Oil catch tank - anyone tried one of these?

[New Cat]

My crossflow currently has the rather crude oil breather arrangement, feeding only from the crankcase breather hose into an open topped washer bottle on the bulkhead. I'm thinking to add a further breather from the oil filler cap (an Austin Maestro part I believe!)

My question was whether anyone had tried any of these cheap aluminum catch tanks from eBay? I'm also wondering whether it seems feasible to use both ports as inlets? Like this... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123876306422 would be nice to capture the vapours more effectively so they don't float into the cabin.

 

[TomB]

Not that one, but I fitted a Mocal copy like this, I got an offer accepted, cost me £17!

New 1L Universal Aluminum Alloy Racing Car Oil Catch Can Reservoir Tank Black https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202718472141

 

[AnkerB-S]

On my Xflow I followed the advice of other forum members and ran a hose from the crankcase breather to one end of the valve cover, and then a hose from the other end of the valve cover to a catch tank, bought on Amazon, and then a hose under the transmission.

To my surprise, the valve cover catches all of the fumes and the catch tank is dry as a bone. What a difference from before I did this, when oil fumes would waft from under the car when sitting still.

[New Cat]

Thanks Tom,

is it any good? Do you use 2 inlets? My bulkhead is already quite busy, so need to measure up carefully and was looking at smaller ones and narrower ones without the inspection tube.

[New Cat]

Thanks Ankers, I've heard quite a lot about these but a picture would paint a thousand words! Could you possibly share one please?

[TomB]

It’s ok for it cost. The black coating is easily scratched if you spanner slips, but for the price it’s fine. Certainly compared with what Mocal change for the similar tank, you could buy about 4 of these. Mines mounted on the bulkhead in the centre of the scuttle.

[SLR No.77]

I previously used a genuine Mocal tank which has a venting cap, using both connections as inlets, mounted on the bulkhead as per Tom's setup. However I found that I could always smell oil when driving so swapped to a sealed twin port catch tank, using one port as the inlet and the other as a breather piped to the rear of the car, now there's no longer the smell of oil that I had previously. My sealed tank has a level tube on the outside which is very useful.

Stu.

[7 wonders of the world]

I use one like this, available in black too for a hot of ebay sellers,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1L-Racing-Universal-Aluminum-Alloy-Car-Oil-Catch-Can-Reservoir-Fuel-Tank-Silver/202718472559?epid=9004556187&hash=item2f32f6696f:g:sAgAAOSw~X1dyQ8O

I run the inlet and outlet on the same side s the mist isn't blown thro, though there is a baffle.

I bought adaptors to JIC to enable running nomral push fit JIC unions to match my others.

here's a drain plug underneath but I use a syringe. 

Sealed cap prevents nasty niffs too and the outlet goes down past the gearbox.

[AnkerB-S]

Here is a picture of my setup. You can see the hose going from the breather to a nipple I installed next to the oil fill on the valve cover. At the other end of the valve cover, right over the exhaust pipe is another nipple for a hose that goes to the catch tank at the left of the picture. The orange hose leads under the car to open air.

[Roger King]

If that tank is as good as it appears to be it's incredible value for money. I assumed it was plastic until I read the blurb. As always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

[AnkerB-S]

I stuffed some steel wool into mine to create a surface for catching the droplets. As mentioned in my earlier post, I haven't seen any oil in the tank yet, and the end of the orange tube is clean as a whistle.