Review of the Corvettemods oil catch can

[MeanC6]

Background

I know the importance of cold air to the engine, but I think like many, I didn’t want to shell out $100+ on a catch can when I didn’t really have any kind of terrible oil issues. For those that don’t know, hot oil can be spit up from your engine into your intake manifold via your PCV hose. The hot oil will then cause the air going through the intake manifold to become warmer than what it would have been otherwise, thereby robbing you of power. Placing a catch can in place of the PCV hose will catch that hot oil and only allow the air to go through.

Some time back in June, I was checking out the forums and came across the post that Corvettemods made about their 40% off of everything sale so I immediately went to check out their site. I ended up buying the trunk assist doohickey for $12 after discount, the side vent screens which were $15 after discount, and the oil catch can for $36 after discount for my LS2. In fact I liked the price so much that I bought a second one for my LS1 that same day. I figured, this stuff was so cheap in price, why not try it. If this catch can can do the same thing as those others at a fraction of the cost, I want to try it out.

I got all my stuff fairly quickly and everything was packaged fairly well. The catch cans looked even nicer than the picture. No offence to Corvettmods, but that pic on the site is pretty crappy. Especially if you’re selling it to an LS2 crowd but show it on an LS1 engine. The setup is different on the LS1 and the LS2 so why not have two different pics. Same goes with the oil collection pic.

Description

This catch can is made of plastic with the exception of the hose fittings.

I had my reservations about a plastic catch can, but Corvettemods’ official response to me on that was that it should be able to withstand at least 300 degrees and that they haven’t had one warp yet, and that if it does for any reason, they will replace it. It’s 4” tall so it’s not very big.

It has an arrow on the top part on both side which is supposed to help with the installation. The catch can actually looks really nice, and it’s the only clear catch can I’ve seen so that you can tell when you have to clean it out. The filter looks to be paper and is not removable. I can't really claim to know what kind of material it is, but it looks like paper.

The kit comes with the catch can of course, an O ring that seals the catch can and the top portion, along with 2 feet of hose. It does NOT comes with hose claps.

Install

Install is pretty simple, but it wasn’t a 15 minute job as the site suggests. It took me about 30 minutes to install this, but not because it was hard. Mainly it was because the instructions were a little confusing and the Xeroxed pic in the instructions was hard to see so I couldn’t tell how to route the new line. Plus the pic with the final hose routing was a pic with the fuel rail covers in place so I really couldn’t see how it was routed.

I then tried going onto the forums to see if I could find a pic of an installed Corvettemods catch can and to my surprise, I didn’t any or a review. Maybe I didn’t search hard enough, but that prompted me to write one of my own.

So you begin by removing the passenger fuel rail cover and then remove the U shaped hose where the intake meets the throttle body. This is the hose that goes into the intake manifold from the engine. The picture in the instructions showing you where that is in the engine bay is pretty good. I’m pretty anal about how an install looks so it took me quite a while to get it situated exactly how I wanted which entailed cutting 7 inches of hose for the portion going to the manifold and using the rest of the hose (17”) to go to the engine. The thing I found a bit tricky was that the instructions say “The top of the can is marked with a small arrow to indicate “IN” flow. The coming from the engine is always connected to the “in” fitting. The hose going to the top intake manifold is always the “out” fitting (side with no arrow).

My problems were this:

1. There was an arrow on both sides of the catch can so there is no side with no arrow. Does side with no arrow mean the side that the arrow is not pointing to?

2. How does the arrow indicate in? Is the arrow supposed to indicate air flow or is it pointing to the IN.

I was thoroughly confused, so I blew air threw it and it worked both ways. So then I just tried to interpret the instructions the best I could and installed it as shown. I installed the hose going to the intake on the fitting at the pointy part of the arrow and the hose going to the engine on the opposite end.

I know you guys might post your interpretations of what the instructions meant, but really instructions shouldn’t be left open to interpretation. There should be no confusion whatsoever.

The instructions also say that it can be mounted anywhere and that most let it suspend. I wasn’t comfortable to just let it suspend so I put some zip ties on it as shown.

