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Project S2000 Part 8 – Oil Control
By Khiem Dinh
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
Oil is the vital life blood of an engine. It allows the engine’s internal components to slide past each other with very little friction or wear. However, there is one place an engine does not want oil and that is in the incoming air stream. On a naturally aspirated engine, oil dilutes the incoming air charge reducing power. On a turbocharged car, the oil can coat the inside of the intercooler reducing cooling efficiency resulting in reduced power. Lastly, oil effectively reduces the octane level of the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder making the mixture more knock prone. Anyone that has tracked a Z32 generation 300ZX is familiar with the blue oil smoke screen created in long right hand turns. This is also an issue on AP1 generation S2000s. This is where an oil catch can (OCC) comes into play. While researching OCC setups for the S2000, we just couldn’t find anything that met our criteria of being well engineered and also well suited to a street car. Broadening our search, we came upon the Saikou Michi Company and found what we were looking for.
We knew Saikou Michi could make the right part for us after reading this on their website: “These are not blingy or flashy, but just the best functioning system needed to trap the nasties that flow out of your engine and can make it into your manifold and intake.” Functional and anti-bling is the perfect recipe for Project S2000! Oh yeah, Saikou Michi is made in the USA!
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| Saikou Michi’s new S2000 specific dual oil catch can setup! |
So what makes the Saikou Michi OCC so awesome? It can be described in one word, baffling. Try researching OCC setups and see how many are properly baffled. There are lots of blingy polished catch cans with external sight levels features, but neither of those things make an OCC function better. The design Saikou Michi has implemented has two barriers to trapping oil. The first is having the oil containing vapor enter the bottom of the can where the oil can condense and pool. The next line of defense, that many other OCCs do not feature, is a mesh assembly. Saikou Michi uses a stainless steel mesh assembly to make sure that as much oil is trapped as possible. The oil particles in the vapor will condense as they come into contact with the fine mesh separating the oil from the air flow.
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| The oily vapors are sucked through the inlet and directed to the bottom of the can. There, the heavy stuff can condense and settle. The snorkel holes allow the OCC to keep on functioning as the oil level rises. The SS mesh assembly traps the rest of the oily stuff leaving clean air to go back to the intake and intake manifold. |
