Elephants smoke!?!

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 3:35 am

Does your elephant hose mod have a smoking habit? Mine does - whenever I idle I begin to see the fumes rising up off the engine from the open hose below it. Could the solution be as simple as placing the end of the hose into a jar or can along with a piece of course foam or fine mesh to condense the fumes? (I don't want to shell out $200 for the provent if I don't have to)

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 3:56 am

Yup, the old mans was the same way, pretty good amount of smoke.

007husky · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 2:36 pm

visible specially at night, cant see it during the day.

it doesnt really bother me and no one has complained that my car is on fire yet, so i think is all good

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 3:18 pm

007husky wrote:

visible specially at night, cant see it during the day.
it doesnt really bother me and no one has complained that my car is on fire yet, so i think is all good

When I went through the drive through yesterday it was wafting up toward the poor guy at the window & he asked me if there was something wrong. The smoke was made especially attention-grabbing when combined with the loud rattling noise that may be a bad alternator clutch pulley. It was rather funny that this fairly new car was sitting there in line smoking and clanking away like some old POS from the junk yard.

I have thought about designing my own condensate trap but wonder if anyone else has already made their own. I don't want it to cause restriction in the end of the hose at all so I was thinking of just inserting the hose into a small can filled with something similar to the charcoal pre-filters on air filters: I polymer mesh that the oil mist could condense onto and then collect in the can.

chrispitude · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 4:18 pm

I used a 20oz plastic soda bottle. See my post here. The idea was not mine; I've seen other folks do it here on the forum.

- Chris

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 4:24 pm

chrispitude wrote:

I used a 20oz plastic soda bottle. See my post here. The idea was not mine; I've seen other folks do it here on the forum.
- Chris

Excellent! That is along the lines of what I was thinking of doing. Do you still have this setup or did you eventually go with something else?

Thanks!
- C

chrispitude · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 5:13 pm

KeighJeigh wrote:

Excellent! That is along the lines of what I was thinking of doing. Do you still have this setup or did you eventually go with something else?

Well, I am embarrassed to say I still have it. There's no smoke with the soda bottle filtration approach. I bought a real CCV filter from TheTDIWagonGuy but I have yet to install it, it's still sitting in the box.

- Chris

Turbo Tim · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 5:43 pm

I had the same problem and that is exactly why I put the Provent on.

JIMMY JEEP · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 5:51 pm

Elephants dont smoke ,they say smoking stunts your growth and elephants are huge.

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2008 9:50 pm

JIMMY JEEP wrote:

Elephants dont smoke ,they say smoking stunts your growth and elephants are huge.

Indeed true, but this one is belching bad breath.

I made an oil mist catching unit using steel wool and a plastic container while standing in the parking lot of the hardware store - and it appears to work. Could a more carefully made version of this be used in place of the Provent? My version is larger than the ones I have seen thus far so what if, instead of holes in the sides of it I simply plumbed the bottom of it back to the turbo? I could then simply wash out the filter from time to time when it got gummed up and be good to go.

The only reason I am hesitating so much on this Provent is because based upon the pictures I have see of it, it appears to be a $200 chunk of circular plastic that acts as a spin filter. But I read in one thread that it also has an actual mesh filter inside it as well that apparently gets clogged and needs to be cleaned from time to time. If that is the case, then it only breaths as well as the filter media within it. So, what would be the difference between that and one of those large in line gas filters I can get for $5 at Schucks auto? I'm not being argumentative here, I honestly want to know what information I am missing.

- Chris

durangotang · **Posted:** Sat May 24, 2008 12:16 am

I wasn't a big fan of the smoke coming through the hood or into the passenger compartment so I just ran the hose further down and now it pokes out the little gap between my rock rail and the body on the driver's side. Problem solved and now I have a mini side-exit exhaust haha.

Bill.Barg · **Posted:** Sat May 24, 2008 1:03 am

KeighJeigh wrote:

So, what would be the difference between that and one of those large in line gas filters I can get for $5 at Schucks auto?

The provent has a pressure relief valve, so if the filter is clogged, the crank case wont over-pressurise.

The provent separates the oil from the air and allows the oil to be drained out (provent needs a installer supplied valve at this drain point, by the way).

It has a very large surface area and the filter is designed for this purpose. A fuel filter may or may not have the right properties for oil / air separation, ya know.

The hard part of the provent is not the parting with $200, it is the plumbing project that goes with it!

