Morning Bear!

I hope we get some snow.... I've had the snow blower out exactly once this year. It was a puny storm, and I was just making sure it was ready to go..... and now it sits.

 

Well.... we got snow! Not much, but it did give us some.

 

Good morning thinkers- its ffffrosty this morning! Then its supposed warm up and RAIN!! Another great day in southern Ohio!
Ok, ive read other posts, on other threads, but, i know you guys are solid, so i value you fellers opinions. That said, my new to me truck, 3.5 eco.- oil catch can or not?-
Im of the “ if it was truly needed, Ford would have put one on” camp. But whats your opinion, fellers?

 

I too have read a bit about doing a catch can on the EcoBoosts. I am of the opinion that if you are using forced induction, you should have some type of a catch can. I saw a 3.8 Mustang that got Supercharged. This guy used to work for me years ago... and he asked me to look at it. It sounded awful.... like it was starving for air. So I pulled the breather hose that goes between the intake duct and the valve cover.... oil oozed out of it. , It had filled his entire intake duct with oil, and saturated the air filter. He was also now low on oil.

So yeah, that experience changed the way I feel about forced induction setups.

 

I'm guessing that the catch can people are concerned with carbon on the intake valves.
Is that truck a 2017 or newer? If so, Ford included a port fuel injection to cool the intake charge and clean the intake valves. Not needed on these.
If before 2017? Then maybe. I know several people with first gen 3.5 and none have catch cans. The only issue I know of is on a 2011 where he had to have ford cover part of the intercooler and then drill a hole in the intercooler to stop water from condensating in it. He pulls a very large camper (so large he needed the max tow package) with it and said when he buys another truck he will get whatever ecoboost they are offering at that time.

But, Ford did find it needed an upgrade for the gen 2 engines. It won't harm anything to have it.

 

The port injector was mostly meant to clean the intake valve. Both Ford and VW learned really quick that direct injection wasn't as good of an idea as it sounded. Carbon buildup galore on those.

 

Its a ‘15- no heavy haul, in fact it mostly runs on the weekends and short trips around town ( i walk to work during the week)- this is my early retirement gift, and if something simple like a catch can will keep the carbon buildup to a minimum, i might explore the possibility of adding one.

 

"ford cover part of the intercooler and then drill a hole in the intercooler to stop water from condensating in it."

If you drill a hole in your intercooler you will loose boost out of that hole and cause all kinds of problems. Any chance there is a part of this story we are missing?

 

Bear, I run a 1.6 Ecoboost in my Fiesta ST and there is a ton of discussion about this over on those forums. Most agree an OCC is a good idea. I have been on the fence for a while now. I use Castrol Edge which is supposed to be less susceptible to valve caking in GDI engines. But I also am religious about my oil level, dead center on the dipstick. Why? Too little oil has obvious effects but less oil and more air in the crank case means less opportunity for oil to overwhelm the PCV system. There are a couple of baffles built into the engine to discourage oil from entering the PCV and then making it's way into the intake. I suspect an OCC would add another layer of protection but I've had my hotside pipe off a couple times and upgraded it and the intercooler, it's bone dry in there. When I had mk4 GTI years ago with a 1.8t, the equivalent pipe filled with oil regularly. The point of my rambling is, I think Ford did a decent job of mitigating this issue at least on the 1.6eco. Perhaps things are different 3.5land but for me, I don't think I need one just yet. I only have 22k logged so far so maybe things will change as the miles rack up.

 

Happy February everyone. Hey Yogi. Glad to hear you are still kicking and doing better.

I run a catch can even on my 07 Mustang. You'd be surprised at how much engines push oil anymore with all the power they produce. I can catch about 4 maybe 5 ounces of oil over a summer of driving. No winter style warm ups or anything special. I am considering putting one on Red. It only takes a couple of ounces over a short time to clog those very small orifice holes, so the catch can is a good idea. JMO, of course.