Now normally I don’t like having zip ties anywhere in the engine bay, but they were out of site under the fuel rail covers and added some extra peace of mind so why not. You be the judge.

Performance

My 2006 C6, A6, Z51, LS2 had 14,344 miles on it when I installed the catch can. I then when on a cruise from Phoenix to Mt Lemmon which is about 3 hours+ away. This meant over 3 hours of non-stop driving in the Phoenix heat which is 110+ degrees. After a month and 500 miles of driving this is what I found.

Being an engineer, I’m also very anal about measurements so you know I had to get some exact ones. When I measured the amount of oil I captured in the catch can, I measured exactly 3mL of oil. So I would assume that after 1000, I would have 6mL. Of course your mileage may vary as every car is different in this aspect, but I would suspect that this amount is average. That right there is worth every bit of the $36 I paid. I also found that there was no warping and there was no leaking even though I didn’t use any hose clamps.

The instruction then say to use throttle body cleaner to clean the filter. I don’t have throttle body cleaner, but I do have carb cleaner. I thought they were the same. I wasn’t sure about just spraying carb cleaner in my engine bay since that stuff splatters pretty good all over the place whenever I’ve sprayed it so I decided to leave the filter alone for now and maybe remove the catch can at a later date to clean it off of the car. If anyone have ever tried to remove the hoses off of those types of fitting you know it’s going to be horrible trying to remove it.

I did however try to clean the catch can with carb cleaner. I’m not sure if anyone else had this problem, but when I used the carb clean it turned the catch can to shyte. It frosted the plastic up and now looks like crap.

So I don't know about the filter, but I would not suggest cleaning the catch can portion with carb cleaner. Just use a shop towel and wipe it out. I sent an email to Corvettemods and their response on that to me was that this was an odd occurrence, and that if it leaks as a result, they will take care of it. However, sometimes looks are just as important as performance, especially with corvette owners which is what I replied with so we’ll see what they respond with.

The other thing I found when I was cleaning it is that some of the oil seeped through to the threads on the bottom. I'm not sure if this might be an issue in the future, but it's worth looking at next time I clean it out.

Stay tuned as I plan to remove my intake manifold in in a few months and I plan to see how much oil residue is in there. If you want to see all of the pics I took, check them out here:

http://s523.photobucket.com/albums/w354/rr...?albumview=grid

[Bigfoot]

Nice write-up.

I haven't gotten one yet, but I've been thinking about it. This sounds like a good deal.

I know what you mean about oil in the intake. This is from when I did a bunch of work to mine early on.

[Desertdawg]

Mine was a little cheaper Click Here!!!

The one I have has metal top piece but I think the bowls are the same.

I did notice that my bowl is now cracked and oil is seaping out of it, For now I'm going to pick up another one and see if it will make it thru two summers again.

I removed the filter, but it looks like yours worked just fine with it in, Next time I'll try it like you did, it might help remove more oil than my kitchen scrub pad did.

[Desertdawg]

I cleaned mine out with contact cleaner, it didn't haze like yours did but it may have weakend the plastic.

I think the I'm going to just turn it upside down to drain instead of trying to spray anything in it that may compromise the plastic...

[Bigfoot]

Mine was a little cheaper Click Here!!!

The one I have has metal top piece but I think the bowls are the same.

I did notice that my bowl is now cracked and oil is seaping out of it, For now I'm going to pick up another one and see if it will make it thru two summers again.

I removed the filter, but it looks like yours worked just fine with it in, Next time I'll try it like you did, it might help remove more oil than my kitchen scrub pad did.

Dawg, you linked back to this thread...not yours.

You getting old or something?

[Guest AZC5Z06]

We used to make our own for about 20 bucks. My SRT-4 with a .50 Trim turbo had 2 of them. They're just compressor filters with the paper media taken out. Some even installed check valves but those are not necessary IMO. they work well and usually last 2-3 summers.

Well worth the install hassle.

[Desertdawg]

oops!

Fixed it there and here... Click Here!!!

[Ted Y]

You don't need a petroleum based cleaner to clean a petroleum product like oil. Try mild soap and water to clean your catch can. It worked on the birds and seals in Alaska when the big tankers crash.

