Thanks alot Bro, I have tried to look through the stock vacuum hose for leaks but without success..

I have also tried to start my engine without the hose being connected to simulate a big leak...

it started very rough then stalled right away.. which tells me nth of whether it is a vacuum leak that is causing my stalling during WARM startup

Once again, I really appreicate the help from you guys here

 

So far, it looks like you can (probably) eliminate the catch can as the problem ...

FWIW... when trouble shooting; proper proceedure is to try one thing at a time.
eg. if you did 1, 2 & 3 above at the same time; it's not effective in finding the problem.

Try one thing, reset the ECU (if necessary)... THEN try the next thing.

Don't worry, the problem will come to light.

 

Thanks again everyone

I will first try to see if the dealer can help me on this
if not.. I will probably spend some time to figure this out
on friday night...

doing them one by one..

Moreover, I finally got the tricky part of resetting the ECU.. and it seems that I can do it right everytime now


Side note: does anyone know if PVC is a good material for heat? cause I bought some of these from home depot .. they said it can withsatnd 225psi under 70F which is quite alot..but they didn't specifc the optimal working temperature range tho.. Btw, they look very like the ones that are used by Trey: clear hose that is braided

 

PVC is only good for about 70-80Centigrade under any pressure differential.

Mike

 

Thank you UK-Nissian

coz I bought some PVC braided tube that says it can withstand 225PSI
but under 70F ... so I am not sure if it is good for engine temp

 

my car still stalls btw..

 

Well

After retightening two of the many upper and lower plenum bolts + remove the stock PCV hose and reconnect it.. (just making sure it was not the connection) + an earlier ECU reset during the day..

My car finally does NOT stall during warm start up.. but stays at around 700 rpm and then slowly drops to 600 rpm

(I should have done the above one by one... feel ashamed to be an engineer who continuosuly fail to test each factor independtly .... )

Anyways, my previous observation of the stalling was the following:

1) After the installation of the oil catch can on Monday I believe... my warm startup starts from feeling a bit sluggish (the ECU has to kick in to raise the rpm from like 550 back to 600rpm) to the car just stalls on those warm startups on wednesday. The interesting part is that the car does NOT stall right away after the oil catch can installation (once again during warm startup) .. but slowly progess from a rough warm startup to a total stall during warm startup....

This makes me think that it is either the PCV hose is "becoming" loose or "starts" to leak... from tues to wed... OR the ECU is not used to the extra restriction in the PCV.. which caused the idling and stalling problem


2) During those so called stalls.. the rpm first shoots to around 1k rpm, then just drops to 500 rpm and stalls..... so it is this an indication of an air leak problem in the PCV system / intake manifold or is this an ECU problem


The above two items are for future reference (whoever might experience this..."touch wood") and for someone who is curious (like me) and like to know more about how does the VQ work


Once again, I really appreciate the help from you all BROS !

Do you think if I should still bring my car to dealer? last time my car shutted down in a light around a year ago... they didn't seem to care or even check... they just said: "OH... your ECU cleared out the error codes for some reason, and your car is running fine now.. just come back when your engine dies on you again..."

 

Well a hard vacuum is only 14.7psi, and at most you will have a few psi above ambient, I would be more worried about PVC hardening off and going brittle with oil and gas getting on it.

Mike

 

Thanks Mike

Btw, is the material used for fuel injector hose safe? cause I am not sure what kind of material is used... I just see the brand name + some SAE number... (Goodyear)

seems like I should try refunding my pvc hose to Home Depot lol

 

Well fuel injector hose would survive and be tough. Possibly a BUNA-N or butedeine rubber.

Mike

 

Guys I'm in the club that seems to be losing too much oil in between changes. I recently started doing it myself (previously dealer did it) and noticed on my first self change that I only took out 3-3.5 qts (Mobil 1 5w30). I was a little startled that so little came out. So this cycle I am only at ~3000 miles and the dipstick is already at low. I do drive it hard. I hope that this is all not going back into the engine. I have a Cusco oil catch can sitting at home to be installed this weekend.

My question is for those that have bought one, which hose size did you get? 15 or 9mm? I was told by two different parts shops that I needed 15mm hosing so that is what I purchased. But a couple posts here mentioned 9mm??? Am I screwed here? Any comments welcome. Thanks.

 

9.5mm to be exact, but 9mm is what they normally provide...
Btw, if you do the lower plenum side of the PCV hose, you need
3/8" ID; while if you do the Z-tube side of the PCV hose, you need
sth bigger (maybe that's why they tell you to get 15mm).

However, as per alot of previous discussions, it is alot more effective
to do it on the LOWER INTAKE MANIFOLD (plenum) side as opposed to
the z-tube side, which only works when you do alot alot alot of WOTs.

In that case, you should be looking at a dual catch can


Hope this helps,
G

 

Thanks for the info. I wish I had come across this thread before ordering the catch can. I guess I'll have to go to Home Depot or Auto parts store and look for some fuel injector tubing. That is what most people are using from what I read here? Any other suggestions?

 

This is a bit off topic, but apparently this whole makeshift oil catch can thing is pretty popular with other crowds. My friend wanted me to build him one for his SRT4, so I just went to srtforums to see if someone has already done something like this...

Check out this thread:
http://www.srtforums.com/forums/show...7&postcount=29
Same filter, same fittings, same clamps, same hoses(except they need about 4 feet). And they've been doing this since late 04.

I spent a little more time reading catch-can related threads on that site. Many people are of the opinion that one should avoid such a home remedy, and buy a purpose-built catch can. The typical complaint is that the home-built unit won't catch enough oil. Regardless, it's better than nothing. Also, there seems to be a misconception about the general-purpose air filter. Some people believe that airflow proceeds directly from the entry to the exit. This is not the case. The top of the filter assembly forces the airflow down through the casing before entering the exit.

There is some room for improvement, however. If the cannister were to contain something porous on which the oil vapor could attach, then even more oil could be trapped. For more information on this particular topic, visit andy's thread on my350z: http://www.my350z.com/forum/showthre...=188315&page=2

 

If you just cut the bottom off the included white cylindrical filter - then you've minimized air flow restrictions and you've got something for the oil to adhere to, right?

That short segment of white filter material looks oil-soaked in my setup.

I wanted to keep the white cylinder as it made certain the oil vapor moves down at least a few centimeters into the glass bottle before going back up to escape...