Water/Coolant in Catch Can

[Roundy]

Hi Guys,

Last track day I did in my GT4 I found about 1L of water/oil within my catch can. (Majority water)

Now I know you get condensation, however in the previous year of running it I only got a little bit of oil blowby in there, less than 100mL for the year. Also it had lost about that much water from the radiator.

The car was still running like a champion, with no white smoke/steam being visible from the exhaust.

Today I inspected the cylinders with a camera, they all look the same, spark plugs look the same.

Compression test shows 160 155 152 162

So some variance, but not a huge amount.

Any thoughts? Generally a BHG would result in coolant been pushed into the coolant overflow I would have thought?

Cheers
Nathan

[fixeruperer]

you got coolant in the catch can or "water" ?

if you run e85, this could cause quite a bit of moister into the can through breathing.

[Roundy]

I am running E85.

How much moisture from E85? I've been running it for the past year, with plenty more track time than I did at Wakefield before I discovered this.

Hard to say which it was as I tend to run quite a weak mix of coolant. It was a yellowy colour in the catch can. I am assuming it is from the radiator due to the loss of water that I saw from it.

[aus jd 2703]

I know oil when mixed with methanol turns milky. Ethanol could possibly do the same thing.

[fixeruperer]

ive seen catch cans go milky/watery pretty fast.
on methanol vehicles you should change oil after every event and purge the system (run petrol through it or all the internals get rusty) but thats race engines and methanol.
e85, runs pretty cold so condensation is going to be a heap more, then you get water in the oil and once it warms up it evaporates through the breathers and catches into the can.
its a bitch, but the plus's i believe out weigh the neg's
next year im converting to e85, and will be doing oil services more frequent. im keen to see what the internals looks like running e85 after some time (if its lucky) as ive only seen the results with methanol.

[robk]

I run E85 with ~30psi of boost, so I'm always checking my oil catch can.
My catch can has a sight on the side, plus a drain tap on the bottom so I can drain it from under the car very easily.

I check it after every drive on the street and typically it takes many short drives (or one long drive) before I see a small amount of oil and water in the catch can. The small quantity is expected because the engine isn't being pushed hard for long periods while driving on the street, and the water is also expected due to condensation.

When I go to the track it's a different story, with the catch can filling up very quickly. Judging by the colour it always seems to be just oil, without much water in it. This makes sense because the engine will never get a chance to cool down at the track so there shouldn't be much condensation build up.
It's not all that surprising that I get a lot of oil in the catch can at the track, because with so much boost I probably have a fair bit of blow-by, plus I've been told that 3S engines tend to flood the head with oil at high RPM. Some people restrict the oil feed to the head to help minimise this problem, but I haven't done that.


EDIT: If you're getting a lot of water or coolant in your catch can at the track (not just oil), then I suppose it is possible that it's coming from your cooling system. If you have a BHG, then coolant would be mixing with your oil, so it could end up in the catch can too. I wouldn't jump to that conclusion straight away though.

[dnegative]

If your pushing a liter of water out a breather you wouldnt be asking if its ok