Tag: OCC

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Why do you need an OCC ??

For those that don’t know exactly what an OCC (Oil Catch Can) is for, here is a quick rundown.

  1. During normal operation of an internal combustion engine, there’s a compressed air and fuel mixture inside the combustion chamber that is ignited and as a result, forces the piston down. A small amount of that ignited mixture leaks past the piston rings and ends up in the crankcase. This leakage is often referred to as “blow-by” (leakage past the piston rings), and is the reason every car has a PCV System in place (Positive crankcase ventilation)

  2. Some of the oil, mist and other products settle along the engine intake and over time form a “gunk.” With newer cars being direct injected nowadays, this becomes an even larger problem when fuel is not passing over the intake valves and keeping them clean.  The OCC collects the PCV vapors and utilizes a baffle to trap the oil, fuel, and water particulates that are suspended in the air.

  3. These liquids will need to be drained periodically (we say with each oil change) of all the ‘junk’. NOTE: Monitoring how fast the can fills up, mirrors as a method of gauging engine heath. More blow by = Quicker Filling OCC.

Carl Jacobsen recently reviewed our Mazda3 OCC in an interview, and we’re releasing it here so you can hear it from a satisfied customer, and not just our opinion.

From the start, we have wanted to give our customers the highest quality experience when purchasing the OCC for their Mazda3. The importance of knowing and seeing you have every piece you need to get started is the key to a successful installation.

            “ The unboxing is the best part. You know everything is there, even the step by step instructions. (I tried not to use them, but I ended up doing so because they’re spot on all the way down to the bolt sizes).”

All of our installation instructions come with step by step tips and tricks to make things easy along the way. However, if you ever hit a hiccup, just know we’re only a call away!!

            “ Installation was a breeze, instructions were spot on, some parts – like the mount are hard to install without help, but nothing you couldn’t do on your own…  ”

As far as the CorkSport Mazda3 Oil Catch Can goes, knowing that all the crankcase vapors are getting filtered out, allows for you to have that peace of mind that your engine is cleaner. Without filling up the space in your engine bay!

            “The OCC is hidden, it doesn’t take up space in the engine bay. You’d never know it was there unless you follow the lines. Also, the ease of access to drain it was a highlight! There was more than enough tubing to route the drain plug to the easiest spot, so you can drain it when changing your oil.”

  • Brett White
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Servicing Your CorkSport Oil Catch Can for Winter

Servicing your OCC

   We at CorkSport hope all of you are staying safe, warm, and happy during this winter season.  As the weather changes, so do components in your Mazda.  Making sure to take the time to properly do some maintenance on your Mazda will go a long way. Whether you own a Mazdaspeed or an NA Mazda, I wanted to make sure and take a little bit of time for you guys to explain how to service your CorkSport oil catch can, and why that is important as the weather starts to become colder.

 

 

Why Use an Oil Catch Can

Having an oil catch can on your Mazda is always a good idea.  Over time, the engines will start to wear down allowing oil to blow by the piston rings.  Due to this, you can have oil pass back into your intake causing unwanted smoke to come out of the tailpipe.  Keeping that oil from contaminating the engine will result in a much cleaner engine over time.  

Also, having an OCC on your car is a good way to tell if you have internal engine issues, or if you have a bad PCV.  We recommend draining your catch can every oil change.  If you see a bunch of oil in your catch can, then you know, it’s time to start looking into why the can is filling up with oil.

 

 

Servicing Your Catch Can for Winter

     Making sure to catch all the nasty vapors an engine puts off is an important thing to do in regards to longevity of the engine.  However, making sure the CorkSport OCC is working properly is just as important.  The reason why this is important is that you want to make sure your oil catch can continue to filter out the nasty vapors otherwise you will dirty up your engine faster than you want.  However, it is very easy to maintain a good working oil catch can.  

Follow these couple steps below on getting that catch can back up to a new status:
  1. Remove top dipstick
  2. Remove bottom plug
  3. Spray Brakleen through dipstick hole
  4. Allow draining
  5. Repeat a couple of times to ensure your can is clean
  6. Check all rubber hoses.  Make sure none of them are cracked or look dry

 


 

Why You Should Service Your Oil Catch Can

   Even though oil/gas takes really cold temperatures to freeze, water vapors still make it into the system which most definitely can freeze.  The last thing you want is to have your oil catch can no longer able to catch the nasty vapors the engine puts off.  

