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Oil catch tank

mgtf328

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Whenever I check the carbs on my BJ8 I notice that the piston and the air filter on the rear carb has a film of oil on it and the plugs for the rear bank of cylinders are usually blacker than the front. I guess this is caused by oil mist coming in from the breather pipe connecting the air filter to the valve cover.

So I've been thinking of fitting a catch tank. My question is, how big do they need to be. I don't have a lot of room in the corner behind the rear carb and I've found quiet a compact looking catch tank on Ebay which would easily fit in the chassis void under the air filter. It holds 2 fluid ounces (Imp). My car doesn't seem to use much oil. I do about 2000mls a year and very rarely have to top the sump up, I think I only did it once last year with 1/2 litre in all.
Has anyone else tried this out? Does anyone have any advice as to whether this is likely to cause any problems.
Thanks
AJ
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Healey Nut

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It needs to be a baffled tank otherwise it wont work .
I have a small one waiting to go into my 62 rally recreation . Its about 6ā€ tall 2 1/2ā€ diameter .
Size doesnt matter (keep it clean the mods are watching) you will just need to empty it more often and it depends how ā€œenthusiasticā€ you are as a driver .
 

Lin

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Looks like your catch can is a Mishimoto. It is baffled. They also make a drain valve so you donā€™t actually have to disassemble the can to drain. Very handy. I have one on my car.
Lin
 
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AJ
i looked at a number of catch cans. a lot of them i could not understand how they were going to work. it looked like the air came in and went out with out passing thru any time of filter or screening... or could get around it. granted i looked at cheaper ones. i finally bought one that the air comes in, goes thru a tube in to the bottom and is pulled back up to go out thru a filter. i put mine on the left side and ran the hoses to it. easier to get to and drain with the valve on the bottom.
i added one because i added a PCV valve. i have not put on a lot of miles this summer yet but so far have not gotten enough oil out to get a good drop. i may also put a SS pad in the top for an extra filter. also i was getting too much vaccum in my crank case so i added a filtered air intake to my system. this may help cut down on the oil being pulled out.fullsizeoutput_2c3.jpgfullsizeoutput_2c8.jpg
 

red57

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As far as I know, you only need a baffled catch can if it is feeding a PVC valve connected to the intake.

If you aren't running a PVC valve, you are just venting crank case vapors - no significant vacuum to draw anything back into the motor, so no baffle needed.

For vintage racing a catch can is required but a PVC valve is not so most of us just have a can with the hose going into it.

Dave
 
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And one other thing that might help????

i wonder if most of your oil spray is getting pulled out of the side of the engine and up the verticle vent pipe. there is a lot of oil being sprayed around down there. i was wondering if taking off that verticle pipe and just putting some SS pad in the pipe. it could shed off of that and run back in to the engine.

the vent on the valve cover i believe has a baffle there and there is less oil in the top end.

maybe someone else here could say whether there this would or would not work... but it may save having to use a catch can at all.
 

RAC68

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Hi AJ,

I created my baffled catch can prior to deciding not to use a PCV (because of the confusion in the valve's required capacity and how to identify one with that proper capacity). However, I did install the catch can mounted behind the rear carburetor and connected between the original breather hose from the valve cover and rear air filter. Since the purpose of this process is to provide easy evacuation of combustion and oil contaminants from engine internals for elimination through combustion, I figured my baffled catch can will condense the heavier of these gasses and oil particles for manual elimination. This process intervention has eliminated these contaminants prior to their screwing up my rear carb or cleaner, with a very small amount of oil like fluid captured.

There are a couple of things I have learned. I was told the catch can should be mounted below the evacuation pipe. However, I could not clarify this by identifying which hose was being referenced (crank case or valve cover). Additionally, if installed below the engine (i.e. on the frame near the rear of he engine), could there be a siphoning effect?

Additionally, I have seen where a valve-controlled extraction tube can be easily installed and be very convenient for on-going maintenance operation. Since the oil will be manually eliminated, your carburetor should stay quite clean from this form of contamination

100_1550.jpg
.

Al-in-all, here is a picture of my installation, As mentioned, it has kept my rear carburetor quite clean and with very low maintenance required.

Hope this Helps,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 

DerekJ

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I agree with Dave, no baffles are needed. My tank is under the wing behind the front wheel. The Healey engine intake was not designed for PCV valves, fitting them is just a ā€˜bodgeā€™ job.
 
