50k miles valve cleaning exploration time

[GTIJames707]

Anyone out here with a catch can on a gen 3 that got anything significant out of it?

I have a catch can on my '16 gti and have had it on for about 8k, still have yet to accumulate anything note worthy. Little specks of shit, a light oily film every now and again, but no build up, slime, gunk, ect. Haven't registered anything on the little dip stick that came with mine. I will remove the canister its self every oil change and wipe it out with a white paper towel to see what's going on in there. And the truth is, not much is going on in there.
I change my oil every 4k, use only 91 chevron, frequently run injector cleaner thru the tank, (I work at a dealership, free bottles come my way quite often), and go WOT every day. If these things in combination have an effect on keeping carbon build up to a minimum, evidence would be my catch can.

 

[greggles]

Concur that catch cans do not do much for this platform (besides possibly create an issue where there is none).

That being said, I don't think they will prevent carbon buildup, as the carbon buildup (based on these five pages) is not just from emissions gunk ending up in the intake tract. Without something touching the back of the valves to clean them, any tiny amount of gunk (either from the combustion chamber, or from the pcv system) will do its work over tens of thousands of miles.

That being said, those valves (though having carbon buildup) do not look too bad. Nothing like a 1st gen ms3 which always looked like someone just puked carbon all over the manifold.

 

[cldlhd]

I have a catch can on my '16 gti and have had it on for about 8k, still have yet to accumulate anything note worthy. Little specks of shit, a light oily film every now and again, but no build up, slime, gunk, ect. Haven't registered anything on the little dip stick that came with mine. I will remove the canister its self every oil change and wipe it out with a white paper towel to see what's going on in there. And the truth is, not much is going on in there.
I change my oil every 4k, use only 91 chevron, frequently run injector cleaner thru the tank, (I work at a dealership, free bottles come my way quite often), and go WOT every day. If these things in combination have an effect on keeping carbon build up to a minimum, evidence would be my catch can.

Thanks for the info.
As for the guy who cleaned his valves what did you use to suck the gunk out?

 

[TDI Matt]

Back up, anymore data here? This turned me away from a catch can good or bad.

It doesn't seem like water/meth will do much:

1: How far away it enters the air path, I'm sure its beyond a mist by then. (educated guess)
2: It seems a lot of this build up is from the normal driving or even turning it off and the whatever left settles leading to build up?

 

[PLF8593]

2: It seems a lot of this build up is from the normal driving or even turning it off and the whatever left settles leading to build up?

seems to be the case.

 

[Gawernator]

Back up, anymore data here? This turned me away from a catch can good or bad.

It doesn't seem like water/meth will do much:

1: How far away it enters the air path, I'm sure its beyond a mist by then. (educated guess)
2: It seems a lot of this build up is from the normal driving or even turning it off and the whatever left settles leading to build up?

Why wouldn't water methanol steam clean the valves so to speak?

 

[Mk7GTl]

...

Lmao

 

[TDI Matt]

Why wouldn't water methanol steam clean the valves so to speak?

I'm sure it may help. But I think it's injected far enough away I'd think it would be pretty much be evaporated by the time it gets to the valves.

I'd install a system if I knew it would help dramatically. If it was tb injection I'd think it would do significantly better.

 

[Hoon]

I've run meth on a daily before (gained 58whp) but I'm not dealing with that on my GTI.

Every 30K I'll rip it apart and clean it.

The only question is the method. I prefer abrasives over chemicals, because the run down of cleaning chemicals into the combustion chamber can displace oil from the cylinder walls and cause a prolonged dry-start, which has actually resulted in low compression after.

I wonder what the options are to purchase something I can do walnut blasting with??

 

[TDI Matt]

I don't really want to put a meth system on this car either. Been there done that. But if it worked then maybe.

I bet the equipment for the mk5/6 will be almost exactly what you need to blast with.

 

[Mk7GTl]

Meth will probably help when you're done cleaning the valves or if its installed when the engine is brand new. I'm going to do this when i upgrade to either a hybrid or cts boss kit.

 

[TheGreekFreak]

Wouldn't a weekly good old italian tune up take care of this issue for most up until higher miles? Having to walnut blast every 30K miles seems excessive.

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

Isn't the Italian Tune Up basically driving on the freeway at close to redline for like 15 minutes? . . . . that seems a little more excessive to me than a walnut blast every 30K miles?

 

[Hoon]

Wouldn't a weekly good old italian tune up take care of this issue for most up until higher miles? Having to walnut blast every 30K miles seems excessive.

I'm sure it will help, just as I'm sure meth would help.

My car is approaching 19k miles, I'll scope it this weekend and post the results.

I'm pretty hard on my car, so we'll see how well the Italian method is/isn't working.

 

[Hoon]

Isn't the Italian Tune Up basically driving on the freeway at close to redline for like 15 minutes? . . . . that seems a little more excessive to me than a walnut blast every 30K miles?

An Italian tune-up is just a good high rpm beating, not necessarily sitting at redline for a long period.

Personally I'm a very spirited driver. Sprints to 140+mph are not uncommon, so extended high rpm/full throttle time is a pretty normal thing for my car.

I'm very particular about maintenance of anything mechanical, so I will invest the time and energy in a blasting every 30k if that's what it takes to keep the car running at potential.

Let's hope that isn't required, but I made peace with this issue before I bought the car.