How many mile before occ

[Fourm1]

How many miles have you guys had on your cars before installing a oil catch can. Just curious how long others ran their cars before putting one on.

 

[rexdriver85]

I ended up getting one on at 14k.

I wanted to wait until the ones in development were all finished at the time.

There were so many threads and discussions on them during a few month period I couldn't make up my mind. But eventually I went with the Damond OCC and I couldn't of been happier with it. [emoji106]

 

[wrongwheeldrive]

I haven't installed one yet, but I did recently put an aftermarket IC in my car at 30K miles. There was a good amount of oil in the IC piping. After researching it looks pretty normal and I can't see how any of that oil could make it to the intake... I would like to see someone's valves at 30K miles though...

 

[OffTheWall503]

Installed mine at the 400 mile mark. Mishimoto OCC with v2 bracket and red hoses.

 

[dyn085]

25k miles this week and not even remotely considering installing one.

 

[Chuckable]

About 12k miles because I was watching Mishimoto's development before purchasing. I've only done a basic-level read of articles and forum posts about catch cans, but I can tell you that they really do collect some oil. I checked my catch can after about 3k miles and had a few teaspoons of oil. Not much at all, but I'd rather have it in the catch can than in the intake side of the engine.

 

[Deli]

25k miles this week and not even remotely considering installing one.

May I ask why? I'm currently at 2k miles and am considering getting one just as a precaution, but it would be good to hear people who don't think their worth it.

 

[Dib]

I got mine around 4k I think. better safe than sorry I think especially with these DIs

 

[Fourm1]

I'm curious of this as well

 

[dyn085]

May I ask why? I'm currently at 2k miles and am considering getting one just as a precaution, but it would be good to hear people who don't think their worth it.

I'll try to keep this relatively short, this discussion tends to go south pretty quickly.

First off, there's already an air/oil separator installed straight from Ford-

The majority of what you see people post from their catch-can would either be burnt off once the engine was up to operating temperatures or would drain back into the oil system if it couldn't be burnt off (aka: non-vaporized oil). The vaporized oil that wouldn't drain back into the system can't be caught by catch-cans anyways and is exactly what causes the buildup. We also currently have no issue with fuel dilution, as evidenced by the few UOA's that have been collected by members in this community, so that is not a reason to drive an OCC install either.

There are lots of same-engine comparisons in other DI communities with significantly more mileage to back them (not just 10-15k), and everything that I've read from members that didn't appear to be trying to resolve their cognitive dissonance has always shown basically identical buildup both with and without an OCC. And these are communities that have significantly more buildup than we have seen, the kind that causes a 10% or greater loss in measured whp over the course of only 30k miles. I know of FoST's that have well over 100k already and there are no complaints of power loss, though admittedly 'no complaints' can't exactly replace legitimate data. Ford spent a lot of time trying to get the right amount of valve overlap to help keep buildup from being crazy, and from the engine pictures that I've seen from both ST communities in comparison to other DI communities it seems like they've helped mitigate it quite a bit by comparison.

There are only two types of people that I would ever consider recommending an OCC to- a) those that don't ever have the ability to drive their car for 30 minutes a week in order to get the car up to operating temperatures long enough to build up the crap that gets into every cars oil (due to short trips), and b) those that are trying to get every possible octane point in order to make the maximum amount of power for racing. Actual legitimate racing, not I-5 Mexico racing. Outside of that, all I ever recommend to people is-

-Research and learn about DI.
-Use a quality low-NOACK oil. If possible, send off to Blackstone Labs for a UOA to establish a reasonable OCI so that you're not throwing away good oil and are getting some actual use out of it once the cleaning agents have worn off.
-Use a top-tier fuel.
-Use a fuel system cleaner at whatever interval you feel comfortable, I do one every 10k one tank before an oil change. This isn't for buildup, it's for the carbon that will clog your injectors
-Get your car up to operating temperatures once a week for 30 minutes
-Use your car. Not necessarily abuse, but run it through the gears and get everything hot occasionally. European vehicles tend to last a bit longer than US vehicles and a large portion of that is due to having the ability to open it up on the autobahn and melt away the bad. Italian tune-ups came to exist for a reason, and they help.
-Anticipate a manual cleaning in the future. Not tomorrow or next week, but if you keep the platform you will need a cleaning eventually. Accept that or trade the car at your earliest convenience.

Clearly brevity is not one of my stronger traits.

 

[Rocket]

Ahh, brevity is only needed with inchoherant rambling ,, that was a interesting read , my take away is I need to drive my car more. I'm under 30 min a week bought in July 2015 new , now 564 miles ??????

 

[Fourm1]

If that holds true I guess it's good for me to have just got one. I only really drive short distances to work or here and there.

 

[Deli]

[MENTION=930]dyn085[/MENTION] Very interesting information. Thank you for the very clear explanation. This is actually one of the reasons I was considering one. My commute is only 12 miles to work, but can take anywhere from 25-45 min depending on traffic. Even on the weekends when I go for a drive, there is sometimes the possibility that I hit traffic and can't really open it up and properly row threw the gears and the rev range. My other car is a Jetta GLI with the FSI engine which is known for carbon buildup and I don't have a catch can on that. Guess I need to do a bit more research before dropping $200.

 

[FatGuyInALittleCar]

I agree with everything dyn085 wrote. And then I go empty the crap out of my catch can, thankful I didn't burn it through my engine. Po-Tay-Toe PO-Tah-Toe.

 

[dyn085]

I agree with everything dyn085 wrote. And then I go empty the crap out of my catch can, thankful I didn't burn it through my engine. Po-Tay-Toe PO-Tah-Toe.

LOL, it doesn't actually burn 'through' the engine, it evaporates or gets burned off as the oil comes up to temperature. Even if we assume that every drop does go into the combustion chamber, think about how many combustion cycles have actually occurred during that amount of time-some people have shown only a couple of ounces over thousands of miles...it's less than miniscule in that sense.

Pro-tip: Those that install OCC's whom drive short trips and live in freezing climates, stay diligent on emptying your can. If your can fills and freezes (winter accrual typically has more water from the condensation) there will be no path for your crankcase to vent and you'll find out why that's a problem when you're blowing smoke and burning oil. You might get lucky and just blow out your dipstick, but if not then that pressure can and will lead to seal failures.