So I recently installed a "catch can" on my 2013 F150 from RXP. Be advised there is also another vendor out there "McNally" that claims to have the rights to sell the "RX" can. It's a little confusing but I'll try to explain.

So my kit was designed by Tracy Lewis, who I guess I will call the engineer for the RXP can but RXP is the company that sells his product. I believe you can buy the can directly from Tracy Lewis which is what I would recommend and I will explain why.

Link to Tracy's website: http://tracylewisperformance.com

So I ordered the can online after a lot of research and debate as to whether the can was actually necessary and which system to buy. It seemed that the RXP product was currently the best on the market, even with all the complaints about parts missing and a lack of good install instructions. So I ordered the can in September, paid over $400 for the larger monster can, and it took over a month to receive the product.

Immediately after ordering the product I received a text message from a random number I did not know. The gentleman identified himself as someone from RXP and asked me to resubmit my PayPal payment as he had the wrong account linked when I purchased the product initially. This led me to digging a little deeper...So the account linked to the RXP site was just some random woman's name, it had no appearance of being affiliated with RXP. He then asked me, all via text, to resubmit payment to another random name, also just appeared to be someones personal PayPal account and not an official company account affiliated with RXP. I ended up calling the gentleman because it was starting to look a little fishy. After speaking and after he refunded my first purchase I agreed to resubmit payment to the new account he requested. Another side note, apparently RXP's official number is just "dudes" cellphone which was also a little shady, at least to me.

So at this point the kit is all ordered and paid for. A few weeks go by and I have not received the kit so I contact dude again on his cell phone number and he tells me they are behind because of the hurricanes. Okay, I'm patient, another few weeks go by and still no catch can. I contact him again and tell him if I do not receive the can by such and such a date I want a refund. He assures me I will receive it and even sends me a tracking number. I check the tracking number daily for about a week and it does not exist with USPS, the carrier he claimed to have used. I attempt to contact dude over and over again, leaving multiple voicemails and text messages with no response. I then contact PayPal and start a dispute to get my money back. After the PayPal dispute is started he finally decides to contact me. His excuse for disappearing for a week was because he went on a cruise? So it's now been about 6 weeks since I ordered the can and it finally arrives to my door. It was all stuffed into a priority USPS box, not in any official RXP box. The box was packaged fine and everything arrived undamaged. I ended my PayPal dispute and got ready to install the can.

Now for the install but some background first. I do a lot of towing with my 2013 EB F150. I own a 24' enclosed car trailer and regularly tow 7-8000lbs. I love my F150 and the 3.5L ecoboost (purchased new) has been great so far all the way to its now current 72k miles. I wanted to make sure I could get 150k+ miles out of the truck. I am very meticulous on the maintenance of my vehicles and I do all of my own work. Okay, back to the install...I install the can with no issues, there are some extra parts unused in the box but I use a few youtube videos and get the install done. Two days after the install is complete I'm getting ready for my military move and will be towing my trailer across the country.

Moving day comes and during my trip I start to notice my intake air temps (IAT) are out of the ordinary and bouncing around a lot. Normally the IAT will match the ambient air temps when I'm not in stop and go traffic. I have a ScanGauge II plugged into my OBD so I can see everything going on with the truck. The truck is 100% stock aside from the catch can I just installed. So, the IAT are about 10-15 degrees above ambient and are bouncing around say from 65-80 degrees when they would normally just stay at 60 degrees which was about the current ambient temps at the time. I pull over, pull the intake air box, luckily I had a complete tool box, and notice my intake is covered in oil and the source is the fresh air hose that I tapped into the intake box per the install instructions. I just so happened to have Tracy Lewis's number because I had sent him an email about a month back about my experience with the guy I had purchased the kit from. I didn't realize it but he had given me his personal cell number. It was about 10pm central time and I was out in the middle of no-where. So I call Tracy and leave him a voicemail. He lives in Florida so it's close to midnight his time and he calls me back immediately. We go through the system to diagnose the problem and it turns out one of the check valves was missing internal parts. So, I pull the entire system off with my headlamp on the side of the road and luckily I had the stock PCV system still to reinstall in my trailer. Tracy has the new parts overnighted to me at my next hotel at no cost to me and I reinstall the RXP catch can for my 1000 mile trip back.

On the drive back I notice that the IAT are bouncing around again. While at a gas station to refuel I pull the intake box and notice trace amounts of oil again originating from the fresh air tube, not as much as the first time but there was still oil. So, let me explain the design flaw in the RXP catch can:

Under high loads the vacuum created by the intake box overcomes the vacuum created in the crank case. This essentially causes the flow of air through your crank case to be reversed. Under idle and zero boost conditions fresh filtered air is pulled from the intake box into your crank case and flows from the driver side bank to the passenger side bank. Under boost the vacuum created by the intake overcomes the vacuum from the crank case and now begins to pull air from the crank case into your intake. This air is unfiltered and contains trace amounts of oil in a vapor form that will contaminate your intake box and tube eventually making its way to your intake valves.

I ended up contacting Tracy again and explaining the situation to him. He listened to my findings and agreed that my conclusion was correct. He he has a second catch can that he will send to me to collect those oil vapors and essentially filter the air before it goes back into my intake. He uses me as kind of a test vehicle to try and solve this problem. So, I installed this second catch can on the same bracket as the first RXP can and run the plumbing from the oil cap to the can, and then back to the fresh air port in the side of the intake box. I can report back that now the problem of oil accumulation in the my intake has now been solved.

Here are also some pros and cons to installing the RXP system. Every fill-up at the gas station, 500-600 miles I empty the RXP catch can and every 1000 miles I empty the second can that filters the air going into my intake. Both cans will accumulate a significant amount of water (I'd guess 90% water and the other 10% is oil and other contaminants) with some oil vapors and other contaminates. You have to stay on top of keeping these emptied because if you should allow the cans to become full you run the risk of sucking the water and contaminants collected in your can into the engine and hydro-locking your motor. It blew me away with how much water and oil are collected by these cans that had been previously ingested by my engine for the last 70k miles. I wish I had done this mod a lot sooner. I will try and provide pictures of the install and what it now looks like on my truck. Though the product is not perfect I can say that Tracy stands behind his product and was a huge help in getting this solved in an expedient manner. He provided great customer service and support and if you should decide to also purchase an RXP catch can I would definitely go directly through Tracy Lewis.

Please forgive any gramatical errors and share your thoughts.

Adam