I've owned my 2012 F-250 for long enough now that I've lost count of how many times I've had the intake pipes off for one reason or another. And every single time, without fail, there was oil inside them. Not huge amounts, but enough to make me wonder where it was coming from and what it was doing to my intercooler.
The factory CCV system on the 6.7L does what it's supposed to do. It takes the blow-by gases from the crankcase and routes them back into the intake to be reburned. That's good for emissions, but it's not so good for keeping your intake system clean. That oily vapor doesn't just disappear. It coats everything it touches—the turbo inlet, the intercooler, the intake pipes, the manifolds.
I looked at catch cans for a while. They work, sure, but they all come with the same problem. You have to empty them. If you forget, they fill up and stop working. In cold weather, the collected mixture can freeze and block the system. And they add more hoses and connections to an already crowded engine bay.
Then there are the reroute kits. Those send the vapor elsewhere, which keeps it out of your intake, but you end up with that diesel smell around the truck and sometimes a fine mist of oil wherever the vent terminates.
I wanted something better. Something that kept the oil out of my intake but didn't require me to remember to drain a can every few thousand miles. That's when I found the internal catch can that fits right inside the valve cover.
The Oil Problem Nobody Talks About
Every diesel engine makes blow-by. It's just a fact of life. Combustion pressure sneaks past the piston rings and ends up in the crankcase. That pressure has to go somewhere, so the CCV system routes it back into the intake.
The problem is that blow-by isn't just air. It's a mixture of gases, unburned fuel, and atomized engine oil. When that oily vapor goes through your intake, it leaves deposits everywhere. The turbo compressor wheel gets coated. The inside of your intercooler gets lined with a fine film. The intake manifold slowly builds up sludge.
None of this happens overnight. It's a slow process, spread over tens of thousands of miles. But eventually, that oil buildup starts affecting performance. The intercooler doesn't transfer heat as well when it's coated inside. The turbo doesn't spool as quickly when the compressor wheel has oil stuck to it. The engine just doesn't breathe as well as it should.
I'd seen this on other trucks. Friends with high-mileage 6.7s who pulled their intercoolers and found a puddle of oil in the bottom. That oil came from somewhere, and that somewhere was the CCV system.
Why Traditional Catch Cans Aren't the Answer
Catch cans have been around forever, and they do work. They sit in the CCV line and use baffles or mesh to condense oil vapor so it collects in a reservoir instead of going into the intake. The cleaned air continues on to the engine.
But catch cans have downsides that kept me from ever installing one.
First, they require maintenance. You have to remember to empty them. If you forget, they fill up and become useless. If you really forget, they can fill completely and start letting oil through again, or worse, become a restriction in the system.
Second, they're one more thing mounted in an already crowded engine bay. Finding a clean place to put one that looks decent and doesn't interfere with other components is harder than it sounds.
Third, they can freeze in cold weather. The mixture of oil and water that collects in the can can turn into sludge or ice, blocking the system and causing crankcase pressure to build.
I didn't want another maintenance item. I wanted something that would work without me having to think about it.
A Different Approach
The internal catch can is something I hadn't seen before. Instead of adding a can in the CCV line or rerouting the vapor, it replaces the factory CCV baffle inside the valve cover with a unit designed to separate oil more effectively.
The key is that it uses the existing space inside the valve cover. No external can, no new hoses, no finding a mounting location. It just bolts in place of the factory part and does its job invisibly.
The separation happens through carefully designed baffles that make the oil droplets condense and fall back into the engine. The cleaned vapor continues on to wherever your CCV system routes it—whether that's back to the intake, to a reroute kit, or somewhere else.
The really clever part is the automatic drain-back. When the engine is running, positive pressure keeps the oil suspended. But when you shut it off, that pressure goes away, and the collected oil drains back into the valve cover through a notch in the baffle. That means there's never anything to empty. It just returns the oil to where it came from.
No Maintenance, No Mess
This was the selling point for me. Once it's installed, there's nothing to do. No draining a can every oil change. No checking a reservoir. No worrying about freezing in winter. It just works, quietly and continuously, for as long as you own the truck.
