Blow-by Oil catch tank

I have an 80 series landcruiser, turbo diesel and had the exact same problem.. after searching around to see if there was anything on the market I ended up making a catcher up myself.

Basically it is a piece of PVC pipe about 60mm diameter and about 250mm long. I have put a cap on each end and have drilled a drain hole in the bottom which is fitted with a removable bolt to drain the oil over time.
I put the bottom hose (the intake line from the rocker cover) about 40mm up from the bottom with a baffle glued on the inside of the pipe to break the air flow as it comes in.. from the baffle to the top pip (returning to the turbo intake) is filled with a coarse gauze to help filter the air coming through.

I used 17mm heater hose for the lines in and out and went to the local hardware supply store and got hose fittings with threaded backs on them so I could secure them into the PVC pipe securely as they will get bent around a bit putting the pipes on and off etc.
Of course make sure it is all sealed properly and securely or dust may enter and go straight to the motor via the turbo.

I had to have 3 or 4 goes at it until I was happy but now I don't have the puff of blue smoke that I had the morning after a long drive up the highway due to the coated pipes running oil down to the turbo intake overnight.

Hope all this makes sense to you.... it is all fun and games and kept me interested for a few days until I got what I was happy with... painted it all black so it blends in with the rest of the stuff under the bonnet also.

Cheers

Hi Jamie, firstly the most likely cause of the problem is an ageing engine that requires rings which is causing excesive blow-by. Secondly to meet ADR the engines own fumes are to be consumed by the engine, so a catch tank would most likely be illegal. Thirdly, tampering with EGR "can" impact adversly with engine performance, as it is an inert gas it is factered into the fuel timing etc.
However, as a factory fix (I think it was a Subaru model) I have inserted sintered bronze filters to the PCV line to combat oil being spat into the air filter.
I would recommend that you modify the baffle inside the rocker cover, in an effort to make the oil fumes condense before they enter the PCV pipe.
Hope this is helpful.......................col

I made a good catch can for my 84 forrunner diesel (415000 km), like you, I couldn't find anything commercially available that self drained back to the motor, so I made my own.
First you need an old receiver drier off an air con system, then you cut the top off with a hack saw, fill it with stainless steel wool, or scourer pad as the case may be,
then weld the top back on with the tig, or oxy.
I fitted a 16 millimetre pipe into the bottom of mine, and put a 10 mm into the side of the top.
Mount the whole thing up on the fire wall above the engine so the oil has to be dragged up hill.
This is important, so the oil that has defused in the steel wool can gravity feed down.
Because of the diameter of the can, the oil filled air looses villosity, and runs back to the bottom of the can and into the tappet cover.
Had mine in service now for three years no probs, also been using this trick on rally cars for years, because they suffer a similar problem due to high revs.
Hope this helps.
Nomad.

Hi Guys, Where do i start, 1 hz with after market turbo and inter cooler from the day i bought her she used a bit of oil 3 months down the trak on my way to port augusta i got 200 odd kays and low oil lite came on took nearly 2 lt. By the time i got to p/a she'd blown 5lt of oil through the intake. made an oil trap out of a 2 lt cordial bottle breather hose goes in just a little lower than the outlet hose goes out.
on the way home every 150 kay's 1.5 lt oil court in trap. next 2 years or so trying to find cause have now got shares in oil company's repeat company's. previous onwer had new rings put in but d@#k head mechanic didnt hone out bores. possibility 0ne, valve stem seals two,, flap in rocker cover three, there are more but it's late and i carn't think when i'm typing. for the last couple of trips the oil trap has been empty except for a smear of oil which would be common, on saturday i start making my way to birdsville so looking forward to hopefully a good trip but this will be the test to see if i've fixed the problem but it dose seem like i have touch wood. the all mighty turbo was wound up to 12 / 13 psi. And with minimun fordward excelaration on the pedal 10 psi. I wound the waste gate back 10 full turns to achieve 7psi under heavy pedal and 5 psi keeping forward motion.
To much pressure in the bore for the rings to keep up top so pressure slip down into crank case and oil come up and out. i think thats the short version i even ajaxed the poor old girl it worked for a while but didnt last. But i have found the cordial bottle handles the heat pretty good, melt the holes through with a heated up brass fitting the same size as heater hose and yes heater hose dosen't last, by the way outlet hose just drops down behind the axle no fumes while moving if i havent crt any oil by the time i get to p/augusta i'll hook it back up to the air cleaner.
two more sleeps for me and i'll be away for three weeks. Time is to short when it come to holidays. And thanks to Ruth, Karsten and the OZ team for the rd reports I have'nt called Ruthy to cancall accomidation as i'd prefer to do it in person ( the day after when we are leaving )
Regards Steve West

Thanks all for your input.
I will look at building one myself without too much welding etc if I can help it. Any futher info, pics etc would be appreciated. I do akcnowledge the hints at not load up PCV and dont think this will be a problem with what I intend to do

For info the motor has only 40k on it so I dont think the issue is worn rings. The rings bedding in from new would allow some more blow by I suppose. I also played around with a boost controller and had it peaked at about 15psi at full noise but that was only for a week and it is now removed (fuel pump stayed the same). Regardless that pressure is no where near extreme for a solid motor though I do believe that turbo motors do create more blow by pressure.

The turbo decreases the intake pressure considerably and in combination with the restriction caused by extra piping for the snorkel may drag more flow from the PCV and hence oil with it?

As for legality. I do intend feeding the air after the oil is separated out back into the same position in the intake. I want a closed system where the oil will gravity feed back to the sump or rocker cover and there is no chance of dirt and water ingress.

As for EGR, I think it is the most self defeating piece of junk fitted to this engine. It may be suited to the Euro engines such as the 3.0 litre in the Patrol and Prado but this engine was never designed with it in mind. The net result is that a heap more fuel gets used how can that help the environment. Yes I know its all about certain gases.

Here is my quick environmental balance of risk:
It feeds soot back into the intake = increased wear = earlier engine replacement
Soot is building in the intake = reduced air flow = increased fuel consumption
It robs it of power = more throttle = increased fuel consumption

My GU definately uses more fuel than my GQ ever did and thats enough proof for me!! When I have my way the whole system will be ditched so the motor looks like the pre intercooled model (intercooler will stay though). Nissan have only shoehorned this stuff onto the motor to keep up apearances at a specific engine operating point. In the real world the results are not the positive desired. I'll fold up my soapbox now.

Thanks again for the informative input
JamieMac