Intake Manifold Cleaning and OCC?

If a coolant change was imminent sure, but for an alternative: see my post #20. Your 2010 has the bleed bolt too, might help.

 

I did see that post as I read through this thread. I've never changed the coolant and it's a 2010 model with 114k miles so I figure it can't hurt to change the coolant.

 

Yeah the schedule says 10 years or 100K miles, whichever comes first. So you're "imminent", lol.

 

Start a MeetUp!

 

The negative is that you need to empty it, which makes it unsuitable for mainstream car owners.

Mendel, Pacific Seaglass bought the same Morimoto (Moshimoto? Whatever...) catch can you used. It was huge! The only place I could make it fit was underneath. We attached it to the subframe using nylon straps, but I’d rather find a place to bolt it, for better reliability. Do you have any photos of how you mounted yours? I got a very good look under the car, so I know my way around it pretty well.

 

Moroso 85474.

Moroso SEPARATOR, AIR-OIL, CATCH CAN, LARGE BODY, UNIVERSAL

I mounted a 2.5"x1.5" slotted angle bracket on the lower beam thus:


You want to put some sort of rubber washers or gasket in the interface. I drilled 3/8" holes through the top flange, and fished bolts through from below. Then dropped on rubber washers, then a washer, then the slotted angle bracket, another washer, a finger-tight nut, and a second nut torqued against the first (effectively a lock nut).

In hindsight, some self-tapping screws might be better, easier. Again, put some sort of gasket or washers in the interface: that beam needs to flex, in particular if you're using the front/central jacking point, which is on the underside of the beam.

I've currently got a similar bracket, horizontal leg the same, but the vertical leg winging out, and dual cans mounted. About 1" to the right would be optimum position; to work with my current holes I made my bracket wings eccentric, 1" longer on the right side. If a couple of Moroso cans are mounted centred (per the bracket shown above), the left-side can was almost bumping the AC hose, and the AC high voltage connector.

Food for thought: the PCV valve bolts into a plate, with bolts around it's perimeter. Maybe a couple of those bolts could do double duty: hold a custom bracket?

A larger scale, showing current location of holes/bracket, and a more optimum location:



If you're fishing bolts through from below, you need to use the largish holes in bottom flange to fish them through. It's a bit of a pain, and again: self-tapping screws might make life easier. Easier to drill too.

 

Ok, I think we can do this. I don’t like the idea of using the plates on that plate where the PCV attaches, because if the torque is wrong oil will leak all over.

 

You could always zip tie a tin can to the front cross member.

That lasted me 30k miles.

Another option.

 

It’s held on with thick zip ties now, but we’d like to do something a little better.

 

The lower beam seems easier, both to access during the install, and the OCC is right there when doing an oil change. You do need to take the whole undercover off.

I continue to tweak: I sometimes want to unbolt the OCC(s) complete with their clamping rings, and it's really awkward reinstalling the clamping ring bolts, from below. I'll duplicate these slots on my installed bracket, next time I'm under there, so that I only need to loosen the clamping ring bolts, and then lift everything up-and-off:


This one's just a practice piece. I'll maybe sub over-size washers (aka fender washers) behind the bolt heads, to cover the slots better.

A pic of the assembly, to clarify:



(The old, single can bracket.)

 

Can’t you just loosen the Allen bolt which holds the circular bracket onto the catch can?
In our case, I think we’ll just stick with draining the darn thing. I don’t see why it should need removal for the life of the vehicle.

 

Typically I do just drain it. But maybe every couple of years, it's good to open it up, clean out the two stainless steel wheaties and the interior.

The allen bolt unscrewed does loosen the clamp, but then it's kinda got no where to go, with the low mount. The hoses are pretty stiff, and running more or less straight up (with a bit of jog, for some slack).

Then the dang drain valve and spigot are no help, have to clear too. I've found simplest (at least with my install, is to just unbolt the clamping ring, then it can dangle. And for a complete clean pull off the hoses at the top, at PCV valve and intake, just pull it all down and out.

I am thinking also to sub this:



For all the drain rigamarole. That would go along way towards allowing a simple lift up-and-out of the clamping ring.

 

I found these cans don’t have very good machining on the threads. If you’re going to use a plug, I’d first chase the threads with a tap and die.

 

I recently did the intake manifold / EGR cleaning and OCC install.

I wanted to keep the OCC hidden, and found a good mounting location using the cover plate where the starter would go if our engines had those. The top screw for that plate, M10, holds the OCC bracket in place. Nothing has blown up yet. Other than the $18 OCC from Amazon, which is amazingly well built, everything was done using parts I had in my garage. So some of the decisions are driven by what I had vs. what I'd go and buy.

I took several photos. Some are looking up from under the car, some are looking down from above the engine:

 

That's good mounting location!



I found there was very little room to the right of the intake manifold connection, can't recall exactly why, maybe due to a gas tank vapour valve that's mounted in vicinity. Had to elbow down as close as possible. See how it goes though. The bracket for the valve has some adjustability IIRC.

 

Yes, I was happy to find a nearby, well hidden, and very solid location there. Also completely reversible without a trace if I ever need to do that.

The starter cover plate is not especially critical - not a tight seal or anything, and it's got those beefy M10 screws (I assume only because that's what would be needed if you had a starter there). I had to drill a 10mm hole in the OCC mounting bracket, which I'll show in a photo.

I did not have an excessive amount of oil in the intake manifold. Maybe 2mm under the throttle body. No significant oil consumption. So I expect that draining the OCC when I do my 5k-mile oil changes will be sufficient. But for those who don't need stealth, the lack of easy access with this method may be a drawback.

The flexibility and adjustability was helpful. For the OCC I got, it has two intake ports - one on either side of the outlet port - and a plug. Being able to switch from which one to plug vs. use ended up being very helpful at the end.

And using the hoses with fairly constant bend radius in them made it compact and also easy to adjust. The last photo, from below, was taken after everything was in place. The ones from above were "in progress." I did have to slightly adjust some hoses and wires when putting the air box in there - the low point on that, with the screw that goes into the hole near the hoses I added.

Here are some more pics.