Land Cruiser Build Oil Catch Can

In this part of our Land Cruiser build we fit a Pro Vent oil catch can to our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser.

What is an Oil Catch Can?

An oil catch can is a device that is connected to your air intake and crankcase in order to reduce the amount of oil vapours recirculating into the engine intake manifold. It is designed to catch the oil and carbon deposits ensuring they do not end up in your engine air intake. They are supposed to help protect your turbo, minimise oil consumption, prevent oil build up in your intercooler, regulate crankcase pressure and keep your engine components clean.

Modern turbo diesel engines have exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems in order to reduce emissions. The EGR system does this by taking exhaust gases from the exhaust manifold back into the intake of the engine to reduce combustion chamber temperatures. The issue occurs here as the carbon in the gases mixes with the oil mist causing oily carbon deposits to cake up your air intake system. Without having an EGR intake clean, this muck can cause losses in engine performance and overall fuel economy.

Also preventing oil build up in your intercooler ensures it works as efficiently as possible and your engine performance will be far better.

Due to all of these factors, we decided to install an oil catch can in our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser build.

Vehicle Warranty & Which Brand?

So we have seen a bit of commentary online that fitting an oil catch can has the ability to affect your new car warranty. Initially this was a bit of a concern for us, but when having our first 10k service we spoke with our Toyota Service Manager to clarify this potential issue.

We were advised that fitting an oil catch can will not affect your warranty as long as it was a reputable brand and not an eBay cheapie. We already had a fuel pre filter installed that we purchased from Western Filters (see the post here) and had the bracket fitted that would allow for a Pro Vent Catch Can. So we went with one of these and from what we have researched the Pro Vent seems to be one the best options available – there are many that might disagree but from our research this is what we decided on.

Pro Vent Catch Can Kit from Western Filters

The catch can from Western Filters comes with all that you need. As mentioned above we did not need to purchase a bracket as we already had one with our fuel pre filter. Western Filters was really good here as when we purchased the catch can on its own we did get a courtesy call just to check if we needed a bracket which was some good customer service on their part, so thank you Western Filters for that.

In the kit you get the Pro Vent catch can, two large black hoses, a drain hose, drain hose tap and fittings, all the necessary hose clamps, bolts and washers and a few zip ties. You also get fairly detailed instructions which make fitting the unit quite easy.

The two large black hoses are labelled as well with an U and L for upper and lower which makes following the instructions a lot easier. Both hoses are one piece which makes fitting them so much easier and looks so much better. We have seen other kits out there that come in multiple hoses with joiners and elbows. Would be a pain fitting those, doesn’t look as tidy and the added risk that something might come loose.

The only small thing that would be good to be included in the kit would be some spring washers, we had some lying around in the shed so not an issue for us. They are M8 in size if you need to get some.

Installing the Catch Can

Now let us take you through what is involved in fitting an oil catch can in this part of our Land Cruiser build.

So fitting the oil catch can is super easy, check out our video on YouTube which takes you through the complete install process.

First step is to connect your drain hose to the catch can as well as the drain tap and the two small hose clamps. Once the drain is fitted, feed the drain hose down into the wheel well and then mount the catch can to the bracket. This is where we added the two spring washers to ensure that nothing comes loose on any of those bumpy tracks we find ourselves on. We like to grease up our stainless bolts beforehand to ensure we don’t mess up the threads. The bolts are M8 in size so you need a 13mm spanner or socket.

TOP TIP! There is a small plastic connector that holds the plastic bracket to the catch can, make sure you loosen this and rotate the catch can around to ensure that the hose connections are facing the correct way. We had to rotate the catch can 45 degrees before we fitted this to the bracket in the engine bay to ensure the inlet and outlet hose connections were facing toward the front of the Cruiser.

Once the catch can is mounted in place, you then need to find the factory hose that goes from the air intake to the crank case. This is all clearly shown in photos in the instructions provided. All you need to do here is loosen a couple of hose clamps and then pull the hose off. We have only just done over 13,000 kms and were surprised with the amount of oil residue inside. So glad we are finally getting this done.

Now that the factory hose has been removed you need to undo a clip on the electrical cables, as per the image below, and move these wires to the side. Then get the lower black hose, the smaller side of the hose will connect to the air intake, and then feed the hose under the cables (as shown in the photos below) until you get to the air intake. Then fit the hose and secure with the hose clamp. Now fit the hose to the bottom connection on the catch can and secure with the hose clamp. The lower hose is a super tight fit, made exactly the correct length, but it can be a little fidgety. Then reconnect the electrical cable clamp and put these back in place above the lower hose.

We had to loosen and move one of the factory clamps on the air intake as it was slightly in the way and would rub up against the hose.

Now fit the upper hose, which is far easier. Basically run it under the electrical cables as per the photo below and across to the crank case. Connect to the crank case and tighten with the hose clamp. Fit the other end to the top of the catch can and secure with the last hose clamp. All you now need to do is tidy up the hoses with the supplied zip ties.

Drain Hose

Finally we needed to work out where we would leave the drain hose so that we can easily get to it when we need to but also keep it out of the way. We secured the drain hose to the chassis rail out of the way of any moving parts. Easy enough to access when we need to drain any oil residue that flows into the hose.

Very Easy to Install

Overall, a fairly easy install to do yourself as you would have seen in our YouTube video. We would highly recommend fitting one based on the benefits that we highlighted earlier being:

• Protect your turbo.
• Minimise oil consumption.
• Prevent oil build up in your intercooler.
• Regulate crankcase pressure.
• Keep your engine components clean.
• Maximise engine performance and your fuel economy.
• Reduce costs of having to get an EGR intake clean.

If you are interested this is the oil catch can we installed in this part of our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser build from Western Filters – click here.

For more posts on our Land Cruiser build check them out here.

If you have any questions or comments please post below or send us a message on Instagram. Follow us on Instagram to keep up to date on our Land Cruiser build and our adventures.

Thanks for reading legends!

The thoughts of Peter.

This is not a sponsored post, we bought this gear and it’s an honest review of what we think about it!