Beware of oil catch cans in the cold
 

On acceleration, when the turbo came on boost, my car was spewing blue smoke. I initially feared that the oil seals in the VF29 were blown, or that the engine was on its way out.

Fortunately, it turned out that the oil catch can had frozen and both crankcase and cam cover ventilation lines were blocked. With a pressurized crankcase, the oil return from the turbo found the easiest path out - through the oil seals.

After going back to the stock setup, the blue smoke is gone.

Just a "heads up" for those who have installed catch cans and live in a cold climate.

bloody hell how cold is it where you are mate and thanks for the heads up

Norway can be pretty nippy ;)

must be least -10 for that surely, id of thought the heat from the engine would of melted that straight away

Its the moisture in the hoses that freeze...

-6 degrees up here in aberdeenshire,murt in garage so relying on wife's forester lol
martin

i was in norway for 4 weeks and the temps dropped from 7 c to -12. the day i returned which was 23 nov temp was -11. in the papers in norway it was saying they may even hit -25.

-20c last night, and I guess it will only get colder.

Subaru, unlike us DIY-guys, have put some thought into the design of the stock breather system. Short hoses, and the longest one under the intake manifold and directly above the coolant pipe.

Iirc the crawford performance catch can is heated somehow, could take a look at the install instructions to see how its done, might keep it from freezing.

The Crawford can uses one of the coolant lines from the expansion tank to heat the can. The fitting instructions show this, http://www.crawfordperformance.com/d..._Version_2.pdf