Tried installing the OCC... no room!...

My wife needed the car, and I thought it'd be a good idea if I took it around the block once, just in case. What I found:

1. Even before taking off, I took one last look look at the engine bay, and yup: I'd forgotten to plug in the MAF sensor.

2. Test driving, under moderate acceleration, I could hear a new "moaning" sound. I thought. Got back, Googled it, and there was several mentions of vacuum leak, and one specific mention of drain being left open. That rang a bell, jacked it back up, partially pried the underpanel off, and yup: the drain tap was in the open position. I'd played with it a bit, NEVER occurred to me to make sure it was shut before buttoning up. Lesson learned. Maybe I should hang a reminder tag on it, lol.

Did another test drive after that, sounded back to normal.

 

Old age catching up with you?

 

Just ordered an torx socket set and ratcheting 12 mm wrench, to look at the EGR. I suspect carbon build up in it might be at least partially due to the PCV valve dumping oil into intake manifold, and down the chain. Time will tell, anyway seems a good time for EGR cleaning, with OCC installed.

I'm thinking to drain just a quart or two of coolant (at the radiator drain) before disconnecting EGR hoses. Seems to me plugging or clamping the hoses alone is not that effective, since the coolant filled EGR is higher. Then with a little luck the whole EGR will be dry, above the coolant level.

And then maybe afterward I'll be able to back the air bleed bolt right out (2010 still has the bleed bolt) put in a small funnel, and pour the drained coolant back in.

I'll post how it goes, lol.

 

What's inside that OCC? Any baffles or anything to promote oil condensation?

 

They vary.

Some are just a couple of spigots inside, and if you leave it as-is, I think it's not that effective: the airborne oil can swirl around a bit and make it out the exit too easy. With those buyers sometimes add a tube to the inlet, bring it down maybe half-way to the bottom, and also put in some stainless steel wool, to act as a labyrinth, catch the oil.

Others come with baffles, and/or mesh, and/or filters.

The one I got was Moroso 85474 Universal Air/Oil Separator, and the description (at least on Amazon) was next to nothing. It turned out to have steel wool mesh contained within the top 1/4 of the cylinder, with a baffle going down the middle, so that gas enters one side, has to work it's way through the mesh, out and around the bottom of the baffle, and then up the mesh on the other side, to the exit. The setup is symmetrical, you can use either side as inlet or outlet.

 

Thanks ML -- great photos.

Geez, though... $140! They're pretty proud of those things aren't they?

 

That's about what it cost me, with conversion to Canadian dollars, at $193 IIRC. But I'm noticing this perverse king Midas effect lately, every time I buy on Amazon: if I check on it say a week or two later, the price has jumped, about 18% in this case.

My cost in Canadian dollars, converted to US dollars is just over $140:



The current price (Canadian dollars):



Check out the website "jegs" if you haven't already. They have the Moroso, but also some similar but cheaper offerings. Seems like a specialty site with a lot of oil catch can options, and lots of peripheral components.

 

I believe many times you can replace
.ca in your Amazon link to .com and get the US link.

 

What do you think of a compressed air filter -- something like THIS -- as an OCC?

 

I've used one like this on a '95 Saturn SL2. It works - it just doesn't hold nearly as much as the others. I ended up needing to empty it at every fill-up instead of every oil change.

Pixel XL ?

 

Interesting.

Does the OCC on the Prius reduce oil consumption, or simply catch it in the OCC rather than send it back to the intake to be burned?

 

A typical OCC simply catches oil vapours (or whatever that witch's brew is), that would have gone into the intake manifold, an possibly back into the combustion chambers. @danlatu did link one that returns the caught oil to the crankcase, back a few pages in this thread I believe?

What the PCV valve screws into is itself a rudimentary labyrinth that appears to catch-and-release some oil vapour, draining it back into the crankcase. But it's not that effective, judging from the oily state of pretty much every Prius intake manifold.

There also appears to be some oil dumping into the intake manifold via the intake ports, due to the Atkinson cycle engine, it's valve timing. I removed my intake manifold a second time, maybe two weeks after removal, cleaning and OCC install. There was a small amount of oil around the bottom of each intake port. Just a drop or two.

There was also maybe two tablespoons of oil accumulated in the OCC, this after 333 kms.

 

Just beware of 666

 

It definitely helped the Saturn. As far as the Prius, it collects some oily gasoline vapors but my oil level consumption hasn't been trackable yet. It's currently preventing the burning of any PCV oil. This should help keep the piston rings from getting stuck and from making blow-by / oil consumption worse.

Pixel XL ?

 

I pulled the MAP sensor off yesterday (just below throttle body, on driver's side, accessible with just the air box removed), this was maybe 800 kms post OCC install, to clean it with MAF sensor cleaner. It looked dry as a bone, as I'd left it (had cleaned with isopropyl alchohol at time of intake manifold removal), and the cavity it pulled out of was also completely clean/dry. When I first removed the intake manifold it was an oily mess from the throttle body downward, and the MAP sensor was oil soaked.

 

So do you think that it's reduced your oil consumption, or is it still too early to say?

 

I've got no oil consumption, which is the puzzler.

 

I have faith that the OCC is an example of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". We'll see in the years to come.

Pixel XL ?

 

I think the rationale is: the OCC is not going to catch a lot of oil, but what oil it catches will not possibly end up in combustion chamber, coking up the rings, which start to stick, let more oil by. Also some of that combusted oil does not end up clogging the EGR. All speculative, but certainly it can't hurt.