Tech Tips: Ecoboost Catch Can Set Up!

For 4 Cylinder EcoBoost Engines

    We at JEM-Sport are happy to announce that we have found the perfect catch-can recipe for these engines. Testing has been completed on 1st- and 2nd-gen 2.0 & 2.3 engines. So let's rewind and take a dive into what the issues actually were and what our process was to get to this final product. 

    -From the start, we battled excessive oil bypass filling up our catch cans. We pondered whether it was an oil level issue or an improper setup for quite some time. We felt like we were on the right track until we turned the power up on our sponsored driver and shop tech Josh Estey's S13. After many conversations and theories, we finally moved the ports on the valve cover. In motorsports, it's fairly common to move your engine vent lines to the top of the valve cover instead of the rearward side position the 2.0/2.3 engines have. While this is a common change for race cars, we didn't fully understand why, so we hesitated to do it until Chelsea Denofa shared with us that he had done exactly that.

    -Thanks to Denofa, we were able to move forward with some confidence in our theories. At GridLife Midwest Fest 2026, Josh tested two different vent locations on the valve cover of his fully built 2.0 EcoBoost, pushing around 500 WHP. For those unfamiliar with GridLife Midwest, it takes place at GingerMan Raceway, a large road course in South Haven, MI. The track features a long front straight where you can reach speeds of 135 MPH or more. The rest of the course is high-load and power-demanding—the perfect scenario for filling up an oil catch can with excessive bypass.

    -Josh ran two separate catch cans routed to two different ports on the valve cover. Surprisingly, even though these ports were only 1.5 inches apart, there was a massive difference in oil bypass. The rear port filled its can at five times the rate of the port just ahead of it, while the front port saw almost no bypass at all. Noticing this, we decided to block off the rear port and use only the front one. It was a success! Josh completed the event with the can only a third full of bypassed oil.

    -We continued testing our change at multiple events through the season with great success, going from filling the catch cans in just 2-4 laps to filling them only 1/2 way in 50+ laps. To take this a step further, we installed the same setup on our sponsored driver's E36, Vance Kearns, and he went the entire event without any oil bypass (2 days of driving).

     -We at JEM-Sport are currently taking the steps to finalize the product so that you can click buy and get to your install! Because the factory valve covers are plastic and the internal baffle isn't removable, we have been using eBay aluminum valve covers because they offer a removable baffle, which lets us install a -10 bung into the VC so you can run it to your catch can. If you know anything about aluminum welding, the words eBay and aluminum don't mix well, haha. We haven't found confidence in welding these yet, but we have had success with JB-Welding the bung into the VC. However, we don't feel this is a "final product" we would like to tie our name to. There are a few other options on the market to get an AN bung into the VC, but we feel that welding is the best option to guarantee 100 percent issue-free success. 

Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned for a final product very soon.