 

If you have a frozen can, those will pass by the baffle and make it into the intake.  Make sure to drain that OCC, and continue to drain it every time you change your oil.  As long as you do that, there should be no problem with having your catch can freeze, or getting too dirty.  

 

Be sure to check in with us and see other tips and tricks for your Mazda.

Keep on driving Mazda fam!

Cheers,

Luke

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The Inner Workings of the CorkSport Oil Catch Can

Since the release of our Oil Catch Can we have had a lot of questions about how our set-up functions. Most understand the basics of what the OCC does, but want to know more about how our OCC does it.

CorkSport Oil Catch Can

The Basics

For the last 20 or so years, all cars have had some sort of PCV system installed to re-burn unwanted vapors from your crankcase instead of venting them to the outside world. This system is based on a vacuum. When the engine is running, the pistons are happily moving up and down. There is a small amount of compression that is lost into the crankcase passing by the rings. This excess air will cause pressure in the crankcase to slow down the pistons from going up and down and build up oil vapors that create frothing of the oil. There are also small amounts of condensation that get trapped in the crankcase and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know water and oil don’t mix.

An oil catch can is designed to “catch” unwanted vapors that are in your crankcase and PCV system and prevent these contaminants from entering your motor. With no catch can install, you have the potential to get build-up in the intake manifold causing dirty valves and poor compression.

CorkSport Mazda Oil Catch Can

How the Mazdaspeed 3 PCV System Works

A Mazdaspeed 3 has two PCV lines. One goes from the cam cover to the intake and one goes from the crankcase to the intake manifold. Why the two locations you ask? Well, they go to the closest vacuum source, but in a turbo car, you will not have a vacuum when you are in boost so a check valve closes and stops the crankcase from being pressurized and boost being lost.

Diagram of how the oil catch can works

Improving the Design of the CorkSport OCC

Most Oil Catch Cans include a PCV valve in the set-up for turbo vehicles, as ours did until just recently. So why does CorkSport no longer have a Check Valve on our Oil Catch Can setup? This is a great question.

We noticed that by adding the PCV check valve to the oil catch can, the OCC worked less effectively because when the check valve closes (the car is under boost) the catch can is no longer able to do the same job of “catching” the vapors. When your car is under boost is the time the catch can is working the hardest to prevent those contaminants from entering your engine. Instead, it is just sitting there waiting for the PCV valve to open back up.

We decided to cap the intake manifold and pull the vacuum through the intake so both cam and crankcase vapors are trapped in the OCC leaving your motor the cleanest it can be. Now, the CorkSport Catch Can will be working to eliminate those vapors all of the time without the restriction of a PCV valve to prevent it from being able to remove contaminates while your car is under boost.

Simple diagram of the Mazda oil catchcan

So why not cap the intake and the intake manifold and have it vent to atmosphere?

There are several reasons this is a bad idea and being friendly to mother nature is only one of them. Yes, you might sleep at night better knowing you are not hurting the environment but this is not the only reason to plumb the catch can back into the intake.

1. The intake vacuum helps draw vapors out of the motor by creating a low-pressure system to force the vapors out. Without the vacuum, the vapors can only be forced out by the pressure in the crankcase. This is unreliable and inefficient. Think of how much easier it is to get air into the motor under pressure (ie turbo). It only makes sense that the opposite would be true about getting it out and it would be much easier to achieve under vacuum.

2. Metered air passes through the MAF sensor before entering the engine, then a small amount is passed by the rings and enters back into the intake or intake manifold. If you do not route the PCV back into the intake manifold then that calculated air is “poof” let out into space causing your fuel trims to be off.

If you think you can tune around this you are correct, sort of. As the rings degrade you will have a small amount of additional air passing by the rings. Time to re-tune. The rings degrade some more, then time to re-tune again. I think you get the picture. Eventually, you forget to keep up on this and your fueling is off enough to cause a check engine light or worse. Zoom-Zoom-Boom!

This is the nature of a MAF-sensored car. There is a good reason that Mazda has everything hooked back up to the intake. Your car will be happier, in the long run, doing this.

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