My wife and I just purchased our first Ford products last fall. I picked up a 2016 F150 XLT 2.7 Ecoboost and a 2019 XLT 2.3 Ranger for her. Being as how these are ALSO the first vehicles either of us have owned with turbos, I did a bit of research and found that the Ecoboost F150s benefit greatly from installing an oil separator. The one I purchased was a JLT from American Trucks. My truck only has 30k miles but from what I have read, it doesn’t take long for the back side of your pistons and the interior of the cylinders to start to accumulate gunk and fowling. Hopefully mine aren’t too bad but I’d like to get ahead of it from jump with a brand new truck. Any recommendations on one for my Ranger? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Welcome to the forum

First, I am not sure an oil separator on a newer engine is a benefit to anything but the oil separator seller

But certainly won't hurt anything if done right

All piston engines have Blow-by
When a cylinder fires some of the HOT gas "blows by" the rings and piston and into the crank case
The HOT gases vaporize some of the oil coating the piston and cylinder walls, this is where ALL the oil vapor in an engine comes from
Bearings and valve train do not run even close to hot enough to vaporize oil

For years and years the blow-by gases(exhaust) and oil vapor was just vented out of upper oil pan or lower block vents on all engines
In the late 1950's this pollution was addressed with PCV(positive crankcase ventilation) system
By early 1960's it was starting to be required on all engines

Crank case and valve cover area are connected by the oil drain back holes, and the HOT gases and oil vapor are, well, HOT, so tend to rise up to valve cover area
So on most engines there is a PCV Valve located on the valve cover
It uses engine vacuum to pull the blow-by and oil vapor into the intake to be burned in the engine

As an engine gets older, 300k+ miles, blow-by increases so oil vapor also increases

This is where a Catch can, or oil separator can help reduce the amount of oil vapor burned in the engine and coating the upper intake
Difference between the two is that the Catch Can needs to be emptied now and then, an oil separator will have a drain that allows the condensed oil to drain back into the oil pan

Both rely on condensing the oil vapor fast enough so most of it stays in "the can" and doesn't flow, with the blow-by, into the intake
So internal surface area is the key, it allows oil vapor to cool a bit and condense, coarse steel wool is often used inside "the cans", or baffle plates

"the cans" are placed between PCV Valve and intake, and usually you want both hoses to run "downhill" into "the can" because oil vapor will condense inside the hoses as they are cooler surfaces as well, so any oil will run back to "the can", not required but can be a benefit

The oil separator adds another placement issue because you need it high enough so oil can be drained back into the engine
There is an endless debate about this condensed oil and whether or not its still "good oil", but this same oil vapor is condensed on the inside of the engine already so adding a bit more won't hurt, IMO

Drain fitting can be tapped into upper oil pan or even valve cover
Some have manual drains, a petcock, with a hose that fits on/in dipstick tube

You do need to drain the oil when its HOT, or it won't flow well, some separators even add coolant lines to keep them warm to allow draining

No, I haven't seen 2019/20 Ranger air oil separators offered

But there are a few videos for Mustang 2.3l Ecoboost catch can/separator installs, Google: Ford 2.3l ecoboost PCV valve

 

Damn! Thanks for the lesson Ron! The can I put on my F150 is a catch can, based on your distinction of the two. If I’m not misunderstanding what you’re saying, it sounds like putting a catch can on newer vehicles (less than 300k miles) doesn’t really add any benefits since oil vapor can come from other places as well and there isn’t really even a consensus on if the resulting CONDENSED oil is even bad?

 

The only place oil vapor in an engine comes from is Blow-By, which is a per cylinder thing, and depends on the age of the rings and pistons, and cylinder wall wear, so miles of use

Picture here: https://dieselnet.com/tech/images/en...nk/~blowby.png

Diesel engines actually have more blow-by than gasoline engines because of higher compression used

The oil vapor is made mostly on the Power stroke because of the temperature of the exhaust gases that "blows-by" the rings, oil vaporizes at about 450degF, exhaust gases are 800+degF

Newer engines usually have a 5% "blow-by", 300k miles 10% or more, as rings and cylinder walls wear down, can be tested with Leak-down test

The air inside the crankcase and valve cover area has this blow-by oil vapor, since the internal parts of the engine are well below 450degF, most of this oil vapor condenses inside the engine as it travels up to the valve cover area, so with 5% blow-by there isn't much oil vapor left at PCV Valve extraction point, when it gets up to about 8% or so you would get more oil vapor

I doubt you will get much oil in the catch can, on a newer engine, UNLESS there is a problem

You can also check the PCV systems Breather hose, its there for TWO reasons
As the PCV Valve opens, a newer engine won't have enough blow-by, so cooler fresh air is sucked in through the Breather hose, helping condense oil vapor faster so it doesn't get sucked in to PCV Valve and intake

Second reason is as a backup for failed PCV valve or TOO MUCH Blow-by, if blow-by increases too much then PCV Valve vacuum can't pull it out fast enough, so Breather hose acts as an EXIT for excess Blow-by, so checking this hose for oil residue, and seeing it, means bad PCV Valve or too much Blow-by
There can be some residue but not alot, this is from oil vapor condensing just after engine was shut off, so minor residue

 

My JLT catch can for my 2011 Mustang v6 was one of the first ones made by them. JLT had problems with the 2 plastic fittings that screw into the can. They would split and hard to detect the vacuum leak it caused. I replaced the plastic fitting with brass ones I bought from Ace Hardware with the same threads as the catch can. I don't know if JLT has gone with metal fittings or not. I would check to make sure...…..Just a heads up :)