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Smoke from catch can?

Cwazywazy

Cwazywazy

Single jingle
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Location
Granby CT
A few days ago I noticed that when I was stopped I could see smoke coming from my crappy homemade catch can. It's pretty apparent. Something to worry about?

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Nothing except a worn out engine - probably will go another 100 Grand if you stop taching it up like that in neutral for no good reason - it's one of two things, oil vapor or coolant vapor

Not being a smart ass - just being straight
 
Having all that smoke coming out is bad for the environment.

You should seal the top of the can and route another hose from it to the intake so the smoke can be sucked in and safely burned. And metal cans tend to rust, so I'd probably switch to something plastic. Also, being up high and exposed like that, you could bump it with your elbow and break it, so you might want to hide it somewhere safer, like under the intake manifold, possibly bolting it to the block so it won't vibrate and fall off. And since it's under there, maybe there's a hole on the block somewhere that you could line up with a matching hole on your new plastic can, so any oil that condenses from that smoke can safely drip right back into the engine.

I know it sounds crazy, but it might just work. :-P
 
MasterBlaster said:
Having all that smoke coming out is bad for the environment.

You should seal the top of the can and route another hose from it to the intake so the smoke can be sucked in and safely burned. And metal cans tend to rust, so I'd probably switch to something plastic. Also, being up high and exposed like that, you could bump it with your elbow and break it, so you might want to hide it somewhere safer, like under the intake manifold, possibly bolting it to the block so it won't vibrate and fall off. And since it's under there, maybe there's a hole on the block somewhere that you could line up with a matching hole on your new plastic can, so any oil that condenses from that smoke can safely drip right back into the engine.

I know it sounds crazy, but it might just work. :-P
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You don't know what it is so save the Al Gore bull **** for the ice cream man
 
Smoke or steam? For some reason I tend to get some steam out of mine as the engine warms up. And when I occasionally drain it, it's mostly water with a little oil mixed in.

That probably means something. Maybe I don't drive it often enough?
 
JohnMc said:
Smoke or steam? For some reason I tend to get some steam out of mine as the engine warms up. And when I occasionally drain it, it's mostly water with a little oil mixed in.

That probably means something. Maybe I don't drive it often enough?
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It means you have a car with a LOT of miles on it that is telling you "please put a new head gasket on me, and I'll run at least another 100 thousand miles for you"

That's what it means
 
Jimmy E. James said:
You don't know what it is so save the Al Gore bull **** for the ice cream man
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Whoooooosh :roll:

OP: Do you have any baffles or coarse steel wool (the metal kitchen scrubbers work well) in there to catch some of the oil mist?

Might be time for a compression check. Mine's due one too.
 
Jimmy E. James said:
It means you have a car with a LOT of miles on it that is telling you "please put a new head gasket on me, and I'll run at least another 100 thousand miles for you"

That's what it means
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Nah, it's a pretty fresh bottom end with an even fresher Cometic.

But yeah, it does have occasional HG issues. *sigh* It's not using coolant currently, though.

But it's stuff like that that makes me plan for an LS swap. 400 unstressed HP, yeah....
 
Khrrck said:
WhooooooshMight be time for a compression check. Mine's due one too.
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Not a bad idea, but only a 50/50 chance, or less, that it'll tell him anything

Especially if it's his valve guides or head gasket that are worn out

Head gaskets are worn out a long time before they "blow"
 
JohnMc said:
Schrodinger's cat... err, coolant level.

It had a HG issue, I replaced the HG. It doesn't at this moment, but it will still occasionally steam out of the catch can when it first warms up.
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Do a hydrocarbon check at the coolant reservoir or the cap if your car has one and you'll know for sure
 
JohnMc said:
Schrodinger's cat... err, coolant level.

It had a HG issue, I replaced the HG. It doesn't at this moment, but it will still occasionally steam out of the catch can when it first warms up.
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Turbo heads will often have tiny hairline cracks between valve seats that are often missed - on almost every one that's ever been seriously over heated

They'll run just fine - symptoms are steam on cold start up like you describe or the pressure cap venting and allowing a little spit up after hot shut down - the cooling system gets a extra pressurization from combustion but not enough to cause the vehicle to "over heat" - just enough to exceed the rating of the cap

Have had them run (just fine, except for little puddles) for months like this
 
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