Catch Can Skeptic

[15 Z71]

Nope, I guess I'll take my chances. Just get oil changed at dealer and drive it. I guess only time will tell. Like I said,all my friends that have these trucks do the same. They all have  had no issues with them.

[Pearl2017]

...Its  like a guy chain smoking cigarettes every time he drives. He may or may not get  cancer but if he sucks those cigarettes thru a catch can the odds of him getting cancer from cigarettes will be a lot less. At the very least my engine wont have smokers cough  as it ages. ...You all can smoke them any way you like. :-)

[CSI-WALLEYE]

12 minutes ago, Pearl2017 said:

...Its  like a guy chain smoking cigarettes every time he drives. He may or may not get  cancer but if he sucks those cigarettes thru a catch can the odds of him getting cancer from cigarettes will be a lot less. At the very least my engine wont have smokers cough  as it ages. ...You all can smoke them any way you like. :-)

Not the best analogy.  Filtered cigarettes did not reduce risk of cancer.  You actually make the point for the skeptic side.  You could remove the filters and see the tar and conclude you were safe but you really should have been looking at cancer rates not amount of tar in the filter.

[TXGREEK]

Ah oh but no. There are documented issues of lines freezing in stock setups also. But wait how is it the lines are freezing if there is nothing in them to freeze.
I will say it is more them my professional option. Gm and gm race teams know this as well. This goes back to the ls1.
Can you do without sure. You can do alot of things. And pressure issue is pure bs. Yes these truck have a issue but it is based on more then just crankcase pressure. It is bad rear main seal and design and the oil amount. But that's another hot topic here much like this.
Go ahead ask me how I know.....

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

No, lol


Sent from above

[1SLOW1500]

No, lol


Sent from above

Explain. Please.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[CSI-WALLEYE]

13 minutes ago, CSI-WALLEYE said:

Not the best analogy.  Filtered cigarettes did not reduce risk of cancer.  You actually make the point for the skeptic side.  You could remove the filters and see the tar and conclude you were safe but you really should have been looking at cancer rates not amount of tar in the filter.

Sometimes real life is counter-intuitive.  It would make sense that filtered cigarettes would be safer but they were (are) not.  It would make sense that a catch can would reduce deposits but maybe they don't.  They could have the opposite effect.  That is why we use science to get answers.

[SS502]

1 hour ago, CSI-WALLEYE said:

Thanks Nick.  Are you doing anything special for maintenance?  I am through with my free oil changes and am switching to Amsoil and will clean the intake once a year.

What are you cleaning out of your intake and what procedure are you going to use if I may ask?

[CSI-WALLEYE]

1 minute ago, SS502 said:

What are you cleaning out of your intake and what procedure are you going to use if I may ask?

It is the process you use on an outboard.  You spray CRC or seafoam into the throttle body while the motor is running.  Then turn off the motor and let it soak.  Then  do some highway driving.  Just make sure you do not get any on the MAF.

 

 

 

[SS502]

21 minutes ago, CSI-WALLEYE said:

It is the process you use on an outboard.  You spray CRC or seafoam into the throttle body while the motor is running.  Then turn off the motor and let it soak.  Then  do some highway driving.  Just make sure you do not get any on the MAF.

 

 

 

So it cleans the baked on oil and deposits  off your intake and valves. My thinking is that if you’re going to be doing this every year a catch can probably wouldn’t be as beneficial to you. I’ve not ever used that stuff but have heard others swear by it. Best of luck to you and regardless of differing opinion, enjoy your truck.

Edited March 30, 2019 by SS502

[TXGREEK]

Explain. Please.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Ok ok how do you know?


Sent from above

[CSI-WALLEYE]

2 minutes ago, SS502 said:

So it cleans the baked on oil and deposits  off your intake and valves. My thinking is that if you’re going to be doing this every year a catch can probably wouldn’t be as beneficial to you. I’ve not ever used that stuff but have heard others sweat by it. Best of luck to you and regardless of differing opinion, enjoy your truck.

Hey Mark,  I like that we can disagree without being disagreeable.  My issue with the catch can is not a personal conviction.  I am simply pointing out that it has not been properly tested for its effect on valve deposits.  My reason for starting the post was to look for evidence I may not have been aware of.  I think that the fact that catch cans collect oil and gunk is encouraging but as in the cigarette filter analogy, it does serve as evidence of protection from deposits.  The fact that no evidence is available, when it would be quite easy to obtain (for a company) is very troubling.  The fact that many people are completely convinced is not at all persuasive.  I hope that catch cans actually are working and that everyone that uses one enjoys long and trouble free service from their vehicles.

