out some catch cans that would cost $50 each to the automaker and have it be a periodic maintenance item just like oil changes...

To me its a simple fix to keep oil from messing up my intake valves without having to spend hundreds on a catch can, maintain the catch can, worry about it freezing if it has water in it and it gets down to 20 degrees F overnight in the winter, etc...

Exactly, if you want green, go buy a Prius. LOL

Well, I think that there would be no more oil introduced into the throttle body if you plug the bungs on the intake tube, and took the hoses coming off the heads, and simply "capped" each of them with a small pod style filter or whatever, to let it vent when needed, keep anything from crawling up those hoses, and catch the little bit of oily mist. Worst I can see happening is perhaps you need to empty and clean the filters occasionally, but they won't have water sitting in them and have to worry about them freezing in the winter time.

That makes sense I guess. So is the consensus that I don't need a catch can? I can just unplug the hoses from the intake tube(Airaid MIT), plug the tube, and connect the hoses to either a single pod style air filter, or get one for each hose? That way pressure can escape, and if it draws air back in for some reason, it will be filtered air, no dirt or bugs, etc... Sound like a plan?

What I wish there was, was a way to route the crankcase vent to the exhaust manifold... Let that draw the oily air via vacuum and have it bypass the motor entirely... You can do that on bikes, which normally dump the crankcase vent into the airbox... they also have a hose off the airbox that goes into the exhaust manifold to help "clean up emissions"... So you plug the airbox, and route that hose to the exhaust(normally called SAI or PAIR, depending on the make of bike) and connect the crackcase vent to that, and it will pull a slight vacuum on the crankcase...

Ok, so nothing will happen with the motor... Pressure can escape... it just won't be helped by the vacuum created by the intake, right? I know why they do it they way that they do, but if I don't care about a little bit of oily air escaping, so long as it doesn't harm the motor, I would rather not be dilluting the intake charge or caking up my valves with carbon... I feel that's a fair tradeoff. If I was worried about my impact on polar bears, I wouldn't have gotten a big truck to begin with...

I see the pros and cons of the catch cans, and am left wondering... why not just put filters on the output from the crank case vents, and plug them on the manifold intake side? As long as they are open so that pressure can moves freely from the crankcase, but with a filter on them so things can't get back in... Would it be a problem? No having to worry about water freezing in a catch can in the winter... Maybe you remove the pod filters and wash them occasionally... Not worried about a little oily air venting to the atmosphere... Most of us tune these trucks and running richer we are already bypassing EPA emissions, so a tiny bit of filtered, oily air is gonna make a difference IMHO so save the greenpeace lectures. haha Mechanically, is there a problem doing this? I can't see how hot oily air makes an motor, let alone a GDI motor, run better or cleaner... Without spending hundreds to get a quality catch can and maintaining it, wouldn't a cheap set of pod filters accomplish the same thing?

Any thoughts on those? Are they thick enough to make a visual difference on the truck?

I see these, and they are in stock and much closer to me than Summit. I see some people seem to like them? https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/g2-6x5-5-inch-bolt-pattern-with-1-5-inch-offset-wheel-spacers-black-93-83-150t/_/R-FCNB-93-83-150T

Looking to see what Summit has, but they don't list anything for my truck. 2018 Silverado Z71. Has a 2.25" level kit in front and a 3" set of lift blocks in back. Nitto RidgeGrappler 33's installed on the stock 18" rims. Have very slight rubbing at full lock, but more than that I just want a little better stance. I am reading here that the bolt on spacers are best, and to get them thick enough so that you don't have to cut the stock lugs. I also don't want to go wide enough that I have to worry about wearing out bearings prematurely... So what is the best balance here? 1.25? 1.75? Anyone got a link to what they go from Summit? I can drive down there but looking online, not sure which ones I need.

Well, I just bought this one. If I am gonna go and spend a bunch more money, I would rather just take the truck to Vengeance Racing and have them custom tune it. I am overall happy with this tune, just curious if there are some even better settings, that's all...

I completed the airbox mod... Took a Dremel and cutting wheel and opened up the sheet metal so that it matches the new larger opening on the airbox inlet. Made sure it seals properly against the metal and only sucks air in from that fender area... Then I cleaned the MAF sensor just for good measure. Truck seems to run great, but if there are some better "performance" settings to try with the Flashpaq, I am open to hearing about them. Not concerned with fuel economy, just performance and fun. If I wanted better mileage I would have bought a Prius, not a big truck. haha If I go on a long trip and want to save a little on gas, there is an eco map in the Flashpaq that I can load before I go, and flip back to 91 performance when I get home... :-)

I like the wider stance, but when I did this on my last ATV, I started eating up wheel bearings and had to replace them twice a year. I didn't use spacers, I got new rims with 2" offset, and that put a lot of stress on the wheel bearings and caused premature wear... Is that a problem on these trucks?

So I have a 2018 Z71, 2.25" level kit in front and 3" lift blocks in the back to keep factory rake... Both lower air dams removed, 33" Ridgegrapplers mounted to stock wheels, metal skid plates, etc... For the performance end, straight pipe from the CATs back, resonator and exhaust flapper removed. Airaid MIT installed with a K&N air filter *very lightly oiled* so as not to mess with the MAF... in fact when I got the filter, I washed and cleaned it first, dried it and then lightly oiled it, as they shipped dripping wet and didn't want that in there. I also modded the airbox so that instead of breathing through that little snorkel that extends into the passenger side fender area, it now breathes via the whole side of that box being opened up. Still has the outer insert with the foam sealer on it, so it's not open to the engine compartment, but it does have the ability to draw in more air, easily... May even open up the metal in that inner fender a tad to make it more efficient, and then put better foam sealer so make sure no water can splash up in there... Anyway, my question is that when I flashed the 91 octane performance map to the truck, it made a very positive difference. I made sure it used all the "Superchips" defaults for things like shift points and shift torque, etc... Added 20% sensitivity to the throttle so I don't have to mash it to the floor to get it to react, etc... However, are there better settings to use on some of the things like torque or shifting? The settings are usually "stock", "SuperChips Values" and then other options that frankly I don't know what they mean and I don't want to just guess and do trial and error... Does anyone with a 17+ Silverado with the 5.3L and 6 speedy tranny(sorry, non-binary gender transmission) use the Flashpaq F5 and Performance map with settings better than the defaults that the tuner suggests?

Summit Racing. Drove down there today... I know I can return it, but it is just such a pain in the ass... 3 hour drive and half a tank of gas and a half day of my time... And this is but 1 of like 9 things this month that have gone the exact same way... New bike has issues, part delay, then dealer gets the part and sits on it for a week, only to then tell me they sold the business and the new owner doesn't want Aprilia and fired all their techs, so they don't have anyone to work on the bike and they are 3.5 hours away and the next closest dealer is 4 hours in the other direction... My pool heater died after a glitch with the gas company has me owing them $14k(not a typo) for 2 years where they were not billing us correctly... Dude, I could go on and on and on with disaster after disaster, you would think I am cursed...

No idea... all I know is I paid $386 with tax for the tuner, than another $40 for the unlock code, only to be told that the server that issues the unlock codes has been down since last weekend and they have no idea when it will be back up and I can get my code...

Today I drove an hour and a half each way down to Summit Racing to look at tuners... Went with the SuperChips Flashpaq F5 for my 2018 Z71, got it home, did the updates, paid another $40 to unlock the flashing ability for this truck only to find out that the server that generates their unlock codes, crashed last week, with no ETA on when it will be up. All the parts of the system are working except for 2017+ GM trucks. That part of the server is still down. So I have a $400+ paperweight until they get around to building a new server, I guess...