Page 4 - catch can

You spend hours washing, waxing, and polishing. Not a single drop of water or speck of dirt is left on the paint's surface when you're done. The interior is the same story; the carpet, seats, and dash look better than on the day you picked up your new BMW from the dealer. You spend precious time and effort protecting your investment from the outside, but what about the places you can't see? I don't mean that spot under the seat where you have to break every bone in your hand to retrieve your phone. I mean the heart of the car: the engine. Using high-quality fuel is a start to keeping your engine healthy, but there are more threats that you may never see coming until they've already gotten the best of your engine.

Looking Back

In the last post, we looked at the N55's stock PCV system; we examined its advantages and disadvantages, and how blow-by can harm your engine. We also took

Good afternoon, Camaro 2.0T and Cadillac ATS owners, and welcome to the latest R&D post for our 2013+ Cadillac ATS and 2016+ Camaro 2.0T catch can kit. For a recap on why you might want to remove blow-by from your engine, check out our technical article ALL about the nasty stuff. We've got some pretty awesome developments to share, but first let me begin by"

Setting the Scene

Imagine, for a moment, the warm hue of soft, August light, gently bathing the wooded pastures of northwestern Pennsylvania in a quilt of contrasting gold. The sun lingers low in the late-afternoon sky and casts heat over the valleys, but the breeze brings with it a subtle bite; a subdued, but confident nod to autumn's imminent arrival.

For most, this weather typically imparts an assured sense of calm as the summer comes to a close,

For those who may be unaware, we've been working with some folks overseas in the UK and down-under in Australia to ensure that our catch can bracket has the best possible fit on right-hand drive GT86s, BRZs, and FR-Ss.  To learn more about the catch can's development process, check out our previous BRZ catch can R&D blog posts. To go one step futher and find out why a catch can is such a benefit to your engine, learn everything you need to know about blow-by in our technical article on the subject.

Because research, development, and the actual creation of the parts all happen here in the US, the back-and-forth nature of the across-the-pond prototyping process takes a smiiiiidge longer than it would if we had a RHD car in our R&D facility, but it is progressing well nonetheless.

In the meantime, I thought you may enjoy seeing how our

We have had some radio silence with this F150 catch can project, but we now have some updates that we are ready to spill! This has been an interesting project from the beginning. The bulk of time has mainly consisted of road testing; we've logged thousands of miles so far, and every single mile counts.

Let's backtrack a bit. When we began this project, we intended to see what a dual-can setup would accomplish. In the last update we explained the benefit of having a catch can as part of both the PCV and CCV systems. Also, our engineer, Dan, was in the process

This is it. The leather seat grips your back as hard as your hands grip the wheel and the tires grip the road. The pavement is your playground and nothing can break the connection you have to its twists and turns.  Your mind is calm, but calculating, guiding the wheels through every turn with finesse as the headlights cut through the darkness.  Smooth is fast, and this car is certainly smooth.  When you finally coax yourself to go home, stepping out into the cool night air, you think to yourself, "This is it."

The Dark Horse of Combustion: Blow-by

But what aren't you thinking about? Sure, BMW's N55 TwinPower Turbo inline-six engine is smooth and powerful, but what happens inside that engine is much more violent. Internal combustion engines are essentially controlled bombs; air and fuel combust to drive pistons and crankshafts.  One byproduct of this violence is power, but there are darker horses

There's nothing quite like plopping oneself into the car to leave work on a summer evening, beach-bound and brimming, windows down, to the tune of the sunset vibes that arrive hand-in-hand with the heavy midsummer air of July. Our Mishimoto R&D facility is located in New Castle, DE, and around here, people tend to favor numerous seaside towns in Southern New Jersey or in Delaware.

A true slice of Americana, an evening stroll down the main drag of a typical east coast beach town is sure to leave anyone with a faint smile, humming "Surfin USA" and craving more frozen custard, or maybe another gin and tonic. The competing smells of crisp, briny sea air and sweet, fried funnel cake assuage the senses, while the voices of The Beach Boys emanate lazily and intermittently from the windows of passing cars. That's right west coasters, we have beaches here too, and we also have surfer girls, boardwalks, waves to catch, and even the occasional deuce coupe or

We have begun developing a catch can system for the 2015+ Ford F150 EcoBoost! This project, although small (in components), could have a significant impact on the F150 EcoBoost market. Why? There are not many direct-fit options, and there are a lot of these trucks out there. Oil blow-by can be pretty serious, especially on turbo applications, and this truck is twin turbocharged! Nonetheless, many gearheads tend to question the merits of using a catch can. So before we go any further, let's briefly explain what a catch can actually does and why it's so beneficial!

Port vs. Direct Injection

With port-injected engines, the fuel injectors are inside the intake manifold and produce the fuel stream that mixes with the air. This mixture is shot into the combustion chamber,

Introducing Blow-by and the PCV System

Internal combustion engines are essentially controlled bombs; air and fuel combust to drive pistons and crankshafts.  One byproduct of this violence is power, but there are darker horses to contend with.  During combustion, high pressure on the top side of the piston pushes combustion gasses, as well as droplets of oil and fuel, past the piston rings and into the crankcase. This mixture is known as "blow-by."

To keep the crankcase from becoming pressurized, causing issues with oil sealing and robbing the engine of power, blow-by is pulled from the crankcase via the positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) system and routed back into the intake.