Catch can, worth it?

[2015-MUSTANG]

I hope I'm not being redundant. I've been reading on the importance of adding a catch can for engine longevity. Now I don't like to waste money so my question is, How necessary is the catch can in protecting the car for the first 5 years of its life? I plan on having my car for about 4-5 years max. Is installing a catch can going to protect my engine and get me to 5 years trouble free or 10 years trouble free from the damage of not having a catch can. I don't need to invest in protecting my car for its life just the next couple years.

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[ThirtyThreePointThree]

Can't say definitively yes or no as every car could be a little different.

I will say that I just installed mine last night at 26k miles and based on what I saw in my intake heads and my valves, wish I had done it sooner. Definitely had a noticeable amount of oil buildup. Another 3 years of this, who knows lol.

 

[Glenn G]

Absolutely especially on turbo cars and even more important on direct injected cars. Since the Ecoboost is both I can't express how important it is. I had mine on since month 1 and the amount it catches every month when I empty it makes me wish I had done it on day one.

 

[john_688]

If it's so essential & important for turbos & GDI's , why don't manufacturers include it as standard equipment . Not wanting to take sides one way or the other , but this is a question that I have always been asking myself .

 

[jbailer]

I would say definitely yes for the EB. It collects more oil than I thought it would. This is the first turbo car I've had, always superchargers before this.

 

[Glenn G]

If it's so essential & important for turbos & GDI's , why don't manufacturers include it as standard equipment . Not wanting to take sides one way or the other , but this is a question that I have always been asking myself .

EPA and generally stupid people is why. Burning the oil is better than what some people would do with such a small amount, like dump it down the drain or something. Second and most importantly is some idiot would never check it. The can would get over full eventually and cause large blobs of liquid water and oil to get ingested, which could have disastrous consequences for the engine. Because the amount of blowby is dependant on so many factors, there is no way to determine what a good service interval is. I check mine once a month or every 1000kms. I personally know people who have no idea how to check the oil on their car. One lady I work with didn't know how to open her hood and she's owned the car for 2 &1/2 years.

The short version is that burning the oil causes less problems when you neglect maintenance than having a catch can. But since we are all enthusiasts here, who generally change our oil early, and take extraordinary care of our cars while subjecting them to more rigourus use will benefit from the additional maintenance.

 

[HappySquirrel]

If it's so essential & important for turbos & GDI's , why don't manufacturers include it as standard equipment . Not wanting to take sides one way or the other , but this is a question that I have always been asking myself .

Apparently the new camaro has some type of catch can that drains back to the oil pan on the LS V8. Also, someone on their forum said something about audi/vw having some kind of factory catch can setup on some models.

But I would guess most manufacturers aren't including them because they think people won't empty them or will bemoan having to do one more thing they're not used to. And they're probably right. I know someone who bricked the engine on her leased scion tC because she never changed the oil.

 

[Buhbuhj]

I actually just had my intake manifold off to put in the tsb pcv and it was pretty clean. I've been running the upr can off the pcv since I got the car and I like to think it's doing its job since I've emptied it 3 times and gotten quite a bit of oil out of it.

 

[Lost]

I would LOVE to see the intake plumbing of an engine that ran the can for 100K miles, vs another intake with the same miles and no can.
The idea that it lowers octane or whatever to me does not fly, it is so little oil spread over so many gallons of gas, that it is negligible. That leaves cosmetics of the internals, which again, I would like to see direct and valid A/B comparisons.
This topic comes up frequently across the internet, and reminds me of speaker wires in high end audio set ups. Some folks will spend 10K on a set of two meter speaker wires, and SWEAR they can hear differences, and yet when push comes to shove in an A/B set up, could not distinguish between theirs and 12 gauge speaker wire from Home Depot.
So does anyone have pics of their intake after 100K miles running the can and others not?

 

[HappySquirrel]

I'd ba amazed if anyone has intake pics of an EB mustang with 100k on 6g. Perhaps we could find something on the Fiesta /Focus ST forums?

 

[Lost]

I'd ba amazed if anyone has intake pics of an EB mustang with 100k on 6g. Perhaps we could find something on the Fiesta /Focus ST forums?

Yeah, anything! Side by side!

 

[Spoolin]

I haven't gotten one and after a year my car is great. personally I think it's more of a marketing gimmick. At the same time it can't hurt though.

 

[chriseco]

to answer the question by just me guessing with common sense i say it matters more on miles then years u figure our warranty is only for 60k so u know it should last about up till then Because the design these motors to last at least that long with out problems

 

[PRG3k]

When I read some of the replies in here its no wonder this subsection has ground to a halt and many of the seasoned guys with tunes/mods have migrated to facebook groups instead. Its easy to see how some boneheads blow these cars up.

Do you guys not read and see how much oil ppl are draining from these things? I can take a picture to show the ounce or two that mine has in it right now from 500 miles. Don't care if you buy one or not but some things are not really up for debate anymore and the redundancy is getting innocuous.

Plenty of long range comparisons to be had on the Mazdaspeed3 forums (with pictures). Same gene pool as this motor.

Original poster, for 4-5 years you can survive fine without a catch can. I just wouldn't want to be the owner for the next 5 years. If you are tuned, I would consider one now

 

[Glenn G]

I would LOVE to see the intake plumbing of an engine that ran the can for 100K miles, vs another intake with the same miles and no can.
The idea that it lowers octane or whatever to me does not fly, it is so little oil spread over so many gallons of gas, that it is negligible. That leaves cosmetics of the internals, which again, I would like to see direct and valid A/B comparisons.
This topic comes up frequently across the internet, and reminds me of speaker wires in high end audio set ups. Some folks will spend 10K on a set of two meter speaker wires, and SWEAR they can hear differences, and yet when push comes to shove in an A/B set up, could not distinguish between theirs and 12 gauge speaker wire from Home Depot.
So does anyone have pics of their intake after 100K miles running the can and others not?

I'm currently at 14k miles but if i ever do remove the IM I'll get some pics, the intake runners would be the thing i'm most interested in,

Look at this 2.0 escape
[ame]

I've owned lots of turbo engines in my life and have pulled intake manifolds on cans with and without catch cans and the catch can cars were noticeably cleaner. This is my first DI car and it has more blow by than just about any other engine I have ever owned.

But don't take my word for it, my own personal experience with FI cars not withstanding just check out this from BMW

http://blog.modbargains.com/get-nuts-feed-bmw-n55-walnuts-get-clean-tune/

Even a healthy N54 will have quite a bit of oil blow-by in the intake system if you do not have an Oil Catch Can system fitted, which can cause a significant amount of carbon gunk buildup inside your intake runners.

Pictures from forum members including myself
http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40740&highlight=mishimoto+catch

Yes there will be engines that will never have a problem after 100,000 miles with no can. there will be plenty more getting an expensive (>$400)port cleaning job every 30-50k miles, then there will be those of us with $135 catch cans who may need a clean at >100k miles.

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