Catch tank question

[Kitcat]

My 1700 cc Kent Crossflow is still pumping quit a bit of oil out thru the air cleaners & onto the clam shell fender. The build books suggests making a catch tank. I can easily see where the oil is being vented out of the carburetors, and I have an unused plastic catch tank already in place.

 

My questions are:

 

What is the best tubing to use, and,

 

If I do this, the tube will have to exit the air filter which will compromise the filters' effectiveness (because I don't see any way of tightly sealing the tube where it would exit the filters). Any ideas? Can I add a sock filter over each Weber trumpet to deal with any unfiltered air that may enter?

 

Thanks,

Mike

[11Budlite]

Hi Mike,

 

I don't completely understand the set-up you have. On my Zetec, there's an oil seperator on the left side of the block, that on the production cars has a PCV valve that gets routed to the induction system. What's normally done if you're going to use a catch tank is to remove the pcv valve and plumb it to a catch tank that looks like this:

 

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/801845685_untitled.bmp

 

The hose goes into the fitting on the upper right. Then it's just a matter of checking for oil in the tank and draining it through the petcock in the bottom. High RPM use on track probably requires you to check it after every session, or every trackday at the least. The filter on the top just keeps crap from backflowing into the oil system. The Zetec also has a fitting on the right rear of the cam cover. Some people cap it off, and some people vent it to the catch tank or put one of those little K&N filters on it. I think where you have the hose going into the air cleaner now would have to be capped off. Where does the hose on the air cleaner hook up to on the engine? Is it the valve cover, the oil cap, on the side of the block? I'm not familiar with the Kent motor but that would probably be where you have to vent from.

 

As far as what type of hose to use, I would think that any oil-resistant hose should work. As far as size, I think the bigger the better.

 

Maybe one of the crossflow guys will be along to explain their set-up a little better..

 

Bruce

 

PS: You don't have to use one of those fancy catch tanks. Anything that holds fluid and can be drained will work!