Joseph Mainiero
New Member
- Joined
- January 31, 2020
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 5
- City, State
- LAKE WORTH
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2020 Explorer ST
These catch cans aren't all that useful, it's solving a problem that has been blown out of proportion. On the older supercharger applications, it made sense because of how the PCV system was designed allowing oil to cake up the intercoolers. But the stock EcoBoost V6 valve covers have a built-in oil separator at the PCV valve area and are very effective. When I ran a JLT on my SHO and Fusion Sport (2.7 is basically the same as the 3.0), all it caught was vapor/fumes - almost zero drops of engine oil. This stuff will burn/combust very easily and is piped directly into the intake manifold.
My girlfriend's Malibu 2.0 GTDI (LTG engine, basically same as EcoBoost) ingests like 2-3 qt of oil every 7500 miles and has over 93,000 miles. It holds boost just fine, no issues with intake valve crudding or intercooler problems.
All Ecoboost engines ingest a lot of oil as I own 5 different ecoboost vehicles and they all collect a 1-5 ounces of oil between oil changes. The catch can you are referring to that did not have oil in it is called a pull through catch can and two small ports side by side and generally it lets most of the oil right through it and continue through the PCV system. The system is not a good gauge for seeing how much oil gets sucked through your PCV system. I have numerous 2020 ST's that are already catching oil that would otherwise be in the intake. The ecoboost engine ingests a lot of oil and the problem is detonation and overall performance suffers. We deal with thousands of ecoboost owners and they all benefit from a correctly designed internal diffuser system made to coalesce oil and not just a through a simple body with an in and out.
Ford's built in oil separator is a joke and its no better than the actual plastic oil separators that Ford makes as I have tested them all. They all do a very sad job at controlling oil ingestion. The F150 suffer the most all the way up to the most current engines. Everyone reads that Ford improved their design and nothing ever changed as the problem is having an internal oil separator is no good because it stays too hot and it's in the actual vacuum chamber of the engine and the oil-vapor can never coalesce or drop out of suspension because of the excessive airspeed.
The reason for an external mount catch can is to allow the vapors and gases time to cool and the oil to fall out of suspension and then when it enters the catch can it must contain different chambers and coalescing filters in it to allow force the oil to separate. Also, the reason for a Dual Valve VS. a Single Valve Catch Can is so that when the engine goes into boost the intake cannot flood the crankcase with all the boost from thee turbo. The Dual Valve closes the primary vacuum at the intake and then opens the secondary vacuum source from the turbo inlet so the PCV system will still function at it's fullest potential.
I can assure you when using properly designed catch cans the benefits are well worth it from the crisp throttle response to increased mpg and pulling power. I'm not here to flame anyone and just share the facts from dealing with thousands of ecoboost and 5.0 engines everyday. (Most importantly any oil that enters the combustion chamber will burn easily. It's just at what expense? It will reduce your octane as oil cannot handle the same cylinder pressure as gasoline and will fire earlier causing detonation. What I mean by earlier is on the upstroke the piston will be able to compress gasoline much further before it fires and thus will make more power and all the oil is doing is firing early and ruining the cycle for the gas to fire as it will fire after the oil and that is what causes detonation.)
So all this is doing is giving away power and your vehicle will not run as clean and smooth as it should. (This goes for turbos, superchargers and even normally aspirated engines.)
Hope this helps, Joe