i purchased an oil separator kit about two months ogo from rpm outlet i did not install yet because i,m not impressed with it. any one know were i can get a better kit

 

L&S has a setup that works, but is ungodly expensive.

Garrett at DMR has a similar setup that works just as well, for less.

oil_separator

Stewart

 

I have a nearly free setup on my truck and it has worked well for me. I installed it after my truck started spitting out a cloud of smoke at start up and people were mistaking it for a small block Chevy. After I bypassed the PCV hose that bleeds boost into the crank case the cloud disappeared. Here's what you do:

Locate the PCV hose on the passenger's side valvecover. About halfway between the PCV valve and the upper intake you will find a rubber T that has a line running to the rear of the blower. The line running to the rear of the intake is evil for a few reasons. One, it bleeds boost into the crank case and blows oil vapors backwards thorugh the system into the intake boot. Two, it allows hot boost to recirculate through the upper intake preheating the incoming air. Three, it bleeds off boost. If you remove the T and replace it with a straight piece of vacuum line connecting the PCV valve directly to the plenum you get rid of all three of those problems. Put a plug over the eliminated line and secure it with a clamp and you're done. With that line out of the picture the crankcase will never see any pressure above atmospheric, and will probably see a slight vacuum even at WOT which might be worth a pony or two. I think it's also worth one or two lbs of boost, but it's hard to tell with the stock gauge.

 

I just used a compressor water collector.

 

Ok here's my question if you add a lower and upper pulley to your truck (good for 13lbs total) like i have, wouldn't you want as much oil as possible going into the s/c because of the extra rpm's? also I have white smoke at wot for a spirt- Isn't that also due to this problem as well?

 

Why would you want any oil in the SC?

A puff of smoke at WOT could be caused by this or several other things.

 

Ace, there's no way you can look at the following pictures and still believe you want oil to be sucked into the s/c.

Bottom of s/c...

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Backside of throttle body...

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Intercooler...

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I/C "valley"...

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How can all that be good, bro?

Coat the fins of the intercooler with enough oil and you'll reduce the efficiency of its cooling properties, which can raise the air charge temps, which can cause the PCM to pull timing, which will reduce your performance and power output.

Stewart

 

Ok i hear you man, and i think it makes sense too. But why would ford design the supercharger to suck oil into the s/c from the valve body then? And you still think even with the extra amount of boost i'm running that its still fine to have an oil separator?

 

They didn't design it that way; it's a side affect of using a supercharger. Nothing should be touching inside the blower, so there is no need for any oil

 

While this is certainly a great mod, I don't see it being good for 1-2lbs of boost. I just don't see how a tube that small can move that much air. Power benefits are probably due mostly to a cooler intake stream. I've got an accurate self-calibrating gauge and will find out this weekend after I mod it.

 

Like I said, it's hard to tell with the stock gauge. The needle was noticably further into boost, but we all know the stock gauge sucks and once it's over 10 psi there's no reference point to judge from. A relatively small tube can be a big leak. I don't know how big the stock valves are, but you figure a 1.75" valve open .400" has 2.1 sq in of curtain area. A 3/8" tube has roughly .12 sq in, or just over 5% of the intake valve. 1 psi would be roughly 8% of 12 psi, so it isn't that far fetched when you consider that the tube will flow more efficiently than the valve will. There will always be more than one intake valve open, but the total opening will rarely be more than equivalent to one vavle at max lift. I think. It's late, it was a long flight and my brain feels like jelly.

 

They didn't design it that way, they just didn't look down the road that much or catch the problem during initial design.

 

Ok well why didn't they just change this small flaw along with the upgraded 2 or 3 rows in the intercooler on the 01 L's, and then again they could have in the 03-04s with the extra threads in the heads? My point is there have been many chances for Ford to do something about this problem. Don't get me wrong, i've been through a lot with my truck (just ask Stewart) and I understand what everyone is saying here, but my large question at hand is- would this oil separator pro-long or shorten our s/c's life? I Don't want anymore problems or bills coming out of my truck. Gas is already a B as it is.....

 

The oil separator is there to stop the oil from getting to the blower. Oil breaks down the teflon coating on the blower lobes, and also cloggs up the cooler as was shown in the pictures, causing detonation in the engines combustion chambers, etc, so we don't want it to get to the blower. The lobes don't require any sort of lubrication, so adding the separator is a good thing, and it would prolong the blower and it's associated parts life for the most part.

 

My guess would be that those are both mechanical changes to the engine. Alterations to the PCV system would likely require the emmission control system to be recertified and that would have cost a ton. If this problem has been known about when they upped the power in 01 they probably could have done it then, but it wasn't and they didn't. The engines lasted 3 yrs/36k miles and that's all they are worried about.