Today, we’re going to take it back to basics a little bit and look specifically at that whole “transport” element. To go even further back to basics, check out our technical section to see why blow-by is so bad for your engine over time. You know all about the complex, unique parts of this Camaro catch can project, but what about something as simple and ubiquitous as the hoses?

There are many ways to skin a cat, and there are many ways to route a hose. However, as they say, all you really need to know, you learned in kindergarten. Steve took us back to circle time with a clever new way to route houses in a way that’s more visually representative of how the final product will look. It’s just another way to even more confidently nail down fitment on these Camaro parts – or should I say on this ATS catch can?

That’s right folks, we routed our own 2.0T’s hoses already, so this time, we brought our Camaro’s Cadillac cousin into the R&D facility to custom-tailor some stylish new silicone. But more on that later. Let’s start with an update on our blow-by situation.

This R&D Process is Really Blowing By    

First, let’s take a second to pretend that I haven’t made that same blow-by joke numerous times before. Now, let’s take a peek at what we’ve got going on in our catch can after another thousand miles or so on the 2.0T.

As you can see, we are continuing to catch a substantial volume of condensed muckity-muck and evacuate it from the system before it clogs up our Camaro’s internals.

Can in the Cadillac

Now that we’ve further re-affirmed just how much blow-by we’re isolating with this setup, it’s even more crucial to ensure that fitment across both these alpha-platform vehicles is like that of a glove. We’ve got the Camaro nailed down, but there’s not quite as much room to work with in the Caddy, which was generously loaned to us by a customer.

This engine bay necessitates not only a new set of hoses, but also a new bracket for mounting the can. We haven’t revealed our exact placement of the Camaro can yet, but we are still working out a couple additional considerations, and may have some other surprises for you in store there –more on that in a future post!

For now, let’s look at the ATS catch can setup. Steve identified the strut tower as a good mounting location, so first, he fabbed up a quick prototype bracket to ensure fitment.

Next, once measurements and clearances got the A-OK, we cut a more presentable bracket on the waterjet.

Hose in the Caddy

With the bracket all squared away, we needed to determine the optimal route for silicone hoses to pass crankcase vapors to and from our catch can. Steve put his thinking cap on, and once recess was over, it was time for arts and crafts. Armed with pipe cleaners so snazzy that he’s become the envy of second-graders everywhere, Steve took to lining up the hoses in a way that was both functionally and aesthetically pleasing.

Did I mention to you that we made our first prototype of the PCV tap out of Playdoh? We decided not to use that method anymore, though,  because we couldn’t get Steve to stop eating it.

Joking aside, here’s Steve, lining everything up to make sure the lines travel a route that is both attractive and unobstructed.

And here’s what we’ve come up with!

From a Different Angle

Due to threading variations in the head from car to car, the angled part of our tap will likely vary in orientation depending on how far into the threading our tap grounds out. We will be using two segments of hose where the CC line meets the blow-by tap. This will allow proper fitment on any car by enabling an L-shaped hose on the tap to point towards your CC line, no matter what the orientation of the tap is. Then, you can cut the CC line to exactly the perfect length you need to meet the L-shaped hose for your specific vehicle.

This photo depicts that setup, although to the untrained eye, it more closely resembles a group of caterpillars having a wild party. The arrows depict the range of possible orientations of the tap.

Once Steve bent the lines into shape, they would provide nice practical models featuring the angles necessary to properly route our hoses.

Coming Soon

You’ve got a good idea of how this kit is shaping up both for the ATS catch can and for the Camaro catch can. Today, we took a look at even more blow-by that we collected, and we also went into detail on Steve’s cool new way of laying out hoses. Next time, we’ll have some more pictures of all this work  for you, as well as some more details on the Camaro’s mounting bracket.

For those of you just catching up with us now (I crack myself up), this ATS kit is largely the same as our Camaro 2.0T catch can kit, which is now on pre-sale—don’t worry, the ATS pre-sale is not far behind!

However, to properly fit the Caddy, we needed to design a bespoke set of ATS-specific brackets and hoses.

You may have seen an earlier post detailing the ultra-high-tech way we laid out the initial designs, and that method proved to be an effective one. The layout we determined through those methods was mapped onto a 3D-drawing, and we used that drawing to cook up a proper prototype with aluminum brackets and silicone hoses. All that was left was to test fit our setup on an ATS.

Testing the Cadillac… at the Porsche Dealership?

For the test fit, Steve (our engineer), Rob (project manager), and I were sent out on a bit of a field trip. The generous customer who allowed us to use his ATS as a guinea pig provided one caveat to the agreement: we could use the car, but he couldn’t leave his work or take any time away. So, we were welcome to use his car for testing, but we had to travel to his workplace and perform the test fitment in his parking lot. This just happened to be at a local Porsche dealership, so he really had to twist our arms.

So, off to Porsche we went. This worked out quite well, because it also gave us the chance to kill two birds with one stone and take measurements for the upcoming Mishimoto 2013-2015 Porsche 918 Spyder catch can kit! I’m just kidding, of course. We certainly did not take measurements on that car, but only because the dealer had JUST sold their only one for a cool $1.2M. So, we’re still looking for a test vehicle – reach out if you know anyone!

All joking aside, we had a very successful test fit. First, we began by installing the PCV-side system – Steve was very excited to install his patent-pending blow-by tap (above).

Final Fitment

We continued with the CCV side, and took measurements throughout the process to make a note of any changes that might be necessary. Barring a few small things, this fitment is pretty spot on. One of the adjustments we will be making is to slightly lengthen parts of the CCV side hose to extend the section in front of the engine so it fits more snugly along the existing lines that travel across the bottom of the plastic cover.

It looks damn good, too – what do you all think?