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Old 19 June 2008, 06:19 PM
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Chrisn01
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Default Intercooler Cleaning and Catch Can Advice

Hiya Guys

Brought a STI TMIC for my Bugeye and when installing it, noticed there was an thick oily/sticky gunge inside the Y pipe and would assume, inside the intercooler as well. This I would imagine lowers the cooling efficentcy some what, so my question is, can the inside of the intercooler be cleaned and if so, whats the best way of doing it.

This has also made me think about getting a Oil Catch can to prevent it in the future, but am a bit confused. I read the following on a web site:

As describe above the oily mess goes from the crank case to the intake system, and generally through a rubber hose. An oil catch can simply intersects the hose and the oily mess before it reaches the intake system. The top of our Oil Catch Can has 2 fittings, one in and one out. The oily mess goes in the can, gets trapped because of either the media inside the can, or from the change in direction, or from a change in temp. This separated the good from the bad, and collects the bad.

Because engines have more than one crank case vent, and or more than one type of crank case vent, they can use more than one catch can. For instance on a Subaru WRX, there is a crank case vent, valve cover vent and PCV hose. All of these vents do different things at different states of engine load, and in turn, all could use a separate catch can.



Does this mean I need three catch cans or will one be sufficent and if so, where does it install?

Any advice would be much appreciated as iv never fitted one before and any tips would be cool
Old 19 June 2008, 07:47 PM
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scooby-k
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you only need one. there are breathers on each rocker cover and also one on crankcase. there are various methods of doing the plumbing and plenty of topics on catch cans.
Personally I re routed crankcase one to catch can and then ran a hose down length of car to vent out. The rocker ones are already tee under the manifold and go into the intake just infront of the inlet manifold. I just put another PCV valve in this pipe. the crankcase one is the biggest cause of the oil in the IC.
ken
Old 19 June 2008, 09:24 PM
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Chrisn01
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Cheers for the info ken, dont suppose you have any ideas about how to clean the intercooler without damaging it?

Cheers Mate
Old 19 June 2008, 10:46 PM
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take it off and flush with petrol make sure its dry b4 putting back on.
and dont smoke while your doing it lol
Old 20 June 2008, 05:07 PM
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Chrisn01
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Cheers budy, ill give it a go
Old 21 June 2008, 12:17 AM
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you could fit 3 cans, some people do, but its easier to simply T the hoses together, make sure you remove the pcv valve part of the equation otherwise it will never vent anything, my mate was telling me that his can has never ever caught anything, so i had a look at his install, simply hooked up to the cam breathers and that was it lol

mine fills up with "mostly" water but it does catch some brown crap from time to time
Old 21 June 2008, 11:05 AM
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Dont suppose you know if there any diagrams of how to do this on impreza's?
Old 02 September 2008, 11:51 AM
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BAck to the top for some pics of the install and also wheres the pcv valve on the bugeye?

Thanks
S!
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