Truck Bros, school me on the need for a catch can.

flyingfool · November 12, 2019

what's the vapor point of synthetic oil, and whats the temp of your oil? is the oil vapor gasifying and by-passing the catch can and condensing anyway in the manifold???

Research time!

TXGREEK · November 12, 2019

Best research would be two identical vehicles with exact specs, one with a can and one without and inspect at will. This is something NO ONE has been able to prove. As far as synthetic oil, depends on whether or not it’s conventional stock base or real 100% synthetic base stock. Good luck with dat research.

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Cowpie · November 13, 2019

13 hours ago, aseibel said:

think about it this way:

If catch cans worked so well and prevented all catastrophic failure of engines still under the powertrain warranty- wouldn't GM put the $200 part on the truck to begin with?

Since they (GM's bean counters) don't believe catch cans are needed to get the truck through the warranty period, then I'm fine without it.

Maybe adding one will increase your engine's life span from 200k to 300k. I doubt my frame will last that long anyway so it doesn't make me lose any sleep.

Yet another way to look at this is take a look at all the heavy diesel OEM engines. Cummin, Detroit, Mack/Volvo, Paccar, John Deere, Navistar and the list goes on all use PCV air / oil separators or "catch cans" on their engines right from the factory since day one of the EPA mandating closed crankcase systems on their diesels. I would contend that the auto / pickup OEM's are just playing on the cheap or are technologically illiterate in this regard. Probably just being cheap. But then, all they are concerned with is getting thru the warranty period and then the customer is on their own. The heavy diesel OEM's actually take their customers to heart and design their engines to go 4-5 times longer than the standard OEM warranty and know that if they don't deliver such reliability, they are out of business.

I trust more the folks who make engines that cost more than the average pickup truck that they think a air / oil separator unit is called for on a modern closed crankcase engine. You of course can trust the little vehicle OEM bean counters if you choose to.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Cowpie

KARNUT · November 13, 2019

Heavy duty diesels run at high loads about 95 percent more than the average vehicle. Probably why they use those. Most people don’t keep their vehicles long enough for it to matter. Add to that, most people don’t check their oil, empty a catch can? Most people live in pristine subdivisions where are they going throw the waste? In a can at the curb next to two- three others? On the lawn, down the drain? All this was probably taken in account and figured 90 percent of people wouldn’t notice any drop in performance. If there’s any.

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aseibel · November 13, 2019

9 hours ago, Cowpie said:

Yet another way to look at this is take a look at all the heavy diesel OEM engines. Cummin, Detroit, Mack/Volvo, Paccar, John Deere, Navistar and the list goes on all use PCV air / oil separators or "catch cans" on their engines right from the factory since day one of the EPA mandating closed crankcase systems on their diesels. I would contend that the auto / pickup OEM's are just playing on the cheap or are technologically illiterate in this regard. Probably just being cheap. But then, all they are concerned with is getting thru the warranty period and then the customer is on their own. The heavy diesel OEM's actually take their customers to heart and design their engines to go 4-5 times longer than the standard OEM warranty and know that if they don't deliver such reliability, they are out of business.

I trust more the folks who make engines that cost more than the average pickup truck that they think a air / oil separator unit is called for on a modern closed crankcase engine. You of course can trust the little vehicle OEM bean counters if you choose to.

Everything you said is true. I said nothing about trusting bean counters, only that there are people with more data than I have who have determined it's not worth it for them to install a catch can.

Unfortunately in this "throw away" society, no auto maker cares about making their engine last 4-5 times longer than the warranty period since the majority of customers sell the vehicle or wreck it well before then. All they care about is "being cheap" to save a few bucks to throw in the pension fund.

Like any other mod, if you want one on your truck, have at it.

Stex · November 13, 2019

Oil soaked Piston rings on my 09 at 50,000. CC on now but too late. Has GM improved on this? I don't trust them on that or AFM/DFM. GM runs a CC set up on the Camaro now. Up to each GM owner but I would run one on anything GM or other makes....

greco2003 · November 13, 2019

Catch can I’ll pass on that I can understand why they use them on a high end sports car. I talked with a mechanic that’s next door to where I work been in business 30 years said if the engineers thought or said it needed one it would have one FWIW.

SkiDooNick700 · November 14, 2019

17 hours ago, greco2003 said:

Catch can I’ll pass on that I can understand why they use them on a high end sports car. I talked with a mechanic that’s next door to where I work been in business 30 years said if the engineers thought or said it needed one it would have one FWIW.

