Ive had a catch can for a while now, small air/water seperator can from Sears. I am wondering if its more effective to have a large catch can that they sell, $50-$100. I know there are all types of baffles inside the larger cans.

Is it worth upgrading to that, or stay with the smaller can ?

thanks
-matt

 

I searched the heck out of this subject recently and found that as long as you have some baffles/filter on the inside you're good. Most are using cheap or custom made aluminum cans with some type of baffling on the inside, you can be creative. I even found some who spent the "big bucks" on a catch can still see a much better improvement when adding some baffling. As far as a bigger catch can that's up to your preference, you won't have to empty it as much and you might experience better "flow" with a bigger can but I doubt it'll be much of a difference as long as your current can isn't super small.

 

I'd just stay with the smaller can.

 

I took the filter out of mine. I may just go and get a new can all together from sears

 

There's a subaru guy running a bath sponge as his baffling since he found the steel wool was rusting and breaking up.

You definitely need the filter bro.

 

Yea im gonna do down tomorrow and get a new can. Or if they sell the filter ill get that

-matt

 

This is a bigger one I use (about 9-10 inches height):

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...1&ddkey=Search

 

Higher quality stainless steel wool works great, used it for years and it never rusted. Sometimes it amazes me when I se that black oily tar crap in the catch can!

 

I used this and McMaster.com P/N 6810T53.

I had the small version of the home depot catch can for a while but found that it filled up too quickly. Also, as the oil level got higher, the catch can became less effective. The third strike was when the polycarbonate plastic cracked on me. Definitely not the best solution

The BMW part is a cyclonic separator. It is fiberglass (maybe carbon fiber) impregnated resin similar to the material the 00VI is made from. The separated oil falls into the aluminum bottle. I used some 3/8 fuel tubing and some 1/4 MPT to 3/8 ID barb fittings and JB weld to put it all together.

http://forums.maxima.org/8202966-post48.html

The final picture in that thread shows a HDPE bottle but I bought the aluminum one after I found the heat and the vacuum caused the HDPE one to collapse.

You'll need to drill a hole in the cap for the bottle and epoxy the barb fitting in there. Make sure the top of the cap is scuffed up a bit and clean so the epoxy adheres well. I used masking tape to build a little dam to hold back the epoxy before it was cured.

I've caught 8 fl. oz. of oil in 7200 miles.