Charcoal Canister Removal Write Up

toayoztan

Moderator
Length of Time for this mod - ~ 30 minutes
Difficulty to perform this mod - Easy

What is the charcoal canister? To my understanding, it routes fuel vapor from the fuel tank back into the engine using this device. The device draws in fresh air, and "mixes" it with the fuel vapor. Then, there's a VSV on the water neck that basically controls on letting the "mixed air" into the throttle body. Basically, this is an emissions device. There's also claims of emissions device to help the engine run cooler, etc, but i'm not here to tell you that. Find out about what you want and need to find out about how/why this device is here before you decide to remove this. I did this because it makes more room, and there are no emissions here in my state of Oklahoma.

Alright, here's a quick and simple write up on how to remove your charcoal canister. There are other ways to do this, but this is how I did it. My disclaimer is that if something goes wrong as a result of what I told you to do, I am now therefore stating I do not claim this method to be 100% accidentproof/proper/etc (you get idea). So, don't blame me :wink: .

So, now, on to the writeup!

First off, you'll need to remove a few things. Assuming your car is stock, remove the intake box. This means to remove the afm with the air box lid AND removing the bottom portion of the air box by unbolting it. This just gives you more room to work with. Don't be lazy, it's only 2-4 bolts (depending on how many you're missing).

Second, remove your cruise control device for those that still have it. All you need to do it unplug it, and take off the two mounting bolts on the STRUT TOWER, not the bolts holding the mount bracket to the cruist control device itself. Then, just leave the cable and vac line on, and set the this thing out of the way as it permits you to do so.

Third, d/c the HT lead wire going from the coil to the distributor. It makes a little more comfortable room and it's only two clips. Again, don't be lazy!

Now, you should be able to see the charcoal canister. It will be sitting in the engine bay like this (this picture has the intake and what not still in). This picture is just to show the location of the charcoal canister after you remove everything:



You should see two lines going into the top of the canister. Disconnect both of these right now. Go ahead and remove the vac line from the VSV of the water neck too. Leave the VSV on the waterneck (you can remove this on your own other time, i won't discuss that here). There will be another vac line going from this VSV to the TB. It will be interwined with a lot of other hoses, so put some effort into this part and remove it. Then, be sure to get a vacuum cap to plug up the TB, so you don't have a vac leak. The fuel line, just set it aside for now. (NOTE: On JDM engines, I believe there is no VSV for the charcoal canister. Usually, the vac line goes straight to the TB from the charcoal canister.)

To get the canister off, you will need to remove two bolts. One bolt can be easily reached with a wrench (10mm I believe). The other bolt will require a ratchet, a long long extension, and a 10mm socket. Basically, find a suitable pathway between the brake master cylinder and strut tower to stick the extension/socket onto the bolt, and have at it.

After getting those two bolts off, don't just yank the crap out of the canister to get it out of the engine bay. Carefull rotate the canister so you can see the fresh air line connected to the bottom of the canister. Get whatever tool you need (screwdriver to pry, and pliers for the hose clamp) to get that fresh air line off. Then go ahead and remove the canister from the engine bay. Here's a pic of the canister showing the bolt hole locations and how the fresh air hose connects to the canister:



Okay, here's two more pictures examining what you should be seeing. Go ahead and just read the comments on the pictures, as it's easier to visualize with a picture in front of you!



Alright, now that everything is identified, it's easy from here. Just take the fuel vap line and connect it to the fresh air line. That basically redirects the fuel vapors to just release into the atmosphere. It vents pretty much away from the engine bay to cause any damage to anything. Here's another pic to show you what things should be looking like:



Finally, go ahead and put the cruise control back on. And then put the intake air box all back on. DON'T forget to plug that AFM plug AND distributor wire back in, or you'll be wondering what you did wrong and possibly accuse the removal of the charcoal canister to be the culprit! Also, before putting everything back together, NOW would be a good time to change out that fuel filter hiding way down there.

I hope this helps in explaining what needs to be done. Any comments or suggestions, do say!

Bryan
 

toayoztan

Moderator
omgitsroy326":2uxaiq5i said:
nice write up , but did you notice a performance difference?

does a typical smog inspection look for this ?

Thanks!

I didn't notice any performance difference. In fact, it's been said emissions actually help reduce engine temp or something to that extent. I know running w/o ANY emission device on my car currently, my temps are good. And remember, the other reason I removed this was to have less clutter. Since I removed my cruise control, it helps with me a lot.

As for what inspection looks for, I wouldn't know. But i can tell you, they wouldn't really be able to see this thing with the cruise control and everythigne else there. Hopefully someone will chime in!
 

syko says

Active member
alright! thanks bryan. i plan to do some removals this later weekend. EGR and charcoal canister; bye bye :) . not planning to drive my car anywhere soon anyway. thanks again and you are the write up master :notworthy:
 

Fraggle

New member
i think gary did this mod a while back, maybe he can give some input as to how it affects the vehicle overall
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Haha thanks sykosays.

