Catch can results after 3,000 miles in 3.5L PowerBoost F-150

[Gros Ventre]

I installed a J&L Catch Can about 3,000 miles ago. Mixed Highway versus town driving to include February Temps down to -20ºF. Have discovered that about 700 miles is as far as one should go without emptying the can. Here is a picture of the liquid accumulated across that 3,000 miles. Note it is about 1/8" of oil and the remaining 2 1/2" of water with a strong gasoline odor. The water portion does freeze.

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[Gutshot]

I installed mine in January, still haven’t put 1K on it yet, but I peeked at it last week, about an ounce of mocha chino looking stuff, yours looks much thinner. I’ll post a pic of my catch soon.

 

[astrand1]

Did you get the standard 3 ounce? When I ordered mine I got the extra one so I have 6 ounces of can. That has made it so I can go around 5k miles which is when I do my oil changes.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Did you get the standard 3 ounce? When I ordered mine I got the extra one so I have 6 ounces of can. That has made it so I can go around 5k miles which is when I do my oil changes.

Just got the standard 3 oz unit.

 

[astrand1]

Just got the standard 3 oz unit.

Mine did not have that much water. Mine was more like another guy said. Like a mocha Frappuccino. Lol.

 

[DT400]

WOW. MIne has about 30 ml. of oil after 6k Mi. No moisture at all.
I would be concerned about that much moisture in your crankcase.

Maybe the humidity in Michigan is the cause, we don't have that much here in Colorado.

The only time I have seen moisture in the crankcase, that wasn't caused by a failure, is engines that were used in short drives and never allowed to get up to temp for long enough to get rid of the moisture.

Darrell

 

[diambo4life]

Moisture is normal. It would be elevated during the colder months. It's also dependent on the type of gas (E85??) and also the design of the catch can. There is nothing to worry about.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Water is one of the byproducts of combution of gasoline and another byproduct is sulfuric acid. Recall that one of the fastest ways to rot out an exhaust system is to make alot of short runs with no time to thoroughly heat up the the exhaust piping. The question is what is an appropriate amount of blowby in an engine's cylinders.

 

[NH_Leadfoot]

I installed a catch can on my 5.0 just over 5K miles ago (~25k miles on truck), and emptied it last weekend when I did an oil change. I removed 3-4oz of latte looking oil from the can. I'm glad it isn't venting back into the intake. The last 5k miles were from November-April and I know the colder weather will contribute to much more moisture, so I'm curious how much it'll catch in the summer months.

 

[Gros Ventre]

That latte looking stuff inthe catch can is acutally a mixture of oil & water & a few others... If you drain it into a jar, as I've done, and let it settle out, you'll find the oil will separate and float on the water mix.

 

[SomebodyInGNV]

Not having a catch can, does it capture wall of the undesirable product? Or part?

 

[Gros Ventre]

Well, it doesn't capture everything. But then neither does the best filter. What it does as I see it is to reduce significantly the amount of "stuff" getting into the intake manifold from Crankcase ventilation.

 

[Mouse51180]

This was my J&L catch can after 1000 miles. I didn't capture as much as you did. I wonder if this is due to climate. I live in NC and temps rarely make it below freezing here. Still glad I installed it. Got my first oil change a couple weeks ago and had the mechanic empty the catch can again, but didn't see how much it caught between 1000 and 4000 miles.
I also have the full hybrid engine...not sure if your PB is hybrid or not.

 

[Gros Ventre]

All PowerBoost's are hybrid. I think the difference can be highway miles (eg fully warmed up and then many miles) vs cold to very cold with shorter runs.

 

[LCMM55]

I installed a J&L Catch Can about 3,000 miles ago. Mixed Highway versus town driving to include February Temps down to -20ºF. Have discovered that about 700 miles is as far as one should go without emptying the can. Here is a picture of the liquid accumulated across that 3,000 miles. Note it is about 1/8" of oil and the remaining 2 1/2" of water with a strong gasoline odor. The water portion does freeze.

Can you list the modelnumber and brand of catch can. I have 21k miles and do a lot of short runs and live in South Carolina.

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