Cadillac Owners Forum banner

3.2 oil catch can?

9519 Views 36 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  ghettomike
has anyone installed a oil catch can on their 3.2L before?
i would love to get some imput from a GM tech on how it would be connected, because the PCV system on this engine is a little different.

ewillard? you still on here?
1 - 13 of 37 Posts
From what I understand, it would be removing the dirty air line, running that line into the catch can, then running a new line from the catch can into the dirty air line connector.

I'll be picking mine up in about an hour or so from the post office.
Dirty air line is the 2nd line (from left to right).
I bought it on ebay. I paid $40 shipped, and its definitely high quality aluminum. Billet 6061.
On a side note, for you canadians, this item might cost $430 after shipping and customs. LOL
Yeah, I'm sure you can make one. Here's a link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Univ...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3caeb6c92a

The design is so simple, I'm sure you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on one. I'm sure you can make one with some fittings, some PVC pipe, and hoses. I don't think it would be very difficult, but I think $40 shipped for 1 is good enough.

And here's the PCV hose info:


[edit]
i originally said 3rd line, but when i double checked, i saw it was the 2nd line. I'll be sure to take pics and everything, but what I'm probably going to do today is try to locate a spot to put this at where it won't bang into anything, where it'll be easy to drain, and still be accessible from the PCV valve hose, etc. I might have to get a barb, and another piece of hose depending on how I'm going to run this.
See less See more
Gotcha. Will do. I'm going to take some pics once I set it up. but first, I gotta see how/where i can mount this at. I don't want to run extra hosing and i want to keep it nice and tidy and near the rear connectors. I'm going to look in the catera section here and see if anyone has done this, seeing as how its the same engine.

[edit]
took a look at the engine compartment, best spot will probably be near battery. This also needs some barbs because our PCV valve hose is too small of a hose to fit over the barbs on the catch can. I'll probably have to do some modifications. I'll list everything with sizes and everything very very soon.
4
I went to home depot and ordered the following parts:
1/4" Barb x 1/4" MIP (2x. Hose Barb)
1/4" FIP x 1/8" FIP (2x. These are couplers)
1/8" MIP x Close (2x. These are brass pipe nipples that thread into the Oil catch can)
1/4" Barb x 1/4" Barb (Double barb. I had this from a LONG time ago so yeah)
1/4" ID tubing (about 2 feet was good. I bought alot more cuz I need either way)

Unfortunately, no one had a 1/8" MIP x 1/4" Barb, so I had to couple these together to get it to work. If you can find a 1/8" MIP x 1/4 Barb, you'll be good money and you won't need the coupler nor the nipple.

Anyway, I used a standard wrench and just removed the oil catch cans barbs (which are for 3/8th from what it looked like) and replaced it with the new barbs.


Thats how it ends up looking. Afterwards, I connected the double barb to a piece of tubing.


Now under the hood... I disconnected the dirty air line (2nd line) and then... with the hose from that line, I connected the other side of the barb. Now the dirty air line was running into the 1/4" tubing via the barb. I then sized it up and cut and connected it to 1 barb from the oil catch can. Now I used the same tubing, connected it to the opposite side of the catch can, and connected that into the barb from the top of the intake manifold, where the dirty air line was originally running into.





I currently have it mounted using a ziptie and a clamp ring. I'm sure there is a better method. I just did this for now as it was wayyy too cold outside to start thinking. LOL Any suggestions in here would be appreciated.
See less See more
yeah. i ended up changing them out this morning when i saw a little condensation in the clear tube.
The tube lets you see how much oil is in there. Acts as a marker.
As for how often... Guess I'll have to find that out while driving and checking it every few days.
I haven't had the time to actually check and open it up as well, mostly because i was thinking of doing it today until all this rain came down. When the weather clears, I'll take a look at it. (or if it at least slows down.)
Its translates more as maintenance, keeping the engine burning cleaner. Not so much as performance.
Since I've had this on, which has been since Feb 10th with this exact setup... I just checked today. The clear side tube which is the oil level indicator doesn't seem to have any real oil in it, but it does look yellowish, which I believe is some oil having passed thru it and possibly sitting at the very bottom of the catch can. I'll see about opening it up tomorrow and seeing how much comes out.

All in all, seems to be a good little investment to catch some oil before it recirculates.
2
The blue hose I got was an actual fuel line hose, which was good. I think I'd change that one out too. I had one of those clear tubes and although nothing really happened, I felt better using an actual fuel line hose. I had to go out of my way to find one since the local places didn't have.

Here are pics of it now. I opened it up, and nothing really came out, but you can see its picking up little bits of oil.





[edit]
In these pics, its unmounted because I was seeing if anything was in it. I have it ziptied against the firewall usually.
See less See more
It definitely seems to be catching small amounts. You can see by the clear tubing its got some oil in it. I opened it up but there wasn't enough to pour out. My guess is, seeing as how its only been about 1-2 months... I'd have to give it about 4 more months before I could make a solid review.
I don't think the 3.6 uses any PCV system. I'm not sure how you'd route a catch can in the 3.6
1 - 13 of 37 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top