I have a catch can fitted to our 76 Cruiser.
It was fitted about 4 years ago and about 150 - 175,000 klms since.
I noticed in the last 3 months I was blowing a lot of smoke after driving about 6 klms from cold.
Eventually I took it to a diesel mechanic fearing the worst, either injectors or less likely pump, vehicle has done 273,000klms and never had injectors checked.
Well, the mechanic connected the computer and found the injectors were operating well within the parameters.
He put forward some suggestions as to the smoke issue, then took the top off the catch can and pulled out a filter!
I said "I did not know there is a filter in there", I do my own oil and filter changes, he said "that is probably your problem, the filter is blocked causing the crankcase to pressurise forcing oil up pass by the pistons causing smoke."
A new filter has since rectified the problem.
The moral of story is - clean and/or replace your catch can filter regularly.
I have a Provent 200 catch can in my vehicle. The manufacturer does not warrant it because of the potential oil pressure problems. I change the filter every 30,000km and drain any caught sludge every 10,000km. I have been using expensive higher (maybe) quality filters as being a piece of mind reassurance for me. The cost of the expensive filters is small to other things around caravanning. Fuel to cover 30,000-40,000km is much more cost How many beers would some folk consume while relaxing between drives during that 30k-40k km distance?
I modded mine so the filter is now stainless steel wool, catches the oil in the vapour very well and drains to bottom of can, dumped at 10K km service and filter washed out ... Couldn't see the need for some fancy expensive filter when the original plumbing was direct flow to intake and the idea is to catch the oil in the vapour, hoses use zip ties so if any pressure build up they will blow off, kinks in hoses I think is a cause of the issue happening in some .......... 300K km on 2 vehicles and never a problem ...... if I could delete the mongrel EGR that would be the big win and no more soot in engine but not possible without major investment.
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Checking out the places I drove past a thousand times................
