As you might recall, I installed ONE WEEK AGO (give or take a few days) a reservoir to "intercept" the oil blowby that goes from the PCV valve and gets dumped into the intake manifold.

Well, checked it today, and it's already 1/4 full!

So, here you can see all the crap oil that's getting dumped into your intake system, gunking up things and reducing fuel octane. I will also note that I ran a tank of 89 octane last week (short on cash at the pump) and even with my timing at 17 degrees I had NO knocking at all...I have a little suspicion that getting that oil out of the intake air may very well have had a positive effect on octane in the fuel, but who knows. Supposedly there is even MORE blowby on the VQ35 than in our VQ30s, to boot.

EDIT:
1. By the way, I installed a new PCV valve at the same time.
2. Credit to "2002 Maxima SE" who did this first.

In any case, here's how much oil collected in just a week of normal driving!

 

Man! that's great. I experience some pinging with the hot weather and my jwt ecu for me ve30de. I'm on it man! Home Deeeeppoootttt!

 

<- driving to HomeDepot!

 

Irish, wow...what a simple yet ingenious innovation. Was a how-to posted for this?

 

I won't take credit for it, a few of the 3.5 guys had done it in the past, and some of the FI 4th gens as well. I may be the first 3.0 5th gen to do it.

You can also get larger reservoirs on ebay so you don't have to empty it every month (note, on mine there is a purge valve at the bottom so you can just drain the oil into a paper towel or little jar or whatever)

here's a link to the original thread when I did it:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=417081

 

Wow sounds like a great idea i definately will think bout doing this GREAT JOB

 

Damn you Josh, always coming up with stuff that makes you look like a genius. If only the rest of the Org'ers knew....


BTW - to make this post useful, good job!

 

Wow this looks like a good idea. I might try this.

 

will it work for 5.5 gen too? isn't our pcv valve behind the engine on the other side?

 

yes it will...there is a write-up out there for it, do a search - it's a couple weeks back. the VQ35 PCV is in a more difficult position to reach, but it can still be done easily...

 

Well, I know what Im doing this weekend now.

Any good suggestions for intake cleaners? I really dont feel like taking apart my IM right now. Its way too hot to be playing around in the garage. Yeah I know.... Dont give me any crap. haha

 

That is such a great idea.

 

Nice setup! Now all you have to do is set it up to drain back to the engine. GM Quad 4 engines have this.

 

Thats exactly what I was thinking, if thats a weeks worth of oil imagine 3000 miles worth.

 

Now just think of five years of that mixing with all the crap from your EGR in your intake...

 

hey i'm not getting anything about the blowby for the 3.5 on google. Would you be so kind as to post the link to the writeup?

New love - I use Chevron techron religiously to keep things clean in there. I think theres a rebate out now where its practically free.

 

I'm gonna work on this today.. !!

 

So, Irish, what's it gonna take to get you to give me hand with mine?


I think I might be heading to Home Depot now.

 

here you go:
It was done by "2002 Maxima SE" on the 3.5, he did it a few different ways.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ight=oil+catch

 

Hi all,

Had no idea this was a problem on the 3.0 as well. I changed mine out to a larger catch-can (bought a generic one off ebay) so I wouldn't have to dump it as often.



As you can see, it still mists the oil quite a bit. There is still oil going back to the intake, but not as much.

 

what size are the inlets on the catch can, i went to homedepot and couldnt not find a inline oil filter, lowes is not open yet, i got a craftsman large inline oilfilter from sears and large and micro inline oilfilter from harbor freight, only prob is that the inlets are 3/8" or 1/4" is that ok? i assume I should go with the larger filter since so i dont have to clean it as much?

 

Is there any change in perfomance, positive or negative?

 

subscribing

 

this is less a "performance" mod than it is a "engine maintenance" mod...

 

knocking makes engine retard timing, decreasing performance and fuel economy. Since this mod decreases knocking shouldnt this increase performance?

 

I guess technically yes....but what I meant is that it's not likely to be a "mod" that shows up on a dyno, since when you are dynoing or performance driving, knock is usually not an issue.

 

Blowby through the PCV is at its worst during low RPM/light throttle. During high RPM, the PCV system does not have as much pressure on it.

This mod will catch the oil being blown through at low RPM. I did it to stop a low RPM ping I was getting (oil lowers octane). It worked 95%. Some still gets through.

 

subscribing

 

Who hoo, I jsut go back with all the supplies! Now I just ahve to figure out where to mount this sucker... I cant take the easy way out and just copy you Irish. I still got my stock intake.

Also, did you notice that on the reservoir it says to avoid synthetic oils? Alright... thats it... no more Mobil 1 We'll just ahev to see how it goes.

 

how hot are the oils/fumes/air going to be, the resiviors I found so far say 100-125 F degrees

 

I think it just says to avoid synthetics because they might pass through the filter a little better, which you don't want if you're using it in an air compressor. I use Mobil 1 myself.....since the filter still "vents" air/fumes into the intake manifold, I can't see how there could be any problem. If the thing breaks....oh well, not like it's expensive

 

I just pulled mine out 2 days ago.

I cleaned the crap out of my intake manifold a year ago and built one so I could avoid doing it again. Has worked well

 

Haha, I was just joking. Im not too worried about it.

Anyway, I just finished my set-up and found a great place to mount the reservoir, especially if you have a stock intake. I just used a 1" pipe strap and bent one side around the reservoir so it can sit inside snugly. Then I just bolted the other side of the strap to the VIAS where the original bracket held the original hose.

This location is nice and close to both the inlet and outlet so you dont have hoses running across the engine bay. It's not difficult to access, so it can be emptied fairly easily. And when I get my Cattman CAI, I will be able to pivot the whole thing in place and get an even straighter shot to the to the inlet making the install even cleaner.

I dont have my camera now, but Ill try to post some pics tomorrow.

 

Are you using the output from the PCV located on the rear passenger side of the engine? Nothing comes out of the outlet that vents to the intake tube (driver side).

 

I think he has a VQ30. In our engines, the PCV is on the driver's side, just below the VIAS actuator. It's not anywhere near where the VQ35 PCV or intake manifold connector is.....

 

Ah! That's the right place then.

 

You got it Irish.

oh, and thanks for getting me off my lazy @ss this weekend.

 

dose it really matter witch way the arrow is pointing??

 

If you are so concerned about separating oil out of the PCV line then what about the crankcase vent line? It is connected upstream of the throttle body and the breather vapors from the vent line are responsible for the gumming up of the throttle body assembly and obviously the rest of the intake system.

 

you beat me to it....that was going to be the next project