Honestly, no. My cleaning under consists of going through the car wash every so often and have it do an underside wash.

What I don't understand is how it gets dirty? Does the oil seep through the hoses and compromise something? If so, it needs periodic maintenance. If it just seeps past the seal, that is what brake cleaner is for.

 

Yes, if vented to atmosphere - either put up with drips, add a catchment of some sort or return to stock (best).

The factory CAC boots are not completely impervious to oil. Some oil weeps past the boots.

Upgraded boots like Riffraff sells have a tendency to keep the oil on the inside better - but it’s common to see where some has gotten past.

There is no harm from this minute amount of oil in the intake. I have never seen anything like sludge in the CAC, piping or in the heads.

on edit: I have yet to hear a compelling argument to change CCV from stock.

 

Oil does deteriorate the heater hose for sure. It does lose it's rigidity. What I still don't know is what exactly it does to the rubber. I currently have stock ones so the "sacrificial rubber", if you will, is the hose. On going back to the stock system, what I have heard is that it causes the boots to slip off under higher pressure which is why I changed in the first place. The oily mess isn't so much of an issue. That it can cause the boots to go bad or slip off is the concern, which is why, I suspect, many have done the mod.

 

It is very critical to remove ALL traces of oil from the boots and CAC pipes, etc before assembly to keep them from blowing off.

People do all kinds of silly stuff instead of proper cleaning. (Like hair spray...)

Old, oily stock boots are hard to clean because they are not completely impervious to oil. I will soak them in HOT, soapy water before cleaning with solvent like brake cleaner.

TIP: Having the surfaces slightly moist with brake clean during assembly renders the boots almost glued to the pipes, etc.

Boots blowing off is not a valid reason to change CCV from stock....

 

if someone really changed to a draft tube and is venting to the atmosphere because they think it helps keep the boots on I give up. I dig helping people, teaching snd sharing knowledge learned over decades is rewarding but this just makes me feel hopeless.

 

I'll bite. How do you think the oil got out to coat the boots? Bonus question. How do you know that the rubber isn't harmed by the oil? I honestly don't know either but feel free to discuss.

 

no bitting required and the frustration i vented is not about what I know and isn't so much about what others do not seem to know, my frustration in this case is what i can only guess is somebody assuming something so far out of left field they would blindly follow along and do this without a tiny bit of effort to educate themselves on the subject. i simply can not grasp someone can come to the conclusion to a blown boot = draft tube is the best solution.

it would be similar to, somebody's tires worn out and somehow their critical thinking process lead them to install metal tank tracks to solve the problem.

i think we can all agree that that persons logic would be very questionable. :facepalm

clearly nobody expects worn tire guy to be a chemist and understand rubber aging due to chemical exposure in order to understand that when a rubber/silicone/composite product like a boot is not doing its job as intended that replacing it with a new one is the answer.

at a minimum DYI guy needs to be competent enough to find their way to a service manual and follow the directions, clean the parts and torque them to spec. or, i am just an idiot for having some expectations of people, that is certainly possible even if I do know how and why oil gets past the boots and what causes rubber products to age and fail.

 

Damn..... long patient response was lost.

Pirates reeponse is beautiful and I often feel that pain when trading here.

The oil vapor from CCV passes through the turbo and CAC piping to the engine. It causes no harm.

Some of this oil weeps out around the boots. It makes the boots and pipes dirty.

The boots are not completely impervious to oil, but ‘oil’ does not degrade them.

Additionally, this oil MUST be 100% cleaned off the boots and piping on order to prevent boots from blowing off. I’ve seen well over 30psi of boost on stock boots with typical oil on them from stock CVV.

 

If the CAC boots are prepped and installed properly, the oil that seeps around the boots over time won't cause the boots to pop off under boost. If a boot pops off, chances are it was soon after an improper install. Then, people tend to half-*** clean it again and throw it back on, only to become even more frustrated when it happens a 2nd or 3rd time.
the factory CCV system probably doesn't help the boots last longer, but most of the 7.3s that I've seen still have the original boots.

I've had 1 CAC boot pop off on one of my diesels before. It popped off because I didnt clean it well enough before reinstalling it, after having the CAC pipes off for something unrelated. After cleaning the boots properly, no issues.

Both of the 7.3s I owned had the original CAC boots and factory CCV setup. One of those trucks had over 350k miles. The boots were still fine, albeit coated with dirt and oil.

Also, CAC boots are cheap and easy to clean/remove/change for even a novice DIYer. If the oil actually hurt the CAC boots over time (it doesn't), it would be a very small price to pay for not having oil drips under the truck or the stinky blowby haze wafting from under the truck at idle.

If anything, CCV recirculation might help reduce cylinder wear. The crank case oil vapors are a source of extra upper cylinder lubrication. edit: high soot content in blowby gases offsets the lubricating effect of the oil.

 

Change is a little bit different. You MUST have a part to change. IOW, I have the deep socket to reinstall. I DO NOT have a spare boot. If it breaks on the road, I'm screwed. Just qualifying. My only problem is oil spots on the driveway. I don't smell the oil fumes.

That part, I never heard of and if true, I suspect International would have followed Ford

 

Are not some pistons moving up when others are moving down?

 

The crank case oil vapors carry soot from combustion.

Soot is known to induce high wear in engine components.

Soot, not oil vapors, is what clogs up the filters to my recirculating CCV system from Racor.

This is what that soot residue looks like on a pre filter:



Compared to a clean pre filter:



And might as well compare the main CCV filter as well:



I wouldn't characterize CCV vapors as harmful to the engine... but the soot carried by the aerosol isn't helpful either.

 

where is that filter located in the system and where did you get it ?

how often do you change the filter ?

 

Soot can harm an engine's longevity. I agree with that. How did we determine that soot, in any significant concentration is carried in the vapor? The exhaust that slips past the rings have soot blowing around but is it that much that would be an issue? How did we determine that the oil vapor can carry a solid ***** of carbon?

 

Let me rephrase that:
it is not hard to remove, clean/prep, and then reinstall the CAC boots, even for a novice. Changing for new CAC boots is the pretty much the same process, which is why I added that part. Some people choose to install new boots for proactive maintenance.These are rubber parts on ~20 year old trucks we're talking about, afterall.

How would the CCV system cause a CAC boot to "break"?


Y2K, you bring up a good point. I edited my original post accordingly.