The "Catch Can" Explained

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by BigRed585Lbs

My first oil change at 1708 miles and this is what my home-made catch can had caught:



I'm convinced that you MUST have one installed if you value your engine.

Seeing is believing.

[Desert Stealth]

Engine longevity is of less concern to me than daily performance. I purchase Shell 91 octane (or occasionally Chevron w/Techron), in part because of the superior cleaning additives. These cleaning agents, as I understand it, cannot get to the "dirty" side of the engine. In fact, GM has "upper induction cleaning" as part of its routine maintenance schedule, specifically to address carbon buildup.

I installed an APEX catch can in both my wife's 2013 2SS and my 2014 ZL1. The bottom of each can has oil every weekend (both are daily drivers). I have since backed off to checking every few weeks (just seemed to OCD to do it every weekend (lol)). In my opinion, it is better for me to dump that oil rather than allow it to collect somewhere else in our engines.

The cost, again in my opinion, is a minimal one time expense. What I hope to gain between top rated detergent gasolines and our catch cans is continued top performance from our cars on a daily basis.

Marcus

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by Desert Stealth

Engine longevity is of less concern to me than daily performance. I purchase Shell 91 octane (or occasionally Chevron w/Techron), in part because of the superior cleaning additives. These cleaning agents, as I understand it, cannot get to the "dirty" side of the engine. In fact, GM has "upper induction cleaning" as part of its routine maintenance schedule, specifically to address carbon buildup.

I installed an APEX catch can in both my wife's 2013 2SS and my 2014 ZL1. The bottom of each can has oil every weekend (both are daily drivers). I have since backed off to checking every few weeks (just seemed to OCD to do it every weekend (lol)). In my opinion, it is better for me to dump that oil rather than allow it to collect somewhere else in our engines.

The cost, again in my opinion, is a minimal one time expense. What I hope to gain between top rated detergent gasolines and our catch cans is continued top performance from our cars on a daily basis.

Marcus

Well put.

[songsj]

I've had my 2013 2LT/RS for almost 4 months now. Bought it with 4k on it. So many things I really like about the Gen 5's but I really have to weigh in on this catch can situation. I'm not here to debate the value of keeping your intake and valves as clean as is practical, however I have a few thoughts. First I find it really hard to believe if you have no catch can that all of that gunk is ending up sitting on your intake and valves. The car probably would not run if it was. I think a lot of that oil and moisture etc, is making it past the valves and being burned off in the combustion process. This is just my opinion and it still does not address the amount that does NOT make it past the intake and valves and DOES gunk things up. Again this is just my opinion but if a V6 is going to need an upper intake cleaning for 200.00 every 15k or so this is just a poorly designed engine and never should have gone to production. I'm sorry but there are a lot of other ways to make HP and torque. As far as making a catch can standard on the car, I suppose that would have been an option and I would prefer that to nothing at all but most of us agree that the average person would not pay attention to it, and your *****lube places would screw them up trying to empty them. Which brings me to another point. What is going to happen with all of these catch can modded cars that are traded in or sold to owners who won't even know they have one until it is giving them a problem? Gonna be some real happy campers there.
I don't know, to me I guess if DI is the way of the future they should be standard on the cars and over time people would become aware of them and service them regularly. Otherwise they should have gone with a different design. It's great that there are aftermarket companies that have addressed the issue but I still believe installs are on a relatively small amount of the V6's produced. Which means if this truly is a problem there is going to be an awful lot of screwed up poorly running v6"s in a few years. Possibly enough for the car to develop a bad reputation hurting resale value. I am not having any problems yet at 8k but I can honestly say as much as I like this car had I done more research and seen all of the horror pictures I have seen since my purchase I would have bought something else. I'm 58 and I don't think it's too much to ask to purchase a performance car stock that doesn't need an aftermarket modification to keep it running within specs from the time it is new. This may just be another one of GM's design flaws that never should have gone to production. Thoughts, looking for a civil discussion.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by songsj

