# Electric Crankcase Evacuation



## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Like most other turbo guys, leaking check valves and oily charge pipes create big problems for those looking to run the oem pcv system. I've tried catch cans and they work okay but you still have to decide whether to vent to atmosphere(stink) or return it back to the inlet, which still leaves oily film back in. I've tried running lines to the exhaust via the moroso fittings and check valves and I never could get enough vacuum and during certain loads/rpms it would create positive pressure with is really bad.

So for the past few years, I've just run draft tubes down to the ground on all my turbo cars. Run them back far enough and they dont smell as bad as the vta catch can. Run them short enough and you dont have any issues pushing oil past the gaskets. And zero maintenance which is always a plus. But I've always wondered if I could get some free power by creating vacuum on the crankcase like stock without returning the air back to the inlet/charge. The big v8 guys swear by it, and there are expensive belt driven evac pump that pull a lot of vacuum and are proven to make power. Makes sense, create horsepower by relieving pressure in the crankcase and help ring sealing. But I need data to show it works, it needs to pull good vacuum all the time and creme on top if it makes more power. And if it works, the guys that need the sai pump for visual inspection have a better use for them.

This is something I've wanted to build for a long time and finally have the corrado setup as the perfect test subject. It consistently makes 500hp at 19psi and shows some blowby since the motor was built loose for boost. Since mk4 1.8t guys hate their Secondary Pumps like the plague, we have plenty of these laying around the shop. They push a lot of air to the exhaust valves during startup to get the cat cooking faster, which means they also suck a lot of air as well. So we have a pump. Next up is the wiring which I wanted to be boost activated as running it all the time would probably kill it too quick. Bringing the pump on at 5psi or so would cycle the pump way less time than during startup in its intended purpose. Found out that Racetronix had already beat me to the wiring, they build a harness specifically for this for using the GM sai pumps. 











The grand national guys apparently love this thing, some running 2 pumps to get the volume they need. Ordered one of these up because with the hobbs switch, nice relay, etc...at $45 its a really good deal. So it arrived and I started gathering up all the other items needed for the install. Heres the pump, harness, catch can, sai specific hoses, and a bracket from a mk4 that I modified so that it fits where my ac compressor used to be.









Heres the empty space I'm working with on the corrado









And this is how I filled it :laugh:









I didnt get a picture of how it attaches to the crankcase breather coming off the valve cover but its pretty self explanatory. Elbow comes down to pcv hardline back down around the rear passnger mount, then tight against the frame rail where you see it. Attached the harness and tested operation before I hooked applying pressure to the hobbs switch. Success, its pulling 5" vacuum  Tested again with the car at idle and free revving up to 4k and still pulls 5" all the way across. So I finish tightening everything up and head for the dyno for some proof. We had a few other cars going today for pulls so I put this project in quick mode to get it done this morning. 

Unfortunately I wasnt able to get the pulls I wanted for proof. The pump still pulled 5" through redline on the dyno but unfortunately after the third pull once I found my 500 for baseline, my serpentine tensioner crapped out and threw the belt, luckily caught it during idle. So I will continue to drive around and keep an eye on the pump, I didnt get a chance to plumb in the catch can like a wanted. I'm sure that the pump sucking in crankcase schmeg is going to live a short life but I wanted to speed up the process today so I could get some numbers to justify it. Catch can will go in and I'll see if the numbers change.

More coming :wave:


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## 12V_VR (Aug 11, 2010)

Very nice:thumbup:, get that tensioner fixed asap !! I've read up a little about this a while back just didn't think it was worth the effort...prove me wrong


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## 24vGTiVR6 (Sep 14, 2010)

nice.... I'm looking for a better evac solution also. Really like the use of the OEM SAI pump too.

what psi pressure switch? ~4psi?

following this :thumbup:


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## sp_golf (Nov 28, 2007)

Looks interesting, I may give it a try when I build my new motor


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## therealvrt (Jul 21, 2004)

Let me be the third canadian in a row to give you props


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Forgot to mention in the first post that you will need to change the pigtail on the pump connector as they only cater to the gm pumps. Easy enough to change out, we had a collection of pumps at the shop but we mostly had mk4 pumps so thats the connector I went with so I always had a backup pump. I did find that the 2.5L pumps look just like the gm pumps on the racetronix site. The bosch/pierburg pumps do require a larger fuse as well, had to bump up to a 30a instead of the 20a provided for the gm ones. Racetronix said the wiring could certainly handle it. I'm thinking that more amp draw hints to better performance

and yes, it comes on at 4psi. You can order with 2, 4, 7, 15, or 30psi activation


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## Boost112 (May 8, 2002)

..interesting...in for more info...


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## leebro61 (Nov 7, 2001)

Very cool, I had a sneaky suspicion that you had something like this up your sleeve. I'm curious to hear how the pump holds up, I think the pressure switch will definitely help it. Just to verify... when you say 5" you mean 5 in hg, right? Can't wait to see how this turns out :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

Very interesting. Yea, IMO, the Exhaust Evac are really designed to be used on open headers where you don't get back pressure from an Exhaust system.

Don't you run standalone? Couldn't you use an output from it to control the SAI pump (via a relay)? Guess the relay and Hobbs setup is cheap enough though.

Lee, you could use an output to control via megasquirt and wire up a a secondary Map sensor into an input to logs of the effects :laugh:


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Lee- yes 5 in hg, I always shorten it to " :laugh:
I didnt know what to expect when I hooked it up, but was happy to see 5 on the guage. I still need to smoke test it just to make sure there are no leaks. These pumps are notorious for coming apart at the rivets but I have a fix for that too. Looks like we have nice weather most of the week so I hope to put some miles on it and shoot for the dyno again on thurs or friday. The tensioner really ruined the party the other night and I'm on a mission here.

