Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

I have been looking for a suitable container to make a catch tank to catch /trap the oil vapour from the tappet cover which normally goes directly into the inlet pipe between the air filter and the turbo. This is what makes the inlet pipes all oily. Together with the carbon from the EGR is what blocks up inlet manifolds and interferes with the map sensor.

So some VW has a massive big diesel filter which was replaced in our workshop. I grabbed the old one. I Cut the housing open with a special filter cutter, removed the filter element and fitted 2x 22mm brass fittings. Made an aluminium bracket to mount onto the front cradle. I will fill the container with something to help trap the oil. Once I get my vehicle into the workshop I will use 22mm copper water pipe and copper bends to route the pipe to in front of the radiator and back to the air inlet pipe. My reasoning is that cooling down the air will liquify the oil mist trapping the oil and keep inlet clean, plus help the inter cooler to cool down inlet / turbocharged air and improve performance. I still wanted to make a system to return the oil but will get to that later.

Peter,

The cheapest one on e-bay is $16, but most of them are around the $35 mark. You are saving yourself a good few bottles of Scotland's finest.

Seems like all have some form of oil trapping mechanism inside though.

I seem to remember that Poly Carbonate has an affinity for oil (ANY CHEMICAL ENGINEERS ??). Thinking of cutting up some 2L bottles ???? I am wary of using potscourers or Goldilocks unless I can somehow ensure that no little bits get through.
The device to return the oil from the container back to the engine is going to be the big challenge !

How much oil do you expect to collect? Surely not much.

I did a fair amount of research / road testing on this subject while in a corporate job. It differs from vehicle to vehicle and from engine oil to engine oil. The worst I ever experienced was the first Freelander diesel which produced between an "eggcup" full to a "coffee cup" in 20,000 km. This was an interesting engine but not suitable for our conditions. It ran exceptionally high water and oil temperatures but was very economical.

The 3.2 DID produces quite a bit less than an "eggcup" in 50,000 km but because it is in a mist form all over the inlet it looks a lot more. If you use a synthetic engine oil it will be a lot less.

The problem is that the oil softens the rubber inlet hoses and can eventually cause them to burst on boost.

Just a word of caution if anyone ever cleans out the intercooler and pipes with petrol or any other solvent. Be sure to get all the solvent dry / out other wise the slightest little bit will cause the engine to run away on the first drive.

I have spent some Internet time, since the purchase of my new truck, on researching the potential of having one fitted. I'm just not too keen on unnecessary fiddling under the bonnet of a new car. I run full synthetic oil, and if you say that produces less oil vapour, then maybe I should put this on hold.

It all depends on the quality of the base fluid of the engine oil. I found generally that a full synthetic DEO would reduce the amount of oil being expelled by at least half sometimes to two thirds reduction.

Now days unfortunately synthetic engine oils are not of the same as days gone by. We can discuss this at TITD's.

So I will rather use a mineral base std type DEO and fit a catch tank.

Thanks Peter.
Please keep us updated on your progress.

I installed an air compressor catch pot some 40 000 km ago. This unit has an internal centrifuge disk inside, and a transparent bottle, so it's easy to see when draining is needed. I'd rate it highly effective.

That is an excellent idea. Is the port / pipe size big enough ? Be careful with the condensate / oil drain device, they sometimes use a tyre valve which would seal under pressure but under vacuum, which your tank is, it might draw unfiltered air in through the valve if it is one of those tyre valve types. If it is the little drain valve no problem.

I am busy with the pipework today. I want to mount mine so that it also has a cooling effect (cool crankcase / combustion bypass gases). For every one deg rise in inlet temp, the exhaust rises by three degrees. So every degree I can keep the inlet closer, the exhaust will be cooler by three.