fusilier

As some of you know, the 20V engine spews a **** load of oil around. My car is running a wet sump and I haven't gotten around to converting it to dry sump, and I probably won't because of the expense and the use of the car. But maybe one day.

So Ive been trying out different crankcase breather setups and arrangements over the past 6 months and after about 4 different setups I think this is the culmination of all that trial and error. I've used a straight catch can (one chamber) mounted high with a drain back to the block which was horrible. Then tried filling the catch can with steel wool which didn't help. Then I moved the catch can with steel wool to a slighty higher position behind the radiator but that still overflowed. Then I changed the plumbing by adding a one way valve to the drain line, but that also didn't work. So I was apparently getting a great deal of oil slosh up in the valve cover area.

So I bought a vortex type oil-air seperator from Aircraft Spruce. This is the round hollow type, a decent design but doesn't really allow the air to condense because its hollow. I mounted it to the driverside by the firewall and then put my catch can up front in front of the radiator. This helped alot and I was able to do about 20 minutes of hard driving before the catch was full. I wasn't draining the catch can in this case, but the oil seperator was doing an okay job but perhaps could be better situated and a better design.

So I decided to make my own catch can as everyone I've seen on the market is the wrong size and doesn't have AN fittings. I like the M20 design and as this is an oil-air seperator I don't mind mounting it on the passenger side of the engine bay where its hot. And I am thinking I can eliminate alot of slosh by tapping the valve cover like the 10V rally cars which is top center. The 10V rally cars also have an aluminum plate bolted behind this vent to deflect liquid oil. This is an ideal spot as its high and center. I'll still run the rear drain from the valve cover back to the crankcase. This also allows the crankcase to vent up to the valve cover.

From there I'll position the seperator on the firewall up high. The drain will go behind the engine and tie into the oilpan with a flap valve to prevent backward flow. The air vent will run around the engine to the catch can mounted up front for now.

So here is the plan showing the cutaway of the seperator and the proposed layout of the system.
<img src="http://www.bufkinengineering.com/seperator04.JPG">

The seperator is three cylinders of aluminum. The outer is the casing, then there is an intermediate deflector, and then inside that is a drain pipe. So air has to go down then back up to get out. doubles the length of the can and its full of coarse steel wool and that heavy plastic mesh stuff.

So today I built the seperator.
<img src="http://www.bufkinengineering.com/seperator02.JPG">

Here it is mounted to the strut brace

The whole engine now
<img src="http://www.bufkinengineering.com/seperator01.JPG">

And the one way valve mounted on the drain line.
<img src="http://www.bufkinengineering.com/seperator03.JPG">


I'll give this setup a run in one week at the rallycross here in Austin. Hopefully it will work with minimal oil in the catch can.

Shavedquattro

James, I like it. It gave me some great ideas for my car. I need to do something with it, as I can see it is going to be an oily mess without. Thanks for the ideas!

Hank

520

Looks efficient. Side question: the black collar that holds/supports your ignition wires - OEM or ??

fusilier

The tube is OEM. that particular one is from a 5000 10V

520

Thx.