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Junked the oil catch bottle

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With only 16,000 miles on my truck, I couldn't believe the mess that the oil drip catch bottle had made on the front of my engine. It had caused dust and dirt to build up on my cooling fan and around the balancer. The dirt can cause pre-mature seal wear on the balancer. I bought a nylon 3/4 double male connector and some 3/4 braid re-inforced clear plastic hose. Made the hose length long enough to clear the bpttom of the engine. Chris
 
EMDDIESEL, did yours make the oil mess in front of the engine also? I can't think of a more stupid place to put it with the engine fan right next to it. I only ever got about a tablespoon of oil out of it at a 4000mi oil change. Chris
 
The hose running down to the bottom of the engine is the original configuration. The oil catch bottle is an attempt to deal with the mess that the open hose made. Those of you that have just thrown the bottle away will still see spots on your driveway and a mess on the bottom of your truck. Some of us have replaced the original short hose with a long one that runs back quite a ways. I ran mine inside the frame rail. This stops the drip so that any oil that manages to make it to the end of the hose will be blown away. Since the long hose is level it will not drip after you stop like one that just hangs straigth down.
 
Yeah, for the first 6k miles i looked at the front of my engine and it looked horible. Since i have removed that stupid bottle and ran the line straight down my engine stay spotless. No drips in my driveway either.
 
Removing that stupid bottle was one of the best things I have done to my truck so far. During the winter with my winter front on, the oil mess even started getting into my radiator. I ran a hose staight down also and haven't seen any oil spots anywhere.

I have seen some hoses get plugged with dirt and ice causing seals to blow out. I did what some of the others have done and sliced the hose (about an inch long) four times around the top where the hose goes straight down. The slices don't let anything out until the hose plugs up.
 
Oil bottle

I built an oil seperator out of PVC. I used 1 1/2" PVC about 7" long. I attached a cap with a 3/4" barb out the top for the original hose and tapped the other side and put a 1/2" pipe that runs to the bottom of the tube. On the bottom I put a threaded cap which is unscrewed to emply the oil. About 2" from the top I tapped the side and installed another 3/4" barb and ran a hose out to the bumper bracket. The vapor has to go to the bottom of the tube and back up to get out the side vent. So far no oil in exhaust hose and everthing has collected in the bottom of my canister. I used the stock nylon tie bracket off the original bottle to mount it to the timing cover.
 
For all the new members reading this post, do a search of either "blow by bottle" "cranckcase breather bottle" etc. , you will find a ton of info on this topic. I originally extended my breather hose way back to a location near the transmission, not a good spot if you live in the colder climates as a long breather hose may end up getting clogged and damaging your engine. The set up I've been using now is beyond simple and the same as EMDDIESEL's, ran a short length straight down with no bottle. I have zero oil on the bottom of my truck and zero drips. It's really a simple solution IMHO.



Scott W.
 
New trucks don't make a mess. When they get older they do. The original bottle as an invention of a TDR member to prevent the mess made by a straight down hose. Mine didn't drip until I had about 80K on the truck.
 
I have 24K miles. I hated that bottle from mile one. It made a real mess of the fan, engine, and everything else in the area. I ran mine basically straight down, but outside the frame rail. It does drip on the driveway, but that's a lot less of a problem than the entire engine compartment. the bottle is basically a good idea, badly executed. DC just located it in a stupid place, where the fan blows the fumes all over everything.
 
Less blowby after breakin

I had oily buildup in my engine compartment when new, but definitely made the area look bad where the bottle was. As miles increase this should diminish noticeably.



It seems now that the engine is more broken in (recently passed 40,000 miles) there is noticeably less blowby. I have eliminated my bottle and added a length of hose that runs straight down near the swaybar. Nothing accumulates on the underside of the truck or drips on the floor, not much vapor comes out of the hose at idle.
 
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