Or.... people who buy a high end sports car are enthusiasts to begin with (or a rich YouTube kid who destroys it to make money) and are much more likey to be "involved" in the maintenance of their car.

Secondly, for the average vehicle, the average person buys it and will not be looking under the hood, potentially NEVER. Putting a catch can on these vehicles would be a disaster for the OEM as they'd just fill up and who knows what would happen next. Instead, the OEM says "Hey, every 15,000 miles you need to run this BG Top End cleaner in order to maintain a cleaner and efficient engine". I asked the foreman at my dealership before I bought my truck about catch cans. He said "No, don't use those. Instead, we recommend you get our cleaning service every 15,000 miles to prevent buildup".

Clearly, something is needed. Now what that is, well like others have said, let's see an engine with higher mileage, say 75k:

one with no catch can, no cleaning service ever
one with catch can, no cleaning service ever
one with catch can and had cleaning service every 15k

That is how we will know. Til then, we can just keep saying what we think

Edited November 14, 2019 by SkiDooNick700

Flatblack83 · November 14, 2019

Im by far no big mechanic and I hope I explain this correctly. Not sure if this will help anyone, on my 03 silverado I put a catch can on the 6.0 since it had oil always pulled thru and pushed into the intake. After 50k it seemed to get worse but use no oil. This solved that totally. But you would of never know that unless you looked. If the new trucks Pcv works like the older ls style then it "may"be needed after say 50k. The can collects moisture, oil etc.. worked good for me. Took a few oil changes to see enough to dump out.

Now tho it has a 408 stroker with a magnuson 2300. At 12 psi it has oil blown around like a tornado and needed a catchcan really bad. I put a mighty mouse 800hp setup on it and it works flawlessly.

Cowpie · November 15, 2019

12 hours ago, SkiDooNick700 said:

Or.... people who buy a high end sports car are enthusiasts to begin with (or a rich YouTube kid who destroys it to make money) and are much more likey to be "involved" in the maintenance of their car.

Secondly, for the average vehicle, the average person buys it and will not be looking under the hood, potentially NEVER. Putting a catch can on these vehicles would be a disaster for the OEM as they'd just fill up and who knows what would happen next. Instead, the OEM says "Hey, every 15,000 miles you need to run this BG Top End cleaner in order to maintain a cleaner and efficient engine". I asked the foreman at my dealership before I bought my truck about catch cans. He said "No, don't use those. Instead, we recommend you get our cleaning service every 15,000 miles to prevent buildup".

Clearly, something is needed. Now what that is, well like others have said, let's see an engine with higher mileage, say 75k:

one with no catch can, no cleaning service ever

one with catch can, no cleaning service ever

one with catch can and had cleaning service every 15k

That is how we will know. Til then, we can just keep saying what we think

Of course he wants you to buy the top end cleaning service that costs as much each time as a can costs one time and I use a can of CRC intake cleaner at each oil change for $12.

TXGREEK · November 15, 2019

I like Grumpys idea, Techron Fuel System cleaner, seems to be easier on the environment too.

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RaisedByWolves · November 16, 2019

Techron?

Do you rinse out the CC with it? Otherwise I fail to see how this would help at all.

I Decided to go with an RXP dual can setup as it looks much more advanced than most other systems out there.

TXGREEK · November 17, 2019

Or.... people who buy a high end sports car are enthusiasts to begin with (or a rich YouTube kid who destroys it to make money) and are much more likey to be "involved" in the maintenance of their car.

Secondly, for the average vehicle, the average person buys it and will not be looking under the hood, potentially NEVER. Putting a catch can on these vehicles would be a disaster for the OEM as they'd just fill up and who knows what would happen next. Instead, the OEM says "Hey, every 15,000 miles you need to run this BG Top End cleaner in order to maintain a cleaner and efficient engine". I asked the foreman at my dealership before I bought my truck about catch cans. He said "No, don't use those. Instead, we recommend you get our cleaning service every 15,000 miles to prevent buildup".

Clearly, something is needed. Now what that is, well like others have said, let's see an engine with higher mileage, say 75k:

one with no catch can, no cleaning service ever

one with catch can, no cleaning service ever

one with catch can and had cleaning service every 15k

That is how we will know. Til then, we can just keep saying what we think [emoji846]

That’s never going to happen. Instead, the bickering begins lol

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TXGREEK · November 17, 2019

Techron?

Do you rinse out the CC with it? Otherwise I fail to see how this would help at all.

I Decided to go with an RXP dual can setup as it looks much more advanced than most other systems out there.

How many miles do you have on your vehicle now?

Sent from Above