Bill

yakers · **Posted:** Sat May 24, 2008 1:41 am

My hose doesn't seem to smoke as much as my friend Steve's in day to day driving. But when I was towing a trailer up a hill it smoked enough that I seriously have to think about getting a provent or something. I suppose I could run the hose to a point near the exhaust so it would look like a normal exhaust.

gmctd · **Posted:** Sun May 25, 2008 11:22 am

The ProVent is not a spin-filter, but a two chamber cannister with a paper-matrix mesh where the heavier crankcase vapor component can coalesce and hopefully drain back into the oil pan - it's just barely efficient with this 4cyl Diesel engine, but may be worth the 135bucks in the long run, if plumbed back into the oil pan, as designed.

Racor and others make similar for the M\D and H\D Diesel engine markets - you could duplicate it with PVC materials from yer local hardware emporium, but would likely be bulkier than the ProVent

You could do a venturi into the down-pipe to provide a low-vacuum source to pull the vapors out, but you'd need to make sure the entry point was never at any EBP level so you wouldn't back-pressure the crankcase

A 'nuther prollem is the vapors are flammable, good to run thru the engine for some additional fuel economy, if some method of feeding it directly into the intake valve opening to prevent the mess in the intake system (Boost mean anything to ya?), but bad for the high EGT's generated when towing if plumbed into the exhaust

Then there's the prollem of your mule marking it's territory everywhere it goes - friends and relatives and the neighborhood committee all complaining about the black spots all over the streets and driveways is one reason #2son ditched the little mule

Oh, well - it has a good home, now..........................

bugnout · **Posted:** Sun May 25, 2008 11:58 am

Someone on this forum proposed welding a bung onto the exhaust after the turbo. Sounds like a good idea, but I would probably put it after the CAT. I get lots of oil out my EHM.

yakers wrote:

My hose doesn't seem to smoke as much as my friend Steve's in day to day driving. But when I was towing a trailer up a hill it smoked enough that I seriously have to think about getting a provent or something. I suppose I could run the hose to a point near the exhaust so it would look like a normal exhaust.

gmctd · **Posted:** Sun May 25, 2008 5:01 pm

EBP there can be as high as 25psi above Baro - you will need constant negative pressure, several inches below Baro, for it to work

bugnout · **Posted:** Sun May 25, 2008 5:06 pm

gmctd wrote:

EBP there can be as high as 25psi above Baro - you will need contstant negative pressure, several inches below Baro, for it to work

That wouldn't be good.

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Sun May 25, 2008 9:39 pm

gmctd wrote:

The ProVent is not a spin-filter, but a two chamber cannister with a paper-matrix mesh where the heavier crankcase vapor component can coalesce and hopefully drain back into the oil pan - it's just barely efficient with this 4cyl Diesel engine, but may be worth the 135bucks in the long run, if plumbed back into the oil pan, as designed.
Racor and others make similar for the M\D and H\D Diesel engine markets - you could duplicate it with PVC materials from yer local hardware emporium, but would likely be bulkier than the ProVent
You could do a venturi into the down-pipe to provide a low-vacuum source to pull the vapors out, but you'd need to make sure the entry point was never at any EBP level so you wouldn't back-pressure the crankcase
A 'nuther prollem is the vapors are flammable, good to run thru the engine for some additional fuel economy, if some method of feeding it directly into the intake valve opening to prevent the mess in the intake system (Boost mean anything to ya?), but bad for the high EGT's generated when towing if plumbed into the exhaust
Then there's the prollem of your mule marking it's territory everywhere it goes - friends and relatives and the neighborhood committee all complaining about the black spots all over the streets and driveways is one reason #2son ditched the little mule
Oh, well - it has a good home, now..........................

Excellent info.
$135? The main reason I have been avoiding buying this unit is because of the price:

MANN+HUMMEL 3931070550 -- ProVent 200 $223.15

Where did you find one for $135? At that price it is worth ordering and not fiddling around with my own.
---------
I too read the thread about plumbing into the exhaust. Some TDI folks tried it with poor results. It is probably not a very good idea because of exhaust temps, oil spots etc... Nor does it doesn't sound like a simpler solution.

gmctd · **Posted:** Mon May 26, 2008 10:08 am

Search back a ways for ProVent - iirc, that price was good last year about the time I came aboard, SEPT07 - also, someone on the TDI forums was making a pvc version, several members here used them

Goglio704 · **Posted:** Mon May 26, 2008 11:54 am

Back when I bought my Provent, these folks had the best price. I didn't see a price listed today, but it might be worth checking.

http://www.republicsales.com/products/f ... rovent.php

Elephants smoke!?!

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