rev up your engines, today I'm gonna talk
about something that you should put on
certain modern engines if you want them
to last a long time and run correctly
and that's an oil catch can I'll give
you a little history lesson to show you
why some modern cars should have them
put on if you don't want carbon buildup
on the intake valves now all internal
combustion engines build up pressure
inside the crankcase because as the
Pistons go up and down they're pushing
a lot of air up and down there's a
little blow-by of burning oil and gas
pressure, so pressure builds up inside
the crankcase of all engines and if that
pressure isn't released, it would build
up inside the crankcase it would blow
the seals, do damage to the engine of
course then all the oil would leak out
so it has to be vented somehow, now when
I was a young mechanic in the 1960s the
older cars just had a vent it was just a
hose that came up went behind the bottom
of the engine and when you're driving
down a road that vapor was just vented
and you'd see on older cars smoke coming
out of it, it just went straight to the
atmosphere, then later on they put a
little hose on the top and then they'd
run that to the beginning of the air
filter and there was a tiny little air
filter inside there that would filter
the big chunks out then the engine would
suck that in and burn it inside but that in
itself created problems and polluted
more so we have the modern PCV system
there's a PCV valve that vents it goes
into the intake and then this stuff is
burnt inside the engine, now on a car
with normal fuel injectors like this
Toyota where the injectors are on the
intake manifold and they spray gas
directly into the intake valves, now it's
a simple PCV system and the fuel
injectors on the intake it didn't cause
any problems because any of that crud if
it got on the valves the fuel injectors
are spraying gas then it goes right over
the valves into the engine and gasoline
is a very good solvent, so it kept the
valves clean and you don't have to worry about
them carboning up but then came the
GDI gasoline engines gasoline direct
injection, many companies made them
Volkswagen did it a whole bunch in theirs
and what they found out was the
Volkswagens with the GDI systems were
getting huge buildup of crud carbon on
the intake valves, since on these GDI
engines the injectors weren't here on
the intake, they're actually built right
into the block of the engine, then there
was no clean gasoline spraying on the
intake valves to keep them clean the
only thing that was going over those
valves was air being sucked in and the
mess from the PCV that was venting the
crank system, oil particles some carbon
particles, it would make a mess so all that
crud from the PCV system would bake onto
the valves and I've seen Volkswagens
they had to pull the heads off and they
had actually walnut blast all the
build-up crud cuz it was so thick and so
hard, you can't sandblast it cuz that
would ruin the valves, walnuts are softer
so they use walnut shells and they would
blast it off which is a very expensive
job to do, now some cleaners can get
thinner bits off but even there are a
lot of manufacturers warn people don't
use those cleaners because if it breaks
a chunk off and it's turbocharged that
could ruin a turbocharger, it could clog
up the catalytic converter, it could do all
kinds of damage so you want to prevent
that kind of buildup in the first place
and that's where the oil catch-can comes in
it does what it says, it catches the oil
and impurities before they get into the
engine, now this being a Toyota even
though it's got 240,000 miles on it, it
doesn't need one of these but here's
what you do if you wanted to put one on, you
simply remove the PCV hose and put this
in place, you put the in here and you put the out here on
the engine which would suck it in, the good ones like
these say in and out, and this one's so
cool it's got a little dipstick it's got
an oil dipstick in it, so you can measure it and
when it's getting full then you drain
this out, yeah this device is for people
who maintain their cars correctly
because you do have to empty it out
every once in a while, now these catch
cans you really would want to put them
on a GDI engine at least the older style
ones and you can also use them on old
junky engines that use a lot
have a lot of blow-by because this would
hold the oil, it would keep it from
getting any engine and messing with the
valves and also clogging up the
catalytic converter, now on a really
modern GDI engine you don't need an oil catch
can, you take a 2018 Toyota Corolla
those have a dual system, they have GDI
injectors that are built right onto the
block but they also have regular fuel
injectors that are in front of the
valves, so some of the times it sprays
them in front of the valves to clean the
valve so they don't carbon up but when
it's running most of the time it uses
the GDI injectors to get more power and
better gas mileage, many other
manufacturers have that new system the
dual system because they learned from
their mistake, you'd think that somebody
would have thought in the first place
hey gee if we use GDI the PCV valve will
put gunk and clog up all the intake
valves, but I guess they didn't test it
out good enough or they weren't thinking
ahead of time, because the newer ones you
don't need to put a catch can on cuz
they don't have that problem but there
are millions of cars out there with GDI
engines that don't have it, they have
just the GDI injectors and you really
need to put an oil catch can on them if
you don't want the valves to get carboned
up and as you can see from this video
it's a real easy thing to do, it's got a
mounting bracket you can put it wherever
you want, the hoses are pretty long so
you can put them on a firewall wherever
you want, just make sure you get a
quality one that does have baffles and
filtration inside, because if it doesn't
have baffles and it'll still suck the
oil in, you want something that's going
to keep the oil from coming up and
staying on a bottom and then every once
in a while like this one, you check it
when it's getting full you have to empty
the thing out, so now you know all about
oil catch cans, how you should use them
on the old-style GDI engines or if you
got a really old junker car, put one on
there they don't cost that much and they
can prevent a lot of damage down the
line,
so if you never want to miss another one
of my new car repair videos, remember to
ring that Bell!