Crankcase vacuum line?

blackout51

Original poster
Member
Oct 18, 2012
157
I recently took my throttle body off And cleaned it, but while I was at it I felt inside the manifold and it was grimy and oily, I know the crankcase vacuum line sucks oil up and on my last car I installed a oil catch can on the line and am considering doing it for this one but I want to make sure I'm looking at the right line.
 

seanpooh

Member
Jan 24, 2012
461
The line that is the crankcase vent is the bigger of the two on the left hand side (if you have a CAI). The hose is attached directly to the valve cover. Can't miss it. I too was think of those catch cans but I need a new catalytic convertor first, add a external Donaldson fuel filter, tranny cooler... you can see I have a long list.

I did see a company in SummitRacing magazine this month that were selling it, it started with a M.

EDIT: Moroso was the company. 42draftdesigns looks to have a nice one too. I haven't seen anyone do it so who knows if it would really work.
 

AbsoluteZero

Member
Nov 21, 2011
211
Filtered air is supplied from the plenum to the valve cover through this tube shown as item 1:

Crackcase vapors exit though a calibrated orfice in the headgasket and are drawn into the intake manifold through the tube shown with the dotted arrow. This one is a little hard to see because of it's location under the intake.

I'd think a catch can would provide better function of separating oil vapors if installed in the line.
 

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blackout51

Original poster
Member
Oct 18, 2012
157
AbsoluteZero said:
Filtered air is supplied from the plenum to the valve cover through this tube shown as item 1:

Crackcase vapors exit though a calibrated orfice in the headgasket and are drawn into the intake manifold through the tube shown with the dotted arrow. This one is a little hard to see because of it's location under the intake.

I'd think a catch can would provide better function of separating oil vapors if installed in the line.

That's what I was thinking I just wasn't sure, and because of the short length of hose and low proximity on the side of the motor would cause higher amount of oil to be consumed. I got my catch can for my last car on eBay for like $20 and it worked just as good as a $150 one and I installed it in 30 min. I'll post pictures if/when I do it.
 

AbsoluteZero

Member
Nov 21, 2011
211
So far the couple times I've cleaned the Envoy's TB it was reasonably clean so I haven't done much "research" on installing a catch can. For reference I did save those two pictures I posted showing how the PCV system flowed.

My wife's SRX has the 3.6l V6. Excessive oil comsumption has plagued some of this engine family. So far at 55,000 miles her's is doing OK. However there's some schools of thought that point the finger to the PCV orfice and suggest drilling out one of the two holes with a 7/64" drill... which I've done. I don't know the orfice size on our I-6 but the SRX is fairly small. A neglected oil change could sludge up the engine and easily plug the orfice. Also I've seen photos of the 3.6l engine intake where the oil vapors are sucked in. Lots of burnt oil deposits which would be helped with a catch can. I like to make things using what's in the scrap box so I took an empty propane cylinder and made a catch can for her SRX. It's only been in service for a short time so I don't know how much oil vapors it will trap. Some of the reading I did suggested the $20 ebay units don't have internal baffles and aren't too effective. Truthfully I have no personal experience. I do know there's a big cost disperity from high to low.
 

blackout51

Original poster
Member
Oct 18, 2012
157
AbsoluteZero said:
So far the couple times I've cleaned the Envoy's TB it was reasonably clean so I haven't done much "research" on installing a catch can. For reference I did save those two pictures I posted showing how the PCV system flowed.

My wife's SRX has the 3.6l V6. Excessive oil comsumption has plagued some of this engine family. So far at 55,000 miles her's is doing OK. However there's some schools of thought that point the finger to the PCV orfice and suggest drilling out one of the two holes with a 7/64" drill... which I've done. I don't know the orfice size on our I-6 but the SRX is fairly small. A neglected oil change could sludge up the engine and easily plug the orfice. Also I've seen photos of the 3.6l engine intake where the oil vapors are sucked in. Lots of burnt oil deposits which would be helped with a catch can. I like to make things using what's in the scrap box so I took an empty propane cylinder and made a catch can for her SRX. It's only been in service for a short time so I don't know how much oil vapors it will trap. Some of the reading I did suggested the $20 ebay units don't have internal baffles and aren't too effective. Truthfully I have no personal experience. I do know there's a big cost disperity from high to low.

I mean my throttle body has never been as bad as some I have seen and I know you can't really clean the inside of the intake manifold so after 137,xxx it will be pretty messy but I just liked the added protection just incase. On my last car the eBay can didn't have baffles it was basically just an empty bottle but every 15,xxx I bet I dumped 1/4 of a quart of oil out of that thing which was way more then I expected.
 

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