where is a good place to mount an oil seperator on a 2003 lightning? my driver side sometimes likes 2 vaccum in some oil, i just need to put an oil seperator on the hose, any ideas?

 

The oil seperator goes on the passenger side. There is a hose that goes into the back of the upper intake plenum on the passenger side. Follow that hose and you will see that it goes back to the passenger side valve cover. That is where the the oil is being sucked in.....It can also enter from the driver side valve cover. The hose goes from the valve cover to the under side of the intake tube. Put a breather on the pcv and cap the inlet on the under side of the intake tube.... Most of the oil seems to come from the passenger side. I ordered an oil seperator from LFP and I have to empty it every week...it catches a ton of oil. It is very easy to install, no tools required and takes 2 minutes.

 

oil seperators are garbage and dont work, do a pcv delete.

 

Not only do you need a PCV system on a S/C engine, but you need one that sucks air from the crankcase like the Lightning one does. Crankcase pressures are high on a blower motors and the engineers were on the right track when they designed the "sucking" PCVs of our trucks. Don't you think it would have been a lot easier for them to run breathers or a simpler pcv system. Problem was they never baffled the valve cover internally and the by-product of the evacuation process is oil injestion. A oil seperator DOES work.You need to maintain them like any part on your engine that involves a filter. L&S is one of the best ideas, but even a simple design will trap 95% of your oil before it enters your plenum. I've taken off over 50 blower assemblies and after thousands of miles of the ones that had well maintained separators on them (all types), the aftercoolers were all extremely clean. Like I said its a matter of maintenance. Keep the breathers and PCV deletes for N/A engines.

 

The "search" button is your friend. There must be hundreds of posts on various separators: different types, pictures and how to's, how they work, which ones seem to work best (or don't seem to work) - and total PCV deletion. Then you can make a decision on what you think is best to do.

 

 

Well someone keeps sneaking in the garage at night and pooring motor oil in my seperator and while they are doing that they keep pulling the upper plenum off and cleaning it. Since I had the PCV delete and now have the seperator there is no question that i could do either and the seperator Does work. The valve cover should be vented and if you can keep the oil out of the plenum while maintaining vaccum as it was designed, why wouldnt you do that?

Who ever keeps cleaning the oil out of my plenum, please continue to do it and I'll just keep thinking my oil seperator is working.

 

I should have been more clear. The L&S, and AMW style units do a commendable job of oil vapor condesation, but the air compressor units stop filtering properly in short order and will allow considerable amounts of oil vapor to pass by them, MAYBE if you soak the little stone filter in solvent once a week it may do a halfway fair job but most people do not, thus they still get quite a bit of oil intrusion into the intake system. Why don't you guys do some searches on "oil seperator" and you will see the proof.

 

Yes, even the compressor type DO work. And yes, Pit, you most certainly DO have to clean the barrel filter element every other month...just like you have to clean your Air filter, change your oil filter, etc... Any filtering system will fail if not properly mauntained. Problem is that the separators get a bad rep because most owners set them, then forget them. they will give years of good performance otherwise.

 

Mondo we will have to agree to dis-agree on this one, also I think mobile has the highest quality tire air as well.

have a good weekend

 

Have to agree with you on the L&S being the best as far as maintenance and filtering. (see, I can be humble)

 

well, now that you have my attention. Why is the L&S better? I would swap if it has a better design...what's the deal with it?

I havent had any problems with the LFP unit but if there is a better filter/less maint out there then...I am enterested. Who sells it? Are there any pics out there?

 

Rotorwash- The main reason is because it self-drains back into your right bank valve cover. Its also comprised of a high quality hvac filter and other hi-grade parts. Its a bit steep in price mainly because of the price of the filter(believe me , I've tried to make one for less....couldn't do it) If you do a search on L&S oil separator, you'll see the whole anchillada. Meanwhile, I too run the compressor -type separators and aside from the occasional maintenance, it works fine!

 

I went thru 5 or 6 different seperators(including one no one else has tried--too big and gangly), tried just breathers(oil drips onto the cam covers and smells as it heats up), and finally bought the L&S kit. BINGO, we have a winner; no maintenance(as Mondo1 said), looks 'factory', and only takes 10 minutes or less to install. It's only drawback is its price but as someone once said, "You get what you pay for."(well usually )


Dan

 

Mondo1, How do you clean your compressor style seperator? I have had mine for several months. I havent done anything except empty it when it gets about 1/4 full. Usually about once a week, it seems to be collecting the same amount that it always has.

Cleaning tips would be helpful, thanks in advance.