for those of you that have the ARC oil Catch can installed.....what fluid shows up in your clear plastic level tube in the back..after installing mine over the weekend I check to see if everything was working well...come to find out that this is what is showing up in mine...

its CLEAR...almost like water/moisture..not sure honestly. typically thought oil should show up for BLOW BY...but how this installs made me wonder. I know that the hoses are routed into front passneger side valve Cover..then around to the back side driver valve cover and then into the lower side of the intake tube....unsure why im getting this particular fluid in mine. is that normal after first install for everything to start routing?

 

just empty it out. mines so dirty i cant even see whats inside.

 

my guess would be its condensation

 

Sounds to me like you have it plumbed in wrong, is your idle high? or do you experience any higher RPM running problems?
Normally you would use a separate catch can for each side, the passenger side cam cover has a non return valve in it, the driver side doesn't have the one way valve, and so if the catch can is also plumbed into this then the will be an air leak into the plenum during all throttle openings.
Not saying that this is the cause of your water in the can and pipework but it could be a contributing factor.

 

With all your mods it sounds like you have the catch can plumed wrong. There shouldn't be anything clear inside your catch can just small amounts of oil residue. SEARCH subject catch can and reinstall.
Gary

 

The fluid that shows up the clear plastic tube in my ARC oil catch can is oil, dark in color. Never had any clear fluid in there.

 

already drained it out.

I think it was related to condensation after the initial start-up and run since its been extremely cold here when I performed the install..when I mean cold...in the teens.



Its plumbed the correct way I know for sure. no idle issues or anything. Based on the ARC diagram...

I have the catch can routed to the front Oil Overflow spot on the passenger side front valve cover. The second outlet runs around the back side of the engine into the Drivers side inlet and replaces the OEM Hose that runs from the back-side driver valve cover into vaccuumm line of intake...the other side outlet runs into the bottom side of the intake tube. pics shown below.

my fluid is def darker now thats going into it..but I use synthetic which is the lighter brown look...

Marcus just curious...

 

Now i see your diagram, i can see what you have done, as you don't use any of the available intake vacuum (i presume you have blocked the plenum tube off?)
you will not have any active PCV system, so there is nothing to draw oil vapor through for the catch can to actually catch, other than the full throttle breather, (which doesn't give much of a depression until WOT) so all your going to get is dirty evaporated water.

 

thats how the ARC Catch Can is supposed to be installed..you cap off the front oil outlet from the plenum..currently I dont think any oil should be getting into the plenum now due to this setup. Currently my plenum after driving for 2-3 hours I can put my hand on the plenum and its warm..not scalding hot.

 

Fitting a catch tank will have no impact on your plenum temp at all.

Most cars including the G35 will have two PCV systems, one called the idle or low throttle breather operates during idle and low throttle openings, this is the tube that goes from the bottom left side of the plenum to the left hand cam cover, this has the non return valve in the cam cover tube, normally this is the one thats used for fitting a catch can as it will be the one that causes the most oil vapor (the VQ35DE seems to breath very heavy on idle, and low throttle openings, as the is a quite heavy intake vacuum at idle.

The second breather is the one on the back part of the right hand cam cover and goes to the underside of the intake tube before the throttle plate, this only operates when there is enough depression in the intake tube to draw any vapor's through, and is named full throttle breather because of this, so this is the source of vacuum for your catch can, so this is why your seeing very little oil etc in your catch can.

 

alright thanks for the explanation!!!! so overall what are your thoughts of the way I have it hooked up?? so far everything is running just fine...is there an issue to the way its working?

 

I guess when it comes down to it, if its keeping oil vapor out of the combustion process, as it lowers the RON of the fuel, which is the whole point of fitting one, then its doing its intended job
If you where running FI i would have suggested some modifications, but not really necessary with N/A.

There is one thing i am not over keen on with the location of the ARC can, in that it sits quite high in relation to the cam covers and intake, so you need to keep a careful eye on how full it gets, as if the level of whatever it contains, and especially if its water, could find its way into the engine or the intake.

 

def not fi at this point in time..used to be....hence my status "was blown...."

however im setting aside the funds for the LS1 swap if I can get around to it!

 

Nice! wish they where easy to come by on my side of the pond, would love to do a conversion.

 

one tight engine bay. nice job.