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Old 04-01-2014, 12:36 PM   #5 (permalink)
spacemanspif
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Dirty Jersey
Posts: 748

The New Focus - '07 Ford Focus ZX5
90 day: 32.44 mpg (US)
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Is that your video?? There are MUCH better cans on the market. I bought the one in the video and it was junk. Just a hollow can with the intake and exhaust right next to each other...and those shark fittings for the sight glass leaked like crazy.

For an affordable version look at air/oil separators in the air compressor aisle of your local hardware store. They will need some modification to the drain valve because they are made to work on pressure but will come out total to around $30. I currently have my eye on the Craftsman one at sears because the drain isn't pressure/vacuum operated. Thinking of making my own as a welding project though.

Both my cars have cans on them. The Monte has a RXperformance can I got second hand and the Saturn is running a Harbor Freight air/oil separator. The brown stuff is oil/water mix, its normal to see that during cooler temperatures. I put the oil back in the Saturn if it is not brown and frothy but if its mostly water it goes in the waste oil jug.

All cars can benefit from a good catch can, stock baffle systems don't work well enough and as a result, oil coats the inside of the intake manifold; including the intake valve. The valve tends to be cleaned by the spray of the injectors but the oil just builds up and cokes on to the intake. I often wonder how much better a car would perform if it had a catch can on from day 1 compared to one that didn't.

If you like to spend money some good (buy pricey) catch can brands I've looked into are Saiku Mitchi, Mike Norris, RXperformance and the new Mishimoto design. An open can will work quite well because most of the separation happens when the air coming in slows down inside of the larger volume of the can. Just make sure that your in/out ports are not right next to or directly across from each other; those methods tend to encourage the air coming into the can to be sucked right back out with little separation of oil vapor.

If you are collecting that much oil you need to find the cause, and let the collected oil sit in a glass jar for days/weeks to allow the water and oil to separate so you know what your water/oil ratio is. I get a lot of brown stuff in the winter but in summer time is all just black oil.
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-Mike

2007 Ford Focus ZX5 - 91k - SGII, pending upper and lower grill bocks - auto trans
1987 Monte Carlo SS - 5.3/4L80E swap - 13.67 @ 106
2007 Ford Focus Estate - 230k - 33mpg - Retired 4/2018
1995 Saturn SL2 - 256K miles - 44mpg - Retired 9/2014

Cost to Operate Spreadsheet for "The New Focus"

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