Flashlube Catch Can Pro product test

SOME say it’s like farting in your own air cylinder, while others suggest it’s like plumbing the sewer into your drinking water.

Then there are the ones that reckon it’s the same as re-ingesting your own vomit. Either way, none of the above sound particularly palatable, but they’re all apt metaphors for what’s going on when oily fumes are directed back into your engine.

If you haven’t cottoned on to what we’re jabbering on about, many common-rail diesel engines have a major fault: the spent gases and dirty fumes are redirected back into the engine using EGR (exhaust gas recirculation), often via inlet manifolds, turbos and intercoolers.

Yep, they pipe dirty, oily gases back into what should be kept free from oil and sludge. Theoretically, there should only be dry soot flowing through these pipes, but the oily fumes turn that soot into sludge, which in turn blocks up everything it comes in contact with.

Why? It’s all in the name of cleanliness – not for the engine, but for the environment. It seems those desk-grinders that make the emission rules have deemed it okay to bugger an engine for the sake of keeping air pollution down. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for keeping air clean, but surely there’s a better way to achieve the results without damaging the internals of our modern, powerful, efficient and extremely expensive engines.

To counter this, the aftermarket industry has designed an extremely simple fix: the Catch Can. While other methods have been developed to filter out the dirty fumes that enter your engine’s inlets, the Flashlube Catch Can Pro offers more protection with the inclusion of pressure relief and vacuum relief valves, so as not to over-pressurise the engine, which could lead to other failures.

The Flashlube model also features free-flowing, large-diameter inlet and outlet ports of 19mm (notably the same diameter as the pipes on my engine), a replaceable filter and a rotating head to aid in fitting. It’s all compact enough to fit into the most overcrowded engine bays.

The Catch Can Pro will ensure your inlet manifold stays clean, it will prevent your intercooler and turbo from clogging up with oil and gunk, and it will also keep sensors clean to enable them to perform as designed.

For installation on my TDV8 Troopy, fitting the Catch Can Pro was a simple process of intercepting the air line going from the rocker cover to the air intake hose (which goes from the air filter to the turbo), and then installing the Catch Can in-line and mounting it next to the battery.

Once installed, the Flashlube Catch Can Pro filters the fumes via the airflow passing through the in-built replaceable filter and allows clean air to pass into the turbo, intercooler and inlet manifold. The clean air then travels into the engine, which satisfies all emission regulations, as opposed to EGR.

The kit comes complete with a drain hose and tap, which I’ve installed directly below the Catch Can Pro on the chassis rail. This allows easy drainage of the captured oil into a container, for proper disposal. This can be done at regular service intervals and should only take a minute or two. Another advantage of capturing waste oil is that if you find an abnormal amount of oil in the can, something might be amiss with your engine.

The Flashlube Catch Can Pro keeps engine internals clean and free-flowing, which improves overall performance. Keeping that gunk out of where it should never have been in the first place can only be a good thing for your engine!

RATED
Available from: www.flashlube.com
RRP: $280
We say: Should be fitted to every EGR diesel.