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mgtf328

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Thanks for the input, I've just ordered it. I'm going to remove the windscreen washer bottle and put it in the bottle holder.
As a matter of interest, I fitted a PCV valve to my 1954 MGTF. I've not fitted one to my Healey as it doesn't loose a lot of oil. I fitted a try to catch the odd drip so it doesn't leave traces on driveways.
To reduce the depression in the crank case I put a restricter in the pipe from the crank case. It was a 1" piece of solid steel rod rammed into the hose. I drilled a small hole down the middle of the rod. I had to experiment a couple of times to get the hole diameter right. Worked fine.
AJ
 

Healey Nut

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My two cents if you have to have some kind of baffles or mesh or something that increases the internal surface area and creates somewhere for the oil vapours to get caught up on they then fall to the bottom of the can by gravity .
if its just an open can then the vapours will just pass right through as they are not being slowed down or their path interrupted by baffles .
 

RAC68

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Hi All,

As Healey Nut indicated, depending on the design of the can, the baffles and/or the mesh are their to help direct the vapor downward and to condense as much of the vapor as possible before its release to the carb or intake manifold (via PCV). As long as you are mounting the can high enough not to initiate a sump oil syphon and, as said prior, the remaining vapor is being vented without manifold draw, baffles are not necessary.


As mentioned last post, my intention was to use the can to clean as much from entering the manifold through a PCV. My issue arose when I could not find an easy way size the PCV to the engine's vapor breather requirement and had to fall back to only using the catch can. I appreciate that others feel they have the correct PCV for our engines. How do they know?

Ray(64BJ8P1)
 

steveg

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I was concerned about possible leanness caused by the pcv valve. Using my dual Air/Fuel and dual Exhaust Gas Temp gauges with both the stock draft tube and PCV, I found no difference in leanness or exhaust gas temp using the PCV valve. As Bob above is, I'm using a system balanced between front and rear carbs.

screenshot.1708.jpg
 

steveg

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Nock specifies a Delco CV727C which fits AMC 6 cyl as well as lots of 2.5L 4 cyl normally aspirated GM cars.
Also Cosworth Vega 122 cu in 2L 4 cyl and GM 260 cu in 4.3L V8s.
GM PCV80 is the same.

Something tells me there's a lot of latitude on these things.
 

steveg

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Bob - Interesting.

After reading the article in the Nock book, IIRC, I bought the CV727C valve from an auto parts store. Your linked one is for up to 8.2L Caddy V8s! All big-blocks. I've also got a Fram PV770 for GM 3.8L V6s.

IMO all they're doing is making sure it fits the input and output size hoses.
 

Bob_Spidell

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Bob - Interesting.

After reading the article in the Nock book, IIRC, I bought the CV727C valve from an auto parts store. Your linked one is for up to 8.2L Caddy V8s! All big-blocks. I've also got a Fram PV770 for GM 3.8L V6s.

IMO all they're doing is making sure it fits the input and output size hoses.

Yep. It looks like the 727 has an 'extra' shoulder compared to ours.
 
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AJ
Sorry for acidentally having this thread go in another direction. i was merely explaning why i added my catch can.

as for baffle or no... i am sure these guys have a lot more experience than i do. So they could very well be right for your application. but from what i read, it seems to make sense to me that adding some sort of medium or baffle helps. or at the very least, could not hurt anything... unless maybe it caused some back pressure in the vent. a PCV system sucks the air thru as opposed to just venting. So maybe just not fill it tight with anything.

As for the "bodge" job part.... everyone has their own opinion on what works for them and what does not. i have a number of things on my car that were not in the original design. probably because they were not available at the time. but i respect others have their reasons. heck, i may have the same opinion after trying it for a while.

Good luck
 

Jerry

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I have the mishimoto baffle can on two of my cars, not the Healey yet. In both cases it stopped oil blow through the exhaust. The oil rings are new (less than 6000 miles on both cars) but the cars would occasionally blow a smoke cloud on start up. Now the cans catch all the carbon crud off the valve cover and the oil in the sump stays looking like new. I am pretty impressed with the result. My mini, which is a rally/race engine had too much oil to the rockers. Now it does not matter. My TR3 had about the same miles but with the tank installed, it is much cleaner.
Satisfied customer.
Jerry
 
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