I've been doing a lot of lurking around threads about OCCs (Oil Catch Cans). I understand the purpose of them and the functionality, but I am curious as to why we spend money on them or make them. Why not just delete the hoses and install a breather?

 

Because people think that they work.
To me its pointless and often causes more problems than it solves.

 

 

You want negative crankcase pressure whenever possible, throwing a filter on the PCV and disconnecting it from the intake is asking for problems.

 

Without replumbing the whole system, the promise of a catch can is a cleaner ic (on a gen1). But on a gen1, nobody has realy found a true benifit of running a catch can....so imo they are just bling....
On a gen2 with carbon issues, if it is properly installed( in a cool location), plumbed right, and kept drained, i CAN see it could prolong time between getting the valves decarboned, and thus save some $$ and possibly improve longer term performance.....but that would be a gen2 thread.....i guess if a person runs lots of short trips it might aid in water removal (about 90% of what most folks seem to catch when installed correctly in a cool spot). Ideally, the catch can should be in a cool spot, with some aiflow....remember...you are trying to get the gasses in the pcv gasses to condansate out, so you can collect them.....many folks install the catch can in a hot spot, then wonder why it is empty....the water it collects gets boiled off...and sucked back in....so you just get the slime that is stuck to the insides of the piping.....

 

In your opinion, where is the best place to locate one in both the 1st and 2nd Gen. cars?

 

i put mine in the cowl area on the passenger side. i see it fill up when i womp on the gas, otherwise i can go weeks without "catching oil". i also notice, what mine catches is a nasty oil-fuel mixture, as it smells highly of Gas and looks like bad old oil. i dont catch much, several tablespoons every few months.

im sure most of it would burn off inside the engine, and my IC was pretty clean when i cleaned it sometime ago. however, after seeing what is being put back INTO my engine, im happy I installed an OCC.

also, if you just installed a breather, the ECU will throw a code, forget the #, but its the "unmetered air after supercharger" code. so, the engine will see that theres nothing there (with a breather) and pitch a fit. and, i would imagine the breather would eventually just clog up with the crap being put out of the crankcase, and you'd have oily-gassy junk all over your engine bay!

 

because you dont want this in your engine! this came out of a friends 2 stage OCC he custom made for his heavily modded Subaru wagon w/ sti swap.

this was one of his comments... " This was at 1/4 capacity, I started to see oil in my second can so I checked the big boy out. If you don't see it in a can then it's in the intake already or stuck in the breathers."