[1SLOW1500]

Ok ok how do you know?


Sent from above

Seen and tested engines. Also know people at big 3 as engineers. Also much reading and testing on engines, granted they are more performance based but same issues are present.
Also many friends at big reliable shops and those shops have circle of friends that see,hear,work on and know what to do.
Some contracts I can mention but guarantee they are more then the authority on these matters. Some are the reason that engine is in you truck.
None of these people question for a moment the use of a catch can.
I will take pictures of my intake when it comes off. But I bet there is zero in there.
As far as the condensation this has some merit. As the billet can on the brake booster is close to the header and I believe that quick heat vs the cold air does add some water.
This topic is also difficult. Because not all cans and installs are the same.
Oh also I blew my rsm and spoke to the engineers and came up with a better part. This is when we talked about the l83/l86 oil level and crank pressure and the catch cans.
There are service bulletins and emails about these issues as well as posts on this forum.
My can does not flow into my intake under engine load. So explain how if it stops oil/water or not the debris gets there? It doesn't at that point i have a breather tank with filters.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[CSI-WALLEYE]

If anyone does find a study that does show that catch cans do prevent deposits please send me a message.  I am ready to install.

[Pearl2017]

3 hours ago, CSI-WALLEYE said:

Sometimes real life is counter-intuitive.  It would make sense that filtered cigarettes would be safer but they were (are) not.  It would make sense that a catch can would reduce deposits but maybe they don't.  They could have the opposite effect.  That is why we use science to get answers.

So you're saying that a cigarette filter that visibly traps tar does NOT reduce that amount of tar from getting into smokers lungs? To deny that a catch can reduces the amount of gunk that is fed to an engine denies reality. The smoking analogy was not meant to address how much gunk is good or bad but that sucking less into the engine is definitely the more desirable choice to keep your engine from getting smokers cough.

 

Like some others here that have actually seen deposits inside an engine ...it does occur and cannot really be denied. Back when dumping 104+ octane boost in gas was a thing.  I can tell you that stuff would coat the combustion chamber and valves with deposits you had to chisel or grind off. and that was a small bottle in a tank of gas. Engine oil with its additive packages is no different and burning it does not reduce it to nothingness.

 

At work I sit next cubicle to a ~68 yr old chain smoker. he looks like he is 100 but is still alive by some miracle and received his 45 years on the job award today. Some years ago I sat next to a pretty 28 yr old young lady with a young child that also smoked. A couple years later she was dead from lung cancer. So yes the amount of tar a smoker dumps in their lungs is not deciding variable getting cancer.

[CSI-WALLEYE]

4 hours ago, Pearl2017 said:

So you're saying that a cigarette filter that visibly traps tar does NOT reduce that amount of tar from getting into smokers lungs? To deny that a catch can reduces the amount of gunk that is fed to an engine denies reality. The smoking analogy was not meant to address how much gunk is good or bad but that sucking less into the engine is definitely the more desirable choice to keep your engine from getting smokers cough.

 

Like some others here that have actually seen deposits inside an engine ...it does occur and cannot really be denied. Back when dumping 104+ octane boost in gas was a thing.  I can tell you that stuff would coat the combustion chamber and valves with deposits you had to chisel or grind off. and that was a small bottle in a tank of gas. Engine oil with its additive packages is no different and burning it does not reduce it to nothingness.

 

At work I sit next cubicle to a ~68 yr old chain smoker. he looks like he is 100 but is still alive by some miracle and received his 45 years on the job award today. Some years ago I sat next to a pretty 28 yr old young lady with a young child that also smoked. A couple years later she was dead from lung cancer. So yes the amount of tar a smoker dumps in their lungs is not deciding variable getting cancer.

You seem to be frustrated.  If you feel that I was mocking you, i apologize.  It was not my intention.  Perhaps I did not make my point very well.  In the smoking analogy, filters on cigarettes do remove tar.  However an unintended consequence was that filters caused the tobacco to burn differently that actually caused the creation of even more carcinogenic compounds.  The filters also caused the smokers to draw harder on their cigarettes and smoke more.  The point to all this is that you can't really know what the effect of an alteration on an end point unless you actually measure that end point.  So with deposits on valves, you don't know what the effect of catch can is unless you measure the deposits.  You can have a suspicion but sometimes life can fool you.  Altering a relatively simple thing like a cigarette had an unintended consequence on the complex human body.  Maybe a simple catch can has an unintended consequence on a complex engine.