The oil stays in the engine where it belongs. The vapor that continues on is significantly cleaner, which means less buildup in the intake and intercooler. And because the separation happens before the vapor leaves the valve cover, there's no extra restriction in the system. The crankcase can breathe normally.
What About Smell
If you're running a reroute kit, this internal catch can helps with smell too. The vapor that comes out of the vent is much cleaner, with far fewer oil droplets suspended in it. That means less of that diesel odor around the truck and less oil mist settling on things.
If you're running the stock setup with the vapor going back to the intake, you get the benefit of a cleaner intake without any of the smell trade-offs.
The Build Quality
The unit is machined from billet aluminum using 5-axis CNC equipment. That level of machining ensures every surface is exactly where it should be, with tight tolerances that make for a perfect seal. No casting porosity, no rough surfaces, no inconsistencies.
The baffle design was carefully developed to provide maximum oil separation with minimal pressure drop. That's the engineering challenge—separating oil without creating restriction. Too much restriction and crankcase pressure builds, which can lead to seal leaks. Too little separation and oil still gets through. This one strikes the balance well.
Compatibility with Existing Setups
If you already have a CCV reroute kit installed, this internal catch can works with it. The flange is designed to match most of the common kits on the market. You don't have to rip out your existing setup and start over. Just swap the internal part and keep your existing hoses.
If you're starting from scratch, the internal catch can combined with a reroute kit makes for a really clean installation. The oil gets separated at the source, and the cleaned vapor gets sent wherever you want it with minimal odor and no oil mist.
What It Feels Like Day to Day
You don't really notice this thing working, and that's the point. The truck runs the same. The gauges look the same. There's no new light on the dash, no new sound, no nothing.
What you do notice is what stops happening. The intake pipes stay dry inside. The intercooler doesn't accumulate oil over time. The turbo compressor wheel stays clean. It's the absence of something that you eventually realize was happening all along.
After I installed mine, I pulled the intake pipe a few thousand miles later just to check. Dry as a bone. That never happened before.
If you've dealt with oily intake pipes on your 6.7L, what did you do about it? Drop your experience below.
The factory CCV system on the 6.7L does what it's supposed to do. It takes the blow-by gases from the crankcase and routes them back into the intake to be reburned. That's good for emissions, but it's not so good for keeping your intake system clean. That oily vapor doesn't just disappear. It coats everything it touches—the turbo inlet, the intercooler, the intake pipes, the manifolds.
I looked at catch cans for a while. They work, sure, but they all come with the same problem. You have to empty them. If you forget, they fill up and stop working. In cold weather, the collected mixture can freeze and block the system. And they add more hoses and connections to an already crowded engine bay.
Then there are the reroute kits. Those send the vapor elsewhere, which keeps it out of your intake, but you end up with that diesel smell around the truck and sometimes a fine mist of oil wherever the vent terminates.
I wanted something better. Something that kept the oil out of my intake but didn't require me to remember to drain a can every few thousand miles. That's when I found the internal catch can that fits right inside the valve cover.
The Oil Problem Nobody Talks About
Every diesel engine makes blow-by. It's just a fact of life. Combustion pressure sneaks past the piston rings and ends up in the crankcase. That pressure has to go somewhere, so the CCV system routes it back into the intake.
The problem is that blow-by isn't just air. It's a mixture of gases, unburned fuel, and atomized engine oil. When that oily vapor goes through your intake, it leaves deposits everywhere. The turbo compressor wheel gets coated. The inside of your intercooler gets lined with a fine film. The intake manifold slowly builds up sludge.
None of this happens overnight. It's a slow process, spread over tens of thousands of miles. But eventually, that oil buildup starts affecting performance. The intercooler doesn't transfer heat as well when it's coated inside. The turbo doesn't spool as quickly when the compressor wheel has oil stuck to it. The engine just doesn't breathe as well as it should.
I'd seen this on other trucks. Friends with high-mileage 6.7s who pulled their intercoolers and found a puddle of oil in the bottom. That oil came from somewhere, and that somewhere was the CCV system.
