Excellent thread Chase!
What most dont understand is why we have a PCV system on the engine. Most think it is for emmissions only, and that is only part of it.
Every engine has a certain amount of blow-by, or pressure that gets past the rings during the combustion process. This is made up of a bunch of compounds and most are harmful to the engine ober time. The PCV system removes these while still in a suspended (gasseous) state. If these are not removed, when the engin is shut down and cools, these harmful compounds condense and settle into the engine oil and onto the internal parts and cause damage in the following ways:
Unburnt fuel: Thins the motor oil and reduces it's protective properties.
Water: Reduces the oils ability to protect and is corrosive to steel and cast parts.
Carbon particles: Carbon is extremely hard and abrasive, and even thought most of the particles are large enough to filter out by the oil filter, but the smaller particles are not and as they accumulate and circulate your increasing wear on the internal parts substantially.
Sulfuric Acid: This is formed by a combination of water and hydrocarbons from the combustion process and does no harm until the concentrations reach a certain PPM, then it begins to etch the bearing surfaces and crank & cam journals....engine builders that look closely at the bearings and journals on built engines w/out proper crankkcase evacuation see this as splothes, or "worm track" looking stains...this is actually damaging and eating into the case hardning of the journals as well as the softer bearing surfaces.
There are a bunch more compounds but this should paint the picture.
Proper crankcase evacuation needs a clean filtered make up air source entering one bank of an engine, traveling through pulled by the intake manifold vacuum or other source through the crankcase and flushing, evacuating these compounds out and into the intake air charge where most is passed through harmlessly and or burnt during the combustion process and further by the catalytic converters. What IS damaging and causes issues is the oil vapors/mist that is pulled out with these compounds and needs to be separated.
So deleting the PCV system, or just running breathers, etc. will releive the crankcase pressure from the blow-by....but unless your changing oil every few times the engine is run, the wear is accelerated substantially. This is probably the most misunderstood system on any engine today and even some of the best shops/techs dont have a grasp or understangin as this is not taught...it has to be learned and all aspects of it.
On our drag engines we use belt driven vacuum pumps (best solution period) to pull a constant vacuum that not only keeps the crankcase evacuated of these compounds, but we buid the engines with a low tension piston ring so it helps seal better resulting in more power as well. The problem w/belt driven systems is none will last more then 5-8k miles on the street before needing vanes/bearings/shafts replaced. The electric ones we have tried through the years dont last much longer, so adding a good functioning oil separating catchcan is the best street solution. Far to many put $10-$15-$20k plus into an engine build and dont address this part that is so inexpensive to install it makes me shake my head......but that amount of investment why not spend a few $ more for the peace of mind.
On ALL gasoline cars and light trucks today a good can is critical as most are direct injection and the fuel additives of top tier fuels have no effect (see top picture in thread) on keeping the intake valves deposit free as no fuel touches the valves vs a port injection engine that it passes the valve, but oil dosent burn well and you want zero in and combustion chamber as the oil reduces the amount of useable octaine and causes detonation and less energy released per explosive event.
Anyone can test there can for effectiveness for app $10 installing a clear glass inline fuel filter between a cans outlet and the intake manifold vacuum barb. See how quick the filter staturates w/oil.
The only ones worth installing IMHO are in this order of actual testing to measure pull through:
RX
Saikou Micchi
Elite & AMW tied
And from there the rest fall far short.....but dont trust my claims, try for yourself if you have a can you purchased because you recognize a big brand, or the claims of the vendor, etc. and you will be amazed. There are tons of versions on the market, but few actually do a good job and even a beer can w/2 fittings will catch as much as most cans sold for $50-$200. You cant judge by looks, you have to understand the processes that actually work.
