Been driving the Ram steadily now, filled up a leaky passenger rear tire to 60PSI on Saturday afternoon, drove it Sunday & Monday, checked it this morning, damn thing pretty much flat again.

Took it to the shop after we dropped off the Expedition for exhaust work (think I got lucky BIG time), found a leak right smack next to an existing plug, fixed that and of course the valve stem was leaking.

New valve stem and the tech noticed that the new plug was leaking air at the top of the plug, very small leak so I didn't bother with it anymore.

Always something....

 

A friend and I installed the JBA ceramic coated headers on the truck today. I used remflex gaskets and stage 8 locking hardware. I was nervous one of the manifold bolts was going seize in the head or something, but everything came apart fairly easily.

Installing went about as we expected. The passenger side was easier than the drivers side, and getting a couple of the bolts started on either side was fun. Trying to get the little clips and locks on the bolt heads gave us a good reason to drink afterwards. I ruined one of the Mopar performance plug wires removing it on the drivers side, the clip stayed on the plug head. It looks kinda like it wasn't crimped right at the factory. Luckily I had some extra plug wires from another project so I can get by till I get another set.

 

Got started on my let's see what the catch can can catch experiment today. The goal is to determine the difference between what my just purchased NAPA PCV valve dumps, and then compare it to a stealership part.

The catch can is just one of those cheapass eBay things, modified to make it worthwhile. It was a feaky lucker as expected when it arrived. I replaced the sight tube with brass right-angle line fittings and a fresh piece of clear tube to stop the leak, then set about making the thing sensible. I extended the inlet side about 1.25" with 1/4" metal tubing by drilling out the underside of the fitting to a depth of about 3/8" and interference fitting the tubing into it, and loosely packing the cavity with steel wool. That gets me a greater distance between inlet and outlet, gravity's assistance to separate oil from air in the uphill climb, a span of increased pressure and velocity within the added tube to compel droplet formation and cohesion, followed by a rapid pressure drop and deceleration, with turbulence on the passage through the steel wool to promote eddy currents to facilitate condensation.

All of which to say that it's still cheap but no longer cheapass. It gots more betterer fluid dynamics now.

Now it's just a matter of charging the wadding until the next oil change, draining the can, and starting the measurement part of the experiment.

Good cheap nerd fun.

 

That will be interesting to see the results of.

 

I ran a very similar setup for awhile. Not a speck on the tb. Swapped to an air compressor inline oil/water separator that uses a 5 micron stone filter. Works better and is less may to dump. Looks like chocolate milk because it catches a lot of condensation because i don't have it sitting very close to the engine

 

I'd considered going that route, but I was concerned that it might be too easy to clog those tiny pores and gimp the air flow. Which doesn't mean that it is in fact that easy, of course, but I figure it's not going to kill the engine if a little more oil than I could have stopped gets into the same place where all the oil I never stopped before goes. (Edited to add: With most of the trips being short because the town's only a mile across, I really, really, really don't want to gimp the PCV air.)

I've got the silly thing hanging on the isolator of the K&N intake so it's easy to reach, and there's a nice open area under the drain stopper where I can place a container to catch the condensate. It might yet prove to be just a lot of bother to make a big mess, but it looks like it might work okay.

 

Dapepper9,
How many miles did it take to produce that amount?

 

I bi-passed my heater core and leaked coolant all over the sparkplugs.

 

I gotta do the same thing soon

 

I was just cruising along at the speed limit up a grade and a Viper SRT10 blew by like I was standing still, so I tickled the pedal a little bit and shortly blew by him like he was standing still.

It helped that he was parked by then, probably.