Shawn-
I do run lugtronic and have an open output that I'm currently using for my meth. I had considered running another output for this but when I found the racetronix with everything already done for me, I couldnt turn that down. Theres even an output in the pump harness with a spare weatherpak connector for a signal light in the dash. And since you mentioned the exhaust, long term goal is to test this with the pump outlet going to exhaust instead of to atmosphere to see if it pulls even more vacuum.


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

Nice. Definitely in to see some real world results. :thumbup:


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Had more dyno time today and was hoping to have some great results for us all.

Tensioner issue reared its head again today after the 3rd pull and shredded another belt so we put a new belt on and called it quits until I could check it out in the air. Found out it was a blessing because on the way home I started hearing what appeared to be rod knock, then the oil temp started raising to confirm the bearing issue. Shut her down and had it towed to the shop.

No worries, '13 was one hell of a year. 535 on pump gas on stock rods and nominated into top dawg at h20.
Back next year with a stronger build and more boost :beer:


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

That's why they call it bleeding edge  :thumbup:


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## 8vbunny (Oct 2, 2002)

Great idea! Why not run the gm pumps that the harness is made for?


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Not running the gm pumps because I didnt have five of those laying around like the 1.8t ones and it keeps it OEM :laugh: And it is super easy to change out the pigtail but you can run whatever pump you'd like. I had maybe $60 in the entire setup using one that someone wanted to delete.

But obviously this has been put on hold by the motor issue. Pulled the pan last night and found lots of aluminum shavings. Going to pull the head and start pulling caps later this week. Already banking on having to build another shortblock but hoping the head is okay. Also worried about the aluminum shaving being sent through the rest of the system.


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## 8vbunny (Oct 2, 2002)

Bummer. I wonder if a simple oil separator would do the trick. Run the line into a catch can and then through a separator to catch the fine mist. I had one on my old fj60 and it worked like a charm.


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## 24vGTiVR6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Yareka said:


> Pulled the pan last night and found lots of aluminum shavings.


:banghead: welcome to the club bud. I know how you feel.

hope you get things sorted out quickly!


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Confirmed spun bearing on number 5, crank journal is burned bad. 
My biggest fear is those shavings going through the head, oil cooler, oil galleries, etc...:banghead:


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## 24vGTiVR6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Yareka said:


> Confirmed spun bearing on number 5, crank journal is burned bad.
> My biggest fear is those shavings going through the head, oil cooler, oil galleries, etc...:banghead:


flush it all through a parts washer, no? a bit of pressure and some varsol can't hurt - that's what I did anyway.

even then - I laid down some fine mesh in the parts washer and didn't notice any material coming out of the head or oil cooler etc.... the oil filter, magnetic oil plug, and oil pickup screen seemed to have gotten most of it.


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

24vGTiVR6 said:


> flush it all through a parts washer, no? a bit of pressure and some varsol can't hurt - that's what I did anyway.
> 
> even then - I laid down some fine mesh in the parts washer and didn't notice any material coming out of the head or oil cooler etc.... the oil filter, magnetic oil plug, and oil pickup screen seemed to have gotten most of it.


Absolutely what I had planned :thumbup:
Going to pull the head and remove cams for the machine shop to give it the full thumbs up. Leaving the short block in the car since with the o2m its a ton easier to just drop the subframe with motor/tranny all in one. Going to build an all fresh shortblock and keep this one as a backup for parts and keeps the car mobile around the shop. Already sourced another crank(super easy for the 12v) and have a set of 83mm pistons on the way. All new timing components and oil pump of course.
Will probably replace the turbo oil feed line and will most certainly send the turbo out to precision to be checked out/seals replaced. Looking at Borg 64mm turbo this time around since the manifold will be out.


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## RodgertheRabit II (Sep 13, 2012)

Finally found this thread! :wave:

Bummer about the motor. man Thing was running strong! 

Any idea why the bearing spun?


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## cant get a password (Sep 24, 2004)

We're you running Apr rod bolts? Did you resize the rod ends? I learned that lesson on my first build spun a rod bearing because the Apr bolts distort the rod end. Some ppl get away with it on older motors but a fresh rebuild is a no go if using Apr you have to resize so send them with the rods.

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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Arp bolts were used but not resized. That may be something to look into but I'd say when you push 500+, especially on pump, its probably better to go ahead and do rods. Honestly I didnt know we we were going to push that number at such low pressure with this setup and without any warning signs we kept pushing. IE Tuscan Rods and 83mm JE pistons coming up soon.


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## 24vGTiVR6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Yareka do you have the part # for the electrical connector on the pump?


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

I dont sir but I can check tomorrow. Tell ya what, its gonna be a while before I can test this setup and get numbers. I'll send you the whole harness with modified connector if you want to test it out, may even have an extra SAI pump if you need one. Just let me know.


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## 24vGTiVR6 (Sep 14, 2010)

It's all good, I have an SAI out of a Q5, and Racetronix is nearby 

I'm also gonna set up an air / oil separator before the pump, and catch can it at the exit. 

Probably won't be for a little while like you, though. It's definitely a good idea. 


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## Yareka (Mar 5, 2002)

Excellent. You'd want to match the connector on that q5, pretty sure the pump connectors changed sizes over the years. I used the mk4 pump since we have so many of those around and theres always parts cars to pluck the pigtails from.


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## 24vGTiVR6 (Sep 14, 2010)

True thanks


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