Oil Catch tank confusion!

[PrimeraRacer]

Hi all

I've just got hold of an R engine in my primera and I'm a bit confused about the oil catch tank.

I've been reading up the articles on here and from what I can see I should have an oil seperator in here too which I'm sure I dont

basically it has an in and an out on it, one side goes into the cam cover and the other goes into the base of where the manifold is, there is also a breather filer on the second breather inlet on the cam cover. pics below

Question is...... is this the correct way to have the catch tank, and should I have an oil seperator in there somewhere too.... and if so where!!

sorry to sound so dumb, I've read what I can on here and I'm no better off...... its a steep learning curve I'm on!

Thanks
Kev

 

[PrimeraRacer]

Done a bit more reading up on this.

from what I understand one side of the catch tank should go to the cam cover which is right....... and from what I can tell the other side should go back to the inlet not where it does? BTW the inlet doesnt have an attachment on it as its a stainless tube so would I then vent to atmosphere?

it also looks like I'm gonna have to get an oil seperator too by the looks...

if anyone with some serious knowledge can run through exactly what I should be doing and also where the two outlets off the cam cover should go to... currently one goes to the oil catch tank and the other has a breather filter on it!

a confused Kev!!

 

[PrimeraRacer]

Have drawn this...

Does this make sense?

only thing with this setup is that it doesnt seem that it will catch the oil if it goes straight to the seperator?

I'm thinking that maybe one of those T pieces should be blocked off, then run the pipe from the seperator that would go to the inlet into the oil catch tank and then out of the catch tank to the inlet, then let the oil from the seperator return to that oil return where the current catch tank goes to!

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Fast Guy]

I think the standard separator (not a catch tank) has a drain to the sump, an inlet from the cam cover.

Just fit a Forge oil separator and forget the catch tank, or fit the catch tank and forget the separator and junk the standard separator.

 

[PrimeraRacer]

cheers

so I can use a catch tank ok on its own!

Question regarding the current setup, the out pipe of the catch tank goes to what I'm guessing is the oil return to the sump (tube that dissapears down below the manifold). This doesnt sound right, I'm guessing it should return to either atmosphere or the inlet. can I just bung up the oil return to the sump if its not used?

also, what pipes are connected to the T piece at the cam cover as standard?

Cheers
Kev

 

[PrimeraRacer]

anyone??? ^

 

[Fast Guy]

Yes you could use a catch tank on it's own.
The Gtir only has an oil separator (black metal thing with 2(I think) connections) as standard.
I think one goes to the hoses off the cam cover and the other is the drain to the sump. You don't want any oil going all over your engine (atmosphere) or into the inlet (lots of smoke ) do you? :? so it's allowed to drain back to the sump.
Put a nice shiney new Forge separator on, it'll probably be better than the standard one anyway. Or just block the drain and run a hose into a 500ml coke bottle or similar

 

[PrimeraRacer]

thanks but I dont think you are following me!

I have a catch tank that is going back into the oil return feed, how can that be right when its supposed to catch the oil not return it. I thuoght catch tanks were supposed to have one from the cam cover and then go back to the inlet or something?

also, do you know what other thing goes onto the T-Piece on the Cam cover as standard.

Thanks

 

[geetee]

I thought the whole idea of having a catch tank and breather like that was so you could remove the return back to the Air Intake to stop the oily fumes depositing in your IC and inlet.

Cheers
GeeTee 8)

 

[PrimeraRacer]

thats what I'm trying to determine without much luck!!

 

[Fast Guy]

You can use a catch tank on it's own or a separator on it's own. It sounds like you have a separator not a catch tank as it isn't catching anything if it's returning it to the sump.
In it's simplest form a catch tank could be an empty 1litre oil top up bottle being fed from the factory oil breather or the cam cover.

In your diagram, any oil that goes into the separator will drain straight back into the block, but it will tend to want to go straight on into the catch tank.

I'm thinking that maybe one of those T pieces should be blocked off, then run the pipe from the seperator that would go to the inlet into the oil catch tank and then out of the catch tank to the inlet, then let the oil from the seperator return to that oil return where the current catch tank goes to!

You don't need the catch tank if you have the separator, as the separator should send any oil back to the sump and vapour to the inlet. If you have the catch tank in line after the separator nothing will make it into it as the separator has already taken care of that, so you're adding stuff for no reason. If you wanted to, you could feed to the catch tank and forget returning it to the inlet.

(If your engine's in good health there should be nothing to catch anyway, if it's blowing out oil that much then I'd advise a rebuild.)

Do you have a picture of your catch tank from the top?

 

[PrimeraRacer]

well the up side of this is that I'm not getting any oil out into the catch tank, there is a breather on the other T-Piece and thats not oiley either. Saying that though the engine was rebuilt only 1500 miles ago so thats definately a good thing.

I've now read up on these things and understand the way they work I just still dont understand why a Catch tank would have a pipe returning to the sump!

 

[geetee]

The separator won't be doing any harm and the catch tank will catch anything that escapes it.

I would remove the return to the air intake personally and just have the exit via the catch tank and breather filter.

I don't know if the standard separator is restrictive at all, but it may become so if it hasn't been cleaned for 10 years and you raise your redline etc.

Cheers
GeeTee

 

[PrimeraRacer]

thanks but I dont have a return to the intake.

The catch tank returns to thesump not the intake

Cheers
Kev

 

[geetee]

Now I'm confused.

The standard separator has 2 pipes, one return to the sump at the bottom and one to a T piece to a pipe that runs to the air intake.

I don't know what that 3rd pipe to the inlet is on your diagram!

CHeers
GeeTee

 

[Keira]

the way i see it is..

the standard seperator sort outs any crankcase vapours, the inlet duct draws the vapour up through the seperator, the oil collects and runs back down,

any vapour from the topend gets drawn straight through.

the reason i say this is how the f o o k is oily air going to decide its going to turn right when it gets to the t-piece after the rocker cover and send itself off through the standard seperator ???

it aint :lol:

its going to get drawn straight through due to the constant sucking of the inlet duct.

i could of course be wrong but thats what common sense suggests :idea:

i personally use standard seperator and my coffee pot catch tank 8) and dont return at all, although it might be better to, to help draw out any vapour

 

[MarkTurbo]

the reason i say this is how the f o o k is oily air going to decide its going to turn right when it gets to the t-piece after the rocker cover and send itself off through the standard seperator ???

it aint :lol:

:roll: You've clearly underestimated the intelligence of oily air. When the oily air gets to the T piece it stops and telepathically links up with the ecu which tells it which way to go. And because oily air is very obedient by nature it then goes whichever way its told

Hope that clears things up

I've just taken the pipe that goes to the air inlet off the inlet pipe and put it onto a catch can with a breather filter on.

Before i did this i was getting a covering of oil in the boost pipes and intercooler, but since i put the catch tank on they've all stayed spotless inside 8)

 

[PrimeraRacer]

I think I'm beginging to get it now. so is the standard setup like this.

oil seperator runs off one of the T-Pieces of the rocker cover, this then returns to the sump.

the other bit of the T-Piece runs direct to the inlet.

am I right on that?

Cheers
Kev

 

[MarkTurbo]

Yep, thats right