Finally got around to making this damn thing but I am having trouble making it actually work. Picked up Pneumatic Sep from Harbor Freight as suggested but the new line of Seps they carry are suspect. Specifically where it drains fluid. Its some ****ty Mickey Mouse manual drain with an odd not quite 1/4"-good-luck-finding-a-male-adpt thread size.

Here is the first attempt..


FAILED!!! Leaked at lower 1/4 to 3/8 barb. Made a mess all over the place.

Second attemp..


I figured maybe if I fitted it with its intended pneumatic attachment maybe that bitch would stop spewing...NOTTTTTTT !!! Mess everywhere. The synthetic oil seems to just not give a **** about any O rings i place in there.

Took it all off and its back to square 1. need help making it not leak. How are u guys making these pneumatics seps drain with out making a mist party.??

Have tried teflon tapes of all kinds and NOTHING!

"Smashing head on desk",,, another thing is that where im draining the oil (pickle jar) its also an effing hot box party! Embarrassing type, not weed type, maybe thats it, I need to start smoking weed again.

I tried JB welding solidly the attachment barb on the lid and the system becomes "funny-choked". Maybe the SS pad is not separating as intended. Too much flow?

If i simply remove the lid from the jar and free ball the hose in there, it becomes a bukake party!

URG.. What a ****ty Week it has been for me..Excuse the grammar, feeling fustrated.

 

once upon a time i got a really nice custom hand welded aluminum separator from some guy in canada who also made my intake.....

not sure what it looks like inside at all, but it definately does not leak......mounts to the factory oil tube going down, and 2 hoses connect it to the intake duct and the valve cover......had to modify factory rubber elbow to make it work, but its great......what oil u have? i use amsoil series 3000 heavy duty diesel.....

 

monster? no i dont think that was the guy.......this guy had some strange name for his "company", but it wasnt monster anything like that.....i really cant remember......

 

They dont have that type of Sep anymore. The one I got is a huge 1/2" sep. Its not small, trust me, its pretty massive. It came with a 40 micron brass filter tube i removed and hanged my S.S scouring pad. It separates fine the prob is the bottom drain is a bitch to plumb tight so it makes a mess.

Here is the first setup


Sep was so big I shifted it towards fender just so it would not rub the hood.


Here is the 2nd set up


Im using 5/8" I.D Parker hose more than enough.

How did u attach the bottom portion drain on the Harbor Freight so it does not leak.? That small drain has a cheesy little O ring that seems to not stop the Mobil Sync from leaking. that little rubber elbow sleeve thingy.

I will for sure add that VW little set up. What year diesel Jetta is it from?

 

There lies my issue..lol I came late to the party and got handed the ****ty version manual drain ****. Do u have a pic of the actual air hose fitting ur using?

Did u tap the bottom of the Polycarbonate Bowl to screw in the hose fitting? Will Polycarbonate even be tappable?

Allow me to quote their warning disclosure:
Warning DO NOT use bowl to separate chemicals, specifically synthetic Oil?

 

I feel stupid for trying to make a better sep. than what mercedes already had designed 26 years ago. (fully mechanical, no maintenance, no separating elements, kept inside a cold box, etc.) simple centrifugal forces and thermodynamic physics at its best.


Im slowly learning to fight the urge to "modify","upgrade","simplify", the beauty of fully mechanical aspects of already well-engineered things. Must be my back ground in rodding. Chop,Cut, French, etc.

Its funny how its always the OLD TIMERS who accept the beauty in well built things. In any case, in the end, I learned something more about myself than on separators.

Cheers

 

I'm gonna seal the lid of the oem Sep. That I
agree was a sloppy termination. It should have been factory sealed. Those double flat spades are horrible as it allows a lot of oil sippage as the engine ages and allows more blowby.

This will sound cliche but,
A neighbor of mine has an unmolested 300D, one of many Mercedes that he has owned in his lifetime. He currently has and drives around 3. I could imagine that he has owned upwards of 50. He's a for real Benz guy.

He's in his 70's now, he's a retired "traditionalist-purist" Mercedes diesel Only ex-certified mechanic who no longer operates his shop, the inside air cleaner on all his benzes including his daily driven 300D is oil FREE! He did agree that EGR valves are horrible, but he has mostly euro versions.

Here is all that he said to me when I tried to explain "convince" him regarding the subject of poor separators on the OM617 the other day.
Quote" Too much blowby and oil sippage in an air cleaner is typically an indication of poor engine management not of bad oil separator design".

This humble old man does not say much as that is literally all he told me. Its always wize to pay attention to someone who never really has much to say.He was not trying to convince me of anything. Yet I feel convinced.

Im not running EGR crap so my intake should not be that filthy anymore. Worst comes to worst I already have the external Sep. built and kind of ready to go.

Im gonna pop a new filter in there after I seal the lid and check it out in 1k miles or so to see if their is oil in the cleaner.