Schmuckbuilt oil catch can question
 

Wow haven't been on this site in forever. Anyway, recently I've found that the coolant reservoir in my schmuckbuilt oil catch can isn't big enough to accommodate the expansion needed in the coolant system. After 1-2 months of driving, my coolant reservoir will be almost dry. I'm pretty certain it is weeping out the hole and losing volume as I found coolant all around the passenger side where the catch can sits and dried coolant on the catch can itself running down the weep hole. Just wondering if anybody else running this catch can set up is having this issue. Maybe it was a design flaw and requires more volume. I'm just topping it off whenever i notice it to be low.

Are you certain your head gasket isn't leaking coolant into one of the cylinders, causing coolant loss or are you actually seeing that the overflow tank is leaking coolant from it into the engine bay? Does your exhaust have a sweet smell to it?

I’ve been running a schmuck built coolant tank/catch can for 2 years and have not had this issue, I would recommend doing a cooling system pressure test and if that comes back clean I would leave the pressure tester on overnight with the plugs out and check in the am for any cooling in any of the holes followed by a leak down check

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I did notice fresh coolant underneath the catch can and dried up coolant running down the weep hole on the catch can. It's hard to distinguish smell from the exhaust as it naturally smells sweeter due to e85. Doesn't smell any different to me...

Hey! Sorry to revive an old thread, but im having the same issue with my Schmuck-built coolant overflow and i was wondering if you ended up fixing the issue. After the car is completely warmed and i park a small amount of coolant is seeping out of the cap of the reservoir.

Heh, just searching on this myself as I've had this tank combo for a couple years now. I also have this schmuck catch can combo and just completed my first track day last week *without* it dripping coolant everywhere out of that weep hole. I did some reading and I had been keeping the coolant level mid way up the sight tube but what I read and realized is, treat this thing like an expansion chamber. What was happening was at the track the coolant was getting hot, expanding, overflowing into the overflow tank, but then either completely overfilling out of the weep hole or just so full that it was sloshing out of that weep hole.

This track day I left maybe 1/8" of coolant at the bottom of the overflow tank and after my first session I checked and the coolant level in there was almost halfway up... so yeah, if you're running it half full or more and running the car hard, it's going to be overflowing. Also, the coolant cap on my tank is always tough to unscrew. It's almost like it tries to cross thread itself? I unscrew a turn or two and it seizes, turn clockwise again, then back counter clockwise and it'll come off easy. Weird.

I was searching around for this as I've noticed the catch can portion of this thing also doesnt have any sort of absorption material baffling in it either. It does have like an angled plate inside but I still get a ton of oil mist out through my breather. I stuffed it with a few stainless steel wool pads to try and help, I think it's helping a little bit but not entirely... wish it were a bit more of a thorough product considering how crazy expensive it is.

I had a leak in my radiator that was draining my coolant. It's fixed now but just like dizings2k said it fluctuates depending on how hot the engine is running. When its warmed up the tank is nearly full. And when its cold it will be around 25% full. Still wish it was a little larger capacity.

From what I've read and even experienced myself, aftermarket coolant reservoirs and VTA catch cans always seem to be a problem to a certain degree. The coolant reservoirs typically just have a pinhole for venting, and coolant always seems to spray/weep out of that pinhole. I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is to smell coolant, let alone needing to deal with the dried-on spatter.....The only reservoir that doesn't seem to do this is OEM....My Renegade one was so annoying I swapped back to OEM. I'm going to try the ASM one going forward as it still utilizes the OEM cap, which is vented and doesn't seem to leak/spray. Clearly the ASM guys have an idea as such a simple yet expensive billet reservoir is retaining the stock plastic cap for a reason.

I also noticed that my VTA catch cans are pissing oil all over the place....I was running the Radium dual can setup; when I drained them there wasn't a ton of oil in them, but ever since supercharging and running 20+ psi and driving the car hard, I noticed a lot of oil spray all over the bay as well as the little breather filters being totally saturated in oil. I can't help but think sizing plays a major role in this in terms of the area allowed to vent. If you have a lot of pressure pushing through the can and trying to escape a small 3/4" orifice (in my case) through a filter, I can't help but think it makes for some pretty intense pressure. I've since moved to the new Radium VTA XL Competition catch can, which is massive in comparison to other offerings - we'll see how that works out. It has a MUCH larger surface area in terms of venting.

@Kyle yea you're absolutely right. I also noticed the coolant level will fluctuate even more if you have any air stuck in your coolant system. The Schmuckbuilt coolant reservoir seems to have very little "extra" space for expansion. So if you overfill it or have air in the system causing a larger fluctuation, it will spill over out the weep hole.

As for the oil catch can it seems to function just fine. I don't recall the size of the filter hole but its not small (3/4-1"??). Having said that, maybe because I'm boosted, it does still create a ton of pressure, enough to wet the filter with oil/fuel. And I need to empty my catch can once per year. It nearly completely fills up with fuel vapor (i'm on E85). Once the catch can is full or near full, it can't do its job properly and I've even blown my oil dip stick loose due to this. So yea, in conclusion, @Kyle is absolutely correct in that improvements can be made to the design.