Oil Catch Can, Eliminate that knock!

We used to have pollution checks, that ended about a decade back. Before that there was road-worthy inspections, brakes, lights, what have you. Now we've got squat.

 

Soon we’ll have squat if POTUS 45 has his way.

But that’s for another part of this forum.

I’ll stray back to the topic now.

 

Question : Why do I clean the Stainless Steel Scrubber in my OCC with brake cleaner every time, I accelerator the car is smoothier, easier ? Thanks

 

Why not just change out the scrubbie pad.

I picked up a 12 pack for something like $4 at Lowe’s .

 

I drain OCC each 2 day (1 tablespoon) because I drive 300 miles per day.
Mine is 2010, 3rd gen, 295K miles.

 

Why not let it build up a bit more?

 

Where in the USA are you located?

I drive about 400-500 miles a week and I check the can every weekend. Haven’t collected much but still gets some.

197 k miles on our 2010 and going strong .

 

I live in Orange County, SoCal. I asked this question because considering put a air filter on the OCC hose which goes to intake manifold.

 

I’d be concerned about plugging of the air filter as it isn’t designed to handle liquids or mists.

But maybe explain your concept a bit more and we might be able to help.

 

This is a picture which I got from one PC member who already put an air filter for OCC.

 

Interesting..this stuff is evolving! Glad I didn't do mine yet. Uhh..yeah..yeah that's my excuse!

 

Last weekend I installed the OCC and knocking has gone! Thank you, guys! I still don't know if I have a head gasket problem, or just a bad feeling - so I applied a bottle of k-seal poured into the coolant. Everything looks fine, I'm really glad. However, when I look under the hood today, I found some strange coolant leak behind the intake manifold, under PCV. How can coolant get there?
And, I have no coolant loss...
Is that a leaking seal there (pictures)? What kind of a seal is that?

 

Where are those leak pictures? Is the stuff oily or not?

 

You mean stuff in OCC? It was like 2 centiliters collected last week. It was transparent but a little bit oily.
Pictures of the leak was attached, I try to upload again.

 

This how much it collected with 4,271 miles on the oil and the dip stick was measuring a little less then full

 

2011 Prius Head Gasket Failure at 185k - Summary - Bob Is The Oil Guy

Interesting that this guy noticed one bolt wasn’t torqued correctly near the failure point of the head gasket

Maybe re-torquing head bolts should be added to the 60000 mile service like it was on the old 5.7 diesels?

 

@The Critic is the same author of his thread here:

2011 Prius Headgasket Failure

 

Hey All, in July of 2018 I bought a 2010 with 241k on it. It was cheap, one owner, (apparently) well maintained and clean. I was happy getting 48mpg on my new 66 mile round trip commute. In August at about 242,500, I got a CEL with a misfire (don't remember the exact code). I did some research on the forum and took apart the intake manifold and cleaned it (lots of oil in there, including a drowning MAF sensor), replaced spark plugs, installed a new PCV, and cleaned the EGR, and installed an oil catch can. I also did oil, coolant, and transmission fluid (black as death). It was my first time getting that deep into an engine but was a pleasure compared to the Subarus I used to work on.

Since then I have done a few oil changes, wheel bearings, front/rear shocks, and on all four wheels. In all, it's at about 253k now, so around 11,000 miles since I put on the OCC...

I did this... for science... yes - that's right. I did this to show you what happens when you leave an OCC unattended for 11,000 miles on a 250k+ car. I totally did not do this because the mounting point I chose makes it difficult to get the OCC open and I need to remove an 8mm bolt to get it open. Science... not laziness... yes. that's right,.

I do my best to do oil every 3,000 - 4,000 miles. But I've been busy with other things and I was up to about 4,650 on the oil. In the past few weeks I've noticed my car shutting down the engine roughly, having some knocking at startup, and revving up at times when the engine shouldn't be. My gas milage also dropped to about 41mpg when I usually get 46 - 48mpg. At this point it was acting more like when I got the original CEL back in 2018... but it never threw a code.

Last night I checked my oil catch can and it was full to the brim, probably about half oil and half "coffee milkshake".



So, it appears that when my PCV would push oil out of the crank case, it would push water (or whatever the milkshake is) into the intake. I'm assuming it could be condensation due to changes in the temperature from the catch can. I don't have any significant coolant use and the oil is clean, so I'm not worried about the headgasket (yet).

Once I emptied the catch can, everything came back to normal. Everything seems smooth and my MPG on my commute this morning slowly creeped up from 41.2mpg (w/ about 140 miles on the Trip meter) to 45.6mpg after I got to work. Also, I don't hear anymore knocking at shutdown/startup --- So I guess I didn't do any damage.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I just wish I didn't leave it for so long without emptying it.

 

Haha, that's what mine looks like after 4 weeks! Don't ask me how I know... :-\

 

Mostly just editorial: I'm guess it's the MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) sensor you found drowning in oil. The one down below the throttle body, right?

I found similar condition, even at 70K kms.