When I fixed the plenum back in January, I installed a catch can. Figured I worked hard to keep oil out of the intake, just add a second layer of protection. $20 off of ebay, plus some hose and a dealership PCV valve, good to go.

Changed my oil about two weeks ago, and everything was fine there. Dirty oil, but no foam, no signs of water, etc.

Today I checked my oil catch can, and found it to have a couple of ounces of very foamy oil. Milkshake colored, foamy.

My first thought is oh sh*t, blown head gasket. But oil change less than 50 miles ago and everything was fine, no loss of coolant, no overheating, no other issues at all.

Is the foamy oil just the result of the catch can catching the vapor and letting it condense back down? Or did my truck just take a dump?

 

What's the oil on your dipstick look like? Has it been raining? Humid?

 

Dipstick looked fine. And yes, we've had three straight days of drizzle.

After I posted I figured it must just be normal condensation mixing with the oil vapor, and since the catch can is pretty far removed from the system it has more time to cool off before re-entering the intake.

I'll change the oil again soon (at the 500 mile mark to try to clean out some gunk) and pay attention to it then.

 

does it look like this? if it does, then your catch can is doing its job.

 

Yeah, that can looked a bit more watery than mine, but same concept.

Glad I kept that crap out of my system!

 

Do you have a picture of your catch can set up ?.

 

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

First time hearing of a 'catch can' definetly gonna look into stocking a few=it mounts to one of your vacuum ports and off a pcv on the cover?

 

Yep. Instead of the PCV going right back to the intake, I ran some longer hoses back to the catch can to collect the oil vapor in the system. Then from the can back to the intake.

There's several threads on here where guys have made their own out of an air compressor filter as well.

 

Thanks for the info *)