I've had my 2013 2LT/RS for almost 4 months now. Bought it with 4k on it. So many things I really like about the Gen 5's but I really have to weigh in on this catch can situation. I'm not here to debate the value of keeping your intake and valves as clean as is practical, however I have a few thoughts. First I find it really hard to believe if you have no catch can that all of that gunk is ending up sitting on your intake and valves. The car probably would not run if it was. I think a lot of that oil and moisture etc, is making it past the valves and being burned off in the combustion process. This is just my opinion and it still does not address the amount that does NOT make it past the intake and valves and DOES gunk things up. Again this is just my opinion but if a V6 is going to need an upper intake cleaning for 200.00 every 15k or so this is just a poorly designed engine and never should have gone to production. I'm sorry but there are a lot of other ways to make HP and torque. As far as making a catch can standard on the car, I suppose that would have been an option and I would prefer that to nothing at all but most of us agree that the average person would not pay attention to it, and your *****lube places would screw them up trying to empty them. Which brings me to another point. What is going to happen with all of these catch can modded cars that are traded in or sold to owners who won't even know they have one until it is giving them a problem? Gonna be some real happy campers there.
I don't know, to me I guess if DI is the way of the future they should be standard on the cars and over time people would become aware of them and service them regularly. Otherwise they should have gone with a different design. It's great that there are aftermarket companies that have addressed the issue but I still believe installs are on a relatively small amount of the V6's produced. Which means if this truly is a problem there is going to be an awful lot of screwed up poorly running v6"s in a few years. Possibly enough for the car to develop a bad reputation hurting resale value. I am not having any problems yet at 8k but I can honestly say as much as I like this car had I done more research and seen all of the horror pictures I have seen since my purchase I would have bought something else. I'm 58 and I don't think it's too much to ask to purchase a performance car stock that doesn't need an aftermarket modification to keep it running within specs from the time it is new. This may just be another one of GM's design flaws that never should have gone to production. Thoughts, looking for a civil discussion.

The first thing I would want to make sure everyone understands is that this is not a GM design flaw. It is just the nature of internal combustion engines. All modern engines, regardless of manufacturer, suffer from blow by and some amount of carbon build up and have upper induction cleanings in their recommended services. Direct injection engines are just especially vulnerable, regardless of the manufacturer, because they do not have fuel flowing over the intake valves. The European manufacturers where the first to really start seeing issues because they were right up front on adopting direct injection technology. Now just about every new engine that comes out is direct injection including the new LT based V8s from GM because the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

At 8k miles you have nothing to worry about. If you were to go completely unprotected and did not do the recommended upper induction cleanings by 80k miles you could see serious issues. I know of 2 Camaro5 members that had to have top end rebuilds around that range due to carbon build up. Both are running our catch can now.

[songsj]

The first thing I would want to make sure everyone understands is that this is not a GM design flaw. It is just the nature of internal combustion engines. All modern engines, regardless of manufacturer, suffer from blow by and some amount of carbon build up and have upper induction cleanings in their recommended services. Direct injection engines are just especially vulnerable, regardless of the manufacturer, because they do not have fuel flowing over the intake valves. The European manufacturers where the first to really start seeing issues because they were right up front on adopting direct injection technology. Now just about every new engine that comes out is direct injection including the new LT based V8s from GM because the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

At 8k miles you have nothing to worry about. If you were to go completely unprotected and did not do the recommended upper induction cleanings by 80k miles you could see serious issues. I know of 2 Camaro5 members that had to have top end rebuilds around that range due to carbon build up. Both are running our catch can now.

If the catch can is that important it should have been standard equipment on the cars. My owners manual does not mention upper induction cleaning as regular maintenance. In fact I don't think they mention it at all. You are right cars have been blowing by since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Many of those engines went 200k plus miles with no upper induction cleaning because they were not DI. As I tried to state I am not debating the benefit of clean intakes and valves. I'm only questioning GM and other manufacturers decision to go with this design with out a standard catch can and maintenance schedule to accompany it. Seems reasonable if it is that important. If these horror stories are true there are going to be a lot of 2nd and 3rd owners of these cars in the future who will have problems that could/should have been avoided. Of course this is all just my opinion. And I'm sorry, if a buyer is expected to run out and buy an aftermarket modification to keep his new car running within specs, I call that a design problem or flaw.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by songsj