[Tim]

Great write up...Thanks

[MeanC6]

I know it's been a while since I posted this thread, but a recent PM regarding this post has renewed my interest. I mentioned before that I sent an email to the Corvettemods regarding the frosting of the catch can. They responded by saying that they would send another piece for $15 plus shipping. I never replied out of protest. I ended up going to Harbor Frieght and found this for $5.99.

Now doesn't this look A LOT like this without the $1 fittings? It's identical right down to the arrows on the top.

If you really wanted to, you could buy the $6 air line filter and $2 in fittings from Harbor Frieght along with $3 or $4 in hose just as DesertDawg pointed out. That's $12 in place of a "$65" catch can. Live and learn.

[Guest Sidewinder]

If you really wanted to, you could buy the $6 air line filter and $2 in fittings from Harbor Frieght along with $3 or $4 in hose just as DesertDawg pointed out. That's $12 in place of a "$65" catch can. Live and learn.

True but the $65 can will last the life of the vehicle and can even be installed on future vettes if one were to trade in. I'm jus sayin.

[MeanC6]

If you really wanted to, you could buy the $6 air line filter and $2 in fittings from Harbor Frieght along with $3 or $4 in hose just as DesertDawg pointed out. That's $12 in place of a "$65" catch can. Live and learn.

True but the $65 can will last the life of the vehicle and can even be installed on future vettes if one were to trade in. I'm jus sayin.

Sorry. When I said the $65 catch can, I was referring to the one that can be had from Corvettemods for $65 which is the exact same as the Harbor Freight air line filter. Corvettemods charges $65 for the catch can in my review.

[MeanC6]

I know it's been a while since I posted this thread, but a recent PM regarding this post has renewed my interest. I mentioned before that I sent an email to the Corvettemods regarding the frosting of the catch can. They responded by saying that they would send another piece for $15 plus shipping. I never replied out of protest. I ended up going to Harbor Frieght and found this for $5.99.

Now doesn't this look A LOT like this without the $1 fittings? It's identical right down to the arrows on the top.

If you really wanted to, you could buy the $6 air line filter and $2 in fittings from Harbor Frieght along with $3 or $4 in hose just as DesertDawg pointed out. That's $12 in place of a "$65" catch can. Live and learn.

Not sure if you guys care, but my Review was locked on corvetteforum because of this post. I'm not sure why or how this is bashing on Corvettemods, but they felt it was.

[Guest Sidewinder]

Ah I see, I didn't know the $65 one was also plastic and also not made to hold hot oil.

CF

[dewey]

Not sure if you guys care, but my Review was locked on corvetteforum because of this post. I'm not sure why or how this is bashing on Corvettemods, but they felt it was.

Depends on the moderator. A couple of them think anything that doesn't show a vendor in 100% positive light, gets deleted.

Just mention Hennessy and see how long that post lasts. <I'm being sarcastic, please don't mention Hennessy on CF, I don't want to be responsible for bannage>

[MeanC6]

Not sure if you guys care, but my Review was locked on corvetteforum because of this post. I'm not sure why or how this is bashing on Corvettemods, but they felt it was.

Depends on the moderator. A couple of them think anything that doesn't show a vendor in 100% positive light, gets deleted.

Just mention Hennessy and see how long that post lasts. <I'm being sarcastic, please don't mention Hennessy on CF, I don't want to be responsible for bannage>

LOL I'll make sure not to do that.

[ChadC]

Not sure if you guys care, but my Review was locked on corvetteforum because of this post. I'm not sure why or how this is bashing on Corvettemods, but they felt it was.

Depends on the moderator. A couple of them think anything that doesn't show a vendor in 100% positive light, gets deleted.

Just mention Hennessy and see how long that post lasts. <I'm being sarcastic, please don't mention Hennessy on CF, I don't want to be responsible for bannage>

Word.

and thoes here on ACE that dont know. Hennessy is a complete crook. serously. like go to jail type of stuff.

[Desertdawg]

Not sure if you guys care, but my Review was locked on corvetteforum because of this post. I'm not sure why or how this is bashing on Corvettemods, but they felt it was.

Don't complain about the paid vendors...