Smoke Coming From Catch Can

[RPM9000]

I went for a short run yesterday afternoon in my GenIV. I backed into the driveway and shut it down. After about 5 minutes I started it up to put it in the garage. As I was backing in I noticed smoke coming from under the hood in the location of the catch can. I opened the hood and that is where it was coming from. I have never noticed this before. At idle it there isn't much smoke but when you rev it up it more smoke comes out. I am hoping I am wrong but it looks to me like I may have a broken ring. I have not heard of this being a problem on the Gen IV. Any ideas? By the way there is no PCV system on the engine.

[FLATOUT]

Paul unless its a lot of smoke and all the time than it's just doing its job. As you rev the motor the system would have been sending that blow by into your intake and on through the combustion cycle. The can is allowing it to vent to the atmosphere instead of into the intake. I noticed it more when it was colder out side, more condensation venting from the can.

Andy

I went for a short run yesterday afternoon in my GenIV. I backed into the driveway and shut it down. After about 5 minutes I started it up to put it in the garage. As I was backing in I noticed smoke coming from under the hood in the location of the catch can. I opened the hood and that is where it was coming from. I have never noticed this before. At idle it there isn't much smoke but when you rev it up it more smoke comes out. I am hoping I am wrong but it looks to me like I may have a broken ring. I have not heard of this being a problem on the Gen IV. Any ideas? By the way there is no PCV system on the engine.

[RPM9000]

It gets worse after it warms up. I never saw it before. I guess I will run a compression test on it. That will be a real pain in the A**.

Paul unless its a lot of smoke and all the time than it's just doing its job. As you rev the motor the system would have been sending that blow by into your intake and on through the combustion cycle. The can is allowing it to vent to the atmosphere instead of into the intake. I noticed it more when it was colder out side, more condensation venting from the can.

Andy

[FLATOUT]

Paul they do it, you would know if you had a broken ring. Fire it up tomorrow and see what it does. As the weather gets cooler you'll notice it more. It's intermittent also, sometimes you'll see it and sometimes you won't.

[IndyRon]

I agree, it's unlikely it is the ring. One option, if seeing the smoke concerns you and the compression test comes back normal, is to recirculate the PCV through the catch can.

[Steve M]

Videos or a picture or two might help...what were the conditions (temp, humidity, etc.)?

As a personal rule of thumb, I generally don't like running race car parts on a mostly street driven car...stuff like this happens, and it definitely shakes your confidence a bit.

[FLATOUT]

Instead it would just be burned off and you'd never know what was entering the combustion cycle. The catch can is doing exactly what it's designed to do.

Videos or a picture or two might help...what were the conditions (temp, humidity, etc.)?

As a personal rule of thumb, I generally don't like running race car parts on a mostly street driven car...stuff like this happens, and it definitely shakes your confidence a bit.

[Dusty1]

Mine does it worse when needing to be emptied. The cans do smoke some.

Richard

[bluesrt]

I have never seen that with mine, excessive smoke is not right, period

[FLATOUT]

I have never seen that with mine, excessive smoke is not right, period

That's exactly why I asked him if it was excessive, or actual smoke, instead of him just noticing that they do in fact vent oil vapor to the atmosphere. It wouldn't suprise me one bit if it was vapor burning off and it's just the first time he noticed it. Also as Richard mentioned to need to check the can and see how much is in there just in case it needs to be emptied before you spend all of that time doing compression and leak down testing.

If it's constant smoke, like real smoke then yeah you probably have a problem lol.

[MtnBiker]

Mine smokes from time to time. I usually see it when stopped at a light.

[RPM9000]

Since I have had the car I have emptied the can twice but both times there was no oil to be emptied. Dry as a bone. This is why I am concerned because all of a sudden it is smoking out the breather. It seems like a lot of blowby to me.

[FLATOUT]

Since I have had the car I have emptied the can twice but both times there was no oil to be emptied. Dry as a bone. This is why I am concerned because all of a sudden it is smoking out the breather. It seems like a lot of blowby to me.

Most of it vents out with that style of a can. Honestly though without seeing it or a video it's tough to say if it's just the normal stuff burning off, or if it's something else. The car running ok? If you have a broken ring I would think you would know.

[RPM9000]

Car is running fine. I ran it hard from 20 to 125 and it pulls hard as ever as far as I can tell. It was right after I got home from making that run that I saw the smoke coming out of the hood.