If the catch can is that important it should have been standard equipment on the cars. My owners manual does not mention upper induction cleaning as regular maintenance. In fact I don't think they mention it at all. You are right cars have been blowing by since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Many of those engines went 200k plus miles with no upper induction cleaning because they were not DI. As I tried to state I am not debating the benefit of clean intakes and valves. I'm only questioning GM and other manufacturers decision to go with this design with out a standard catch can and maintenance schedule to accompany it. Seems reasonable if it is that important. If these horror stories are true there are going to be a lot of 2nd and 3rd owners of these cars in the future who will have problems that could/should have been avoided. Of course this is all just my opinion. And I'm sorry, if a buyer is expected to run out and buy an aftermarket modification to keep his new car running within specs, I call that a design problem or flaw.

Fair enough.

[SSNvMiner]

Hey All...
Finally took delivery of our 2015 Camaro 2SS/RS yesterday ... Had windows tinted before we picked er up.. Total of 18 miles on her before I drove it off the delivery bay and loaded her up on a trailer for the 200mi ride home. I didn't want break it in without a catch can. So this morning I installed an Apex Catch Can that has been sitting on our dinning room table for a couple weeks Easy-peezy install... litterly a piece of cake. After a few pulls today up the only incline around... we're sittin at 87mi. Gonna do it again in the the morning. Then a CAI and CatBack exhaust in the near furture. Not too sure if I'm going with a Solo J-pipe or SW retro-chamber.

Thanks Apex... Great product.. the only bi--h was pushing the hoses on the can.. . . but then again... I didn't eat my Wheaties.
Take care all. . .

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by SSNvMiner

Hey All...
Finally took delivery of our 2015 Camaro 2SS/RS yesterday ... Had windows tinted before we picked er up.. Total of 18 miles on her before I drove it off the delivery bay and loaded her up on a trailer for the 200mi ride home. I didn't want break it in without a catch can. So this morning I installed an Apex Catch Can that has been sitting on our dinning room table for a couple weeks Easy-peezy install... litterly a piece of cake. After a few pulls today up the only incline around... we're sittin at 87mi. Gonna do it again in the the morning. Then a CAI and CatBack exhaust in the near furture. Not too sure if I'm going with a Solo J-pipe or SW retro-chamber.

Thanks Apex... Great product.. the only bi--h was pushing the hoses on the can.. . . but then again... I didn't eat my Wheaties.
Take care all. . .

Congrats on the new ride! Thank you for your order and the post.

[DP Valentino]

Originally Posted by MagnumForceGB

This is what my LLT Intake Manifold looked like after 500 miles from the last time I cleaned it when I didn't have a catch can. I have dual catch cans because I have a supercharger, but this oil was lowering my octane rating causing knock retard.

That's what my intake manifold looked like after my Elite Engineering Catch Can. It does help! I also cleaned my intake manifold off after seeing that oil residue. So even with the Catch Can install. It does help to take off your Plenum Cover and cleaning off the oil residue every few thousands of miles. But without out the Catch Can you would need a SPONGE to clean off the oil residue instead of a shop towel!

[Apex Motorsports]

2013 ZL1 owner.

Originally Posted by StealthZL1

My catch-can was 3/4 full when I checked it today. I've put around 2,500 miles on it since the last time I emptied it. This crap would've been blown all through my intake manifold.

[Caswell239]

Hey apex, what kind (single port, dual port) or brand even would you suggest for me. I got an ls3 with a 2.9 whipple making around 11 psi, I have an rx single port can, I just drained it and hardly anything came out after 5k kms. But the inside of my blower and the intake pan of the blower are full of oil. Little pools of it.

[stealth_grey12]

alright, I'm sold after reading all of this...

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by Caswell239

Hey apex, what kind (single port, dual port) or brand even would you suggest for me. I got an ls3 with a 2.9 whipple making around 11 psi, I have an rx single port can, I just drained it and hardly anything came out after 5k kms. But the inside of my blower and the intake pan of the blower are full of oil. Little pools of it.

A single valve can is all you need for that application. You could always give the Apex catch can a go.