Why Traditional Catch Cans Aren't the Answer
Catch cans have been around forever, and they do work. They sit in the CCV line and use baffles or mesh to condense oil vapor so it collects in a reservoir instead of going into the intake. The cleaned air continues on to the engine.
But catch cans have downsides that kept me from ever installing one.
First, they require maintenance. You have to remember to empty them. If you forget, they fill up and become useless. If you really forget, they can fill completely and start letting oil through again, or worse, become a restriction in the system.
Second, they're one more thing mounted in an already crowded engine bay. Finding a clean place to put one that looks decent and doesn't interfere with other components is harder than it sounds.
Third, they can freeze in cold weather. The mixture of oil and water that collects in the can can turn into sludge or ice, blocking the system and causing crankcase pressure to build.
I didn't want another maintenance item. I wanted something that would work without me having to think about it.
A Different Approach
The internal catch can is something I hadn't seen before. Instead of adding a can in the CCV line or rerouting the vapor, it replaces the factory CCV baffle inside the valve cover with a unit designed to separate oil more effectively.
The key is that it uses the existing space inside the valve cover. No external can, no new hoses, no finding a mounting location. It just bolts in place of the factory part and does its job invisibly.
The separation happens through carefully designed baffles that make the oil droplets condense and fall back into the engine. The cleaned vapor continues on to wherever your CCV system routes it—whether that's back to the intake, to a reroute kit, or somewhere else.
The really clever part is the automatic drain-back. When the engine is running, positive pressure keeps the oil suspended. But when you shut it off, that pressure goes away, and the collected oil drains back into the valve cover through a notch in the baffle. That means there's never anything to empty. It just returns the oil to where it came from.
No Maintenance, No Mess
This was the selling point for me. Once it's installed, there's nothing to do. No draining a can every oil change. No checking a reservoir. No worrying about freezing in winter. It just works, quietly and continuously, for as long as you own the truck.
The oil stays in the engine where it belongs. The vapor that continues on is significantly cleaner, which means less buildup in the intake and intercooler. And because the separation happens before the vapor leaves the valve cover, there's no extra restriction in the system. The crankcase can breathe normally.
What About Smell
If you're running a reroute kit, this internal catch can helps with smell too. The vapor that comes out of the vent is much cleaner, with far fewer oil droplets suspended in it. That means less of that diesel odor around the truck and less oil mist settling on things.
If you're running the stock setup with the vapor going back to the intake, you get the benefit of a cleaner intake without any of the smell trade-offs.
The Build Quality
The unit is machined from billet aluminum using 5-axis CNC equipment. That level of machining ensures every surface is exactly where it should be, with tight tolerances that make for a perfect seal. No casting porosity, no rough surfaces, no inconsistencies.
The baffle design was carefully developed to provide maximum oil separation with minimal pressure drop. That's the engineering challenge—separating oil without creating restriction. Too much restriction and crankcase pressure builds, which can lead to seal leaks. Too little separation and oil still gets through. This one strikes the balance well.
Compatibility with Existing Setups
If you already have a CCV reroute kit installed, this internal catch can works with it. The flange is designed to match most of the common kits on the market. You don't have to rip out your existing setup and start over. Just swap the internal part and keep your existing hoses.
If you're starting from scratch, the internal catch can combined with a reroute kit makes for a really clean installation. The oil gets separated at the source, and the cleaned vapor gets sent wherever you want it with minimal odor and no oil mist.
What It Feels Like Day to Day
You don't really notice this thing working, and that's the point. The truck runs the same. The gauges look the same. There's no new light on the dash, no new sound, no nothing.
What you do notice is what stops happening. The intake pipes stay dry inside. The intercooler doesn't accumulate oil over time. The turbo compressor wheel stays clean. It's the absence of something that you eventually realize was happening all along.
After I installed mine, I pulled the intake pipe a few thousand miles later just to check. Dry as a bone. That never happened before.
If you've dealt with oily intake pipes on your 6.7L, what did you do about it? Drop your experience below.
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