Yeah, I got the idea from Gary. I just had some time to kill and decided to do a quick write up on it.

Bryan
 

Gary

Moderator
Nice write up. Someone should sticky this.
There is no known effect.
I did not notice any smell.
The only two benefits are weight reduction and more space in the engine bay.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Gary":3ae521h7 said:
Nice write up. Someone should sticky this.
There is no known effect.
I did not notice any smell.
The only two benefits are weight reduction and more space in the engine bay.

Thanks Gary, but :doh: I should have wrote this in the FAQ section to become a sticky. Would a moderator please move this over there :D

Bryan
 

1BADGT4

New member
omgitsroy326":bnsllkhc said:
nice write up , but did you notice a performance difference?

does a typical smog inspection look for this ?

Living in CA, and that the charcoal can is an emissions part, I would definitly(sp?) leave it on.
 

tw2

New member
I noticed absolutely no difference except a nice space to put my catch can in. It did smell of petrol vapour for a few hours since thats what the lines contained. I was sceptical of venting the vapour into the fender well but have had no problems with it at all and no smell to speak of.
 

Denver_whiteST185

New member
quick question brian, whats a VSV.

would any autoparts store have vacum caps, or should i get these somewhere off the net? im going to need two cause one is for my intake pipe cause i don't have a BOV to route in there yet.
 

tw2

New member
Any auto parts store should have them in many different sizes. Most turbo vacuum lines / intake lines are 6mm with the small vacuum lines being around 4mm. Is the VSV (variable switching valve) the small cream/yellow thing with a tube going onto each end? the jdm engines do have these.
 

toayoztan

Moderator
I believe vsv means vacuum switching valve.

I didn't know if the JDM had this or not. On my friends JDM 3sgte, he didn't have it. And I don't know if it's yellow or not, as what mine shows in this pic is very dirty, with a blue tip heh. This is where the VSV is by the way:

(at red arrow)


Bryan
 

theUNYTEDone

Moderator
this is great. amen to the person who said this would be a nice place for a catch can.
i'll be doing this after my car's running fine and well again (and it's well on the way to that, thanks to keoni)
few more days...
damn the fact that school's starting up for me. bleah.
 

Gary

Moderator
Just want to clarify that it is a TVV (Thermal Vacuum Valve), not VSV.
(It opens and closes base on temperature, not vacuum)

and I think I should add these pics to this write up.

Gary":1kc20rzb said:
Update.
I adopt David's (Goldfish) method.
Here are some illustrations.
Warning: read the disclaimer below

1) Study and understand the system first!
evap0ca.jpg


2) Remove the charcoal canister, unplug all the hoses from the canister.
Make sure you know where it comes from and where it goes to.
Plug the hose going to TVV using a small screw.
I use a nylon fitting to connect the hose from the gas tank
to the hose that connect to the check valve
16ju.jpg


3) There is a check valve that is plugged to the fender wall.
This is the one that connect to the bottom of the canister to let fresh air from fender well IN
25gx.jpg


4) Switch the direction of the check valve.
We will need to let the air OUT in order to release the pressure from the tank.
34ir.jpg


5) Plug the check valve back to the fender wall.
Connect the hose from the gas tank to the hose that lead to check valve.
In the future, I might add a small inline plastic fuel filter (from lawn mower?)
Right now, I just can't find a correct size (so I don't have to use a reducer)
43zi.jpg

0334cz.jpg


Disclaimer: Removing charcoal canister and/or modification of EVAP system are dangerous and may be illegal depending on where you live and use of the car. Do at your own risk. If your car caught on fire, you get caught, fined, or you and/or your passengers die or injure, etc.. do not blame me. I will not be held responsible for anything resulting from following above modification.
Do at your own risk!
 

toayoztan

Moderator
Cool, thanks for adding the information about the check valve Gary. Something I overlooked! With all of this, the write up should be pretty much complete.

Oh, and for those considering the catch can to be mounted where the charcoal canister was...I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I was told (by instructions too) to have the catch can mounted as high as possible in the engine bay. I'll see if I can look into this more. So, mounting it down there where the canister was may not be ideal. However, mounting it higher for those who don't have cruise control, this would be perfect.

Bryan
 

theUNYTEDone

Moderator
toayoztan":qip0ggln said:
Oh, and for those considering the catch can to be mounted where the charcoal canister was...I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I was told (by instructions too) to have the catch can mounted as high as possible in the engine bay. I'll see if I can look into this more. So, mounting it down there where the canister was may not be ideal. However, mounting it higher for those who don't have cruise control, this would be perfect.

Bryan

why's this true? doesn't oil as well as any other liquid drip DOWNwards?
 
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