SVTPerformance Separation Anxiety : JLT Oil Separator Review
Modifications. We mod our cars for various reasons. We do it to increase power, enhance driving characteristics, and often to personalize our vehicle’s styling. However, we sometimes have to mod a car in order to resolve a deficient design attribute from the factory. The mod we’re covering here is just such a fix.
For whatever reason, when Ford engineers designed the Positive Crankcase Ventilation (“PCV”) system on the 2011 Mustang (and countless other Ford vehicles) they failed to prevent the aspiration of engine oil into the intake tract of the engine. Oil in the intake creates a sticky black mess which can damage sensors and generally clog parts you’d rather have stay clean. To top it off, the vaporized oil can also lower your fuel’s effective octane rating. Interestingly, only the passenger side PCV on the new Mustangs seems to suffer from the oiling issue. Many have reported that they have not gotten any oil on the driver’s side under even aggressive open track driving conditions.
With a parade of horrors such as that you may be tempted to just remove that couple of inches of plastic hose and call it a day, but you might not want to be so hasty. The PCV system is important for a couple of reasons; it alleviates excess pressure inside the engine’s crankcase, helps lower emissions, and prevents your garage from smelling like a Jiffy-Lube after pulling your Mustang in. Some people simply delete the PCV system and install a breather on the valve cover in its place. However, that would leave you to live with the second two of the three issues mentioned above.
So instead of going that pedestrian route we looked to JLT and one of their nifty JLT Oil Separators. This attractive billet aluminum piece features a removable and washable filter which captures the oil vapors in the crankcase gases and collects and holds them within the vessel, thus preventing them from entering the engine’s intake. All you have to do is then unscrew the catch-can portion of the separator from its base an either dispose of the collected oil or pour it back into the engine.
JLT has made their separator so simple to install that a Camaro driver could probably manage it. You literally just remove the stock tube by depressing the release tangs at each of the connectors and pulling it up and off of the mounts. Then you just literally pop the JLT Oil Separator in its place and you’re finished. You have now made your engine’s life much happier. Just for fun we decided to try out the looks of both anodizing finishes JLT offers, black and clear. The black finish definitely looks more subtle, but we decided to go with the clear, natural finish. It just seemed to dress up things a bit more.
While this may not be the most glamorous mod, it is a handsome piece and serves a very important purpose. I suggest every 2011+ Mustang owner address the PCV oiling issue, and a JLT Oil Separator is an excellent solution to the problem.
Opening a box of mods like it's Christmas.
These pics should give you an idea of the differences between the two finishes.
Both finish look fantastic.
We start by pulling up and loosening the engine cover.
We then move it slightly to one side to make a little room.
We then depressed the tangs on stock PCV tube and removed it.
As you can see JLT uses stock Ford components to assemble their unit.
The JLT unit installs as simply as the stock one is removed.
We just had to press end connectors on to the stock PCV connection points.
Then just a little adjustment....
And voilà, it's installed.
And it looks great.
Looks great from this angle too.
One more angle.
As mentioned above, we wanted to see how the black finish looked too.
Like the clear finish, we have several angles for you.
Another view.
This is my favorite shot of the black one.
This should give you an idea of the difference in the two finishes side-by-side.
I really like this pic, so here it is:
How well does the JLT Oil Separator work you may ask? Check out what it collected after just six 1/4 mile passes and about 750 miles.
Any guesses what kind of oil we're running in the SVTP GT?
-SID297:beer:
