Hi Guys
My other ride I installed a oil catch can to the tappet cover breather. Now my question. Being, lazy I picked up I have to empty every month the damn thing and also put on every second week a new sponge filter on the catch can.
Can't I just plumb the tappet cover breather pipe to vent to open air or must there be a filter of some sort.
Oh, and no, it doesn't use oil. It is clean water in the catch can when I empty it.

Not sure why you end up with so much condensation, but if you check photos most folks just have a filter attached to the breather. This may sound silly but do you have a vent hole in your catch can? How many cc's of water are taking about for a given set of Kilometers?Finally to answer your question you can have the old road draft tube or just out a petcock or some sort of drain valve in the catch can.

Tom

Just get yourself one of these small oil breather filters and vent it back to atmosphere, I have 2 of these filters on my A14, on on the pipe coming out of the block and one on the tappet cover.

Here is a pic: http://www.autostyle.co.za/prodview.p ... tr=&str=breather%20filter

Yes, the catch can I made a little pipe that vents to atmosphere and then I use some sponge of about 4mm thick with a clamp onto this little pipe. My catch can is constructed of plastic. After about a week's drive of 40km per day the sponge is already wet. I have decided to replace the sponge every second week to prevent cloging and maybe a preasure buildup. Upon inspection everytime it is wet with a little oil and mostly water vapor.
The catch can is about 300mm full of water after a month's drive.( 40km times 20 days of driving = 800km).
It is now winter here and it is a VW. I don't know if this can have an effect.

What I want to do is to remove the sponge filter and let it vent from that specific pipe to atmosphere with a pipe going down to the level of the bumper without a filter. I am just worried that there can be negative venting whereby it can pull in air instead of venting and maybe pulling in dust and dirt. Although I am not worried as there is so much vapor in the catch can it can trap the dust when it does happen. This will reduce my work by just emptying the catch can once a month and not replacing the filter every weekend which is becoming tiresome.

Is there any specific reason for using a catch can on the vehicle, normally the breather pipes goes back to the air cleaner.

Well, it is a $hit VW citi golf CTi.
To give you back ground, the tappet cover breather pipe goes into the airbox just above the air cleaner and below the Kjetronic flap. When I bought the car the whole intake was a bloody mess with oily residue. I talked to a couple of people and they said this is normal on VW's. Apparently they "breathe" a little. 10 000km service I replace air filter. Half the air filter is soaking wet and just below the flap where it must breathe. Now I have plumped the pipe to a catch can and blocked off the airbox entry hole.
Air cleaner stays clean and the intake system will eventually become clean as it drives. A little filter on the tappet cover will also clog up very quickly.
Again, please note the catch can is full of water vapor and not oil. The engine doesn't use oil aswell.

Why don't you sell it? The 1200 gets as good mileage, well if you put the 5-speed in. And it's more reliable than a VW.

Haha ddgonzal
If you see my GX you will understand why I don't use it as a daily. There is too much money that went into it. AND, here in South Africa they love to steal the 1400 bakkies and the sedans. My daily is the Nissan Almera and my wife actually uses the VW as the daily. It is just a damn stupid design to let it breathe just above the aircleaner. All the vapor and little bit of oil clogs up the air cleaner. You can feel the power loss when putting your foot down on the freeway when it comes close to the 10,000km air cleaner replacement time.

My plan is to later sell it when money permits and get a micra for her. I am done with german/european cars that are designed stupid.

To come back to my problem, I just want to know if a filter is really needed or can I let it breathe to atmosphere without a filter.Then I can remove the filter on the catch can and just empty the can once a month.

The air filter protects the engine from dust and grit. It is recommended.

Some people do run without an air filter. So technically it is not needed.

my guess you could use the catch can as a pre filter and plumb it from Rocker cover to catch can to air cleaner..

for every litre of petrol you burn there is a litre of water produced, most of it goes out the exhaust...