Crankcase breather discussion

[TDsamurai]

So ive spent the last hour or 2 researching what to do with my crankcase breather. I dont like oil in my intake and i have seen some mixed opinions of people saying it helps lube your valves and others saying it causes carbon build up on your valves and can gum up your turbo and intercooler aswell as substantially decreasing the lifespan of an engine.

First off i disagree with it lubing your valves yea it might help a bit but after the countless articles on the negative effects of a crankcase breather to intake it comes down to a point where the positive effects of eliminating this factory flaw outweighs the negatives.

Now i am sure many will bring up a CCV and being a friday night i already forgot what it stands for however i have retained what it does, it is simply a filter that seperates the blow by gases from the oil mist and drains the oil back to the crankcase.

And i do not want to hear anyone go off about changing your piston rings because all diesels and as far as im concerned all internal combustion engines have blow by, some more than others but they all have it.

So the cheap solution is simply get a long hose from my breather and dangle it under my engine so it doesnt drip all over everything, and the second cheapest is fab up a nice catch can (i work at a machine shop so a billet aluminum catch can would be cheap and easy). The third option would be a CCV but im too cheap to spend that kind of money on something else that has a service life.

So heres my scenario, i dont want a catch can because well its cheaper and easier to just drip on the ground. Secondly i don't really want to be dripping on the ground because i park in my nice clean garage most the time, but if needed its a sacrifice im willing to make.

One thing i haven't found any information on is routing it to my exhaust it seems it would be the happy medium. I understand that the flow of the exhaust might create a vaccum past the breather port and could suck out more oil than neccessary. And i understand that if i got soot in my breather that would be almost equivalent to pouring sand in my oil. I guess if this option would work it would take the catch cans place as second cheapest option.

The question is, would the exhaust cause enough vaccum? i find it doubtful. and is there any possibility of exhaust making its way through the breather? and if so could a check valve be installed to eliminate the possibility or would that restrict the breather too much and cause oil to come out my dipstick?

I appreciate everyones input.

[mystery3]

What engine? What's the matter with the stock oil separator? I have a catch can to set up but that's to clear some space.

[TDsamurai]

1.6TD If you pull the intake boot off the front of your turbo you will see whats wrong with it, and if i start running excessive amounts of boost it will become even more evident from my understanding. If you have a N/A engine i think its less of an issue because they tend have less blow by.

[GEE-BEE]

There is a company that air/oil seperators for aircraft

Some good info HERE:www.m-20turbos.com

GEE-BEE

[TDsamurai]

Could you please expand on that?

[monomer]

Could you please expand on that?

I'm guessing the hot gasses stream the oil to crud

[theman53]

you could do something like what the 1.5 and 1.9 engines had if I am thinking right. This is one *far right with 2 hoses comming off* from a 1.9 setup.


There is a fuel pump block off plate if it were a gasser is located beside the vacuum pump. You can take that off, tap it, put a barbed fitting in it, and T into your existing line to the intake. That way you can still protect your valve guides, but mostly it will fall back into the oil pan instead of the intake. These engines run too long to not have the oil going to the valves in my opinion, but I don't like spending money to redo valve guides etc.

[BlueMule]

TD, if you spend over a thousand dollars on a Giles modified pump, and have the injectors precision set, you really want to take the oil mist out of the equation, why? Because you have looked at your fueling and air volumes at certain boost levels and have had the fuel system set up to get to the correct Stoichiometric number for your diesel. Introducing oil mist alters this by adding another source of fuel, now how much this alters the a/f ratio, I don't know, but to me if you spend all this money to try to get the A/F ratio right, why introduce oil mist? If it is a factory rebuild, it really doesn't matter because you are not being so precise.

[vanbcguy]

The only cars with problems related to intakes getting gummed up that you really see are TDI cars with EGR, or possibly the very few IDI engines that had EGR (very late model AAZ).

A bit of oil mist in your turbo won't hurt anything, nor will it gum up your intake or your valves.  I don't think we've ever seen anyone on here tear down an old 1.6 and have evidence of buildup in the intake, intake ports, valves, etc.  There is some concern with runaway when your engine is really beat and has really, really bad blowby, but even that seems to have been largely fixed by the oil shield on top of the cam and the hockey-puck oil separator.

Dripping it on the ground is bad manners IMHO.  I suppose you could route it to the exhaust, but if buildup of stuff is what you're concerned about that sounds like a VERY good way to have problems - 800+ degree exhaust gasses will definitely cook oil mist.  Sounds like a recipe for a coked up tailpipe.

[theman53]

I would think that after shutdown the oil could still drip and possibly cause a fire in the heat soaked tail pipe. Longshot, but not impossible.

[arb]

I was in the same boat not long ago... I have a Dodge caravan I put a 1.6L NA 1984 in, turbo'ed it, and ran the 4 foot hose over the side after crossing most of the hood line in hopes that length being above the the engine would allow most of the mist to fall to the bottom of the 3/4" hose and drain back into the valve cover that did not have the nice factory baffle that runs the full length of the cover. I did not vent to the exhaust as this would have pressurized the crank case causing the dip stick to eject loads of oil. I did not put it post turbo for the same reason, I did not put it pre-turbo as it would certainly have pooled in my 2" intercooler loop.

Unfortunately, I vented 1 - 2 quarts a month onto the road and the entire bottom of my car. Good for continued rust protection, but quite a mess.

So, I welded an aluminum separator, not catch can. It self drains back into the engine and works great:



There are details on my build page on how it looks inside. . . .   WOW, I was going to provide a link, but I see I never posted the insides. Must have been having too much fun getting 40 + mpg in a 4,000 lb ride !  I'll have to post them after I finish fixing an unrelated oil leak (turbo drain line crack due to anti-torq engine mounts failure)

[Rabbit on Roids]

yes, exactly, a separator, not a catch can. thats what i built.

[arb]

yes, exactly, a separator, not a catch can. thats what i built.

Rather than posting my separator with my build, maybe I should start a separate thread on separator styles ?  :-D

[mystery3]

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that if you purposely "vent" motor oil onto the street I hope you die from liver cancer induced by pce groundwater contamination. These things leak enough oil as they are and we should be doing what we can to avoid spreading used motor oil around the planet.

[TDsamurai]

ow mystery i guess now is a good time for me to say i hope you die in general and quickly. a polite "thats bad for the environment" would suffice. I know i said i appreciate everyones input but i think that right there just earned you a big STFU.

now back to the subject at hand without cursing eachothers lives...

I find it hard to believe that the oil would not gum up atleast my intercooler wouldnt it? and if if i start introducing even more boost it would easily create vaccum causing it to consume even more oil wouldnt it?

And arb feel free to post up the design of your seperator and other types of seperators, obviously that is the best of both worlds but i do not want to spend much money on this because i still have to lift my samurai after i finish the engine, and i am starting to run out of money. And i guess i didnt mention that i am trying to do all of this within 3 months because i lost my license and i want it driving again when i get it back. So time and money are a factor.