Oil weight

[jimlloyd40]

I've heard people say this a few times, but I've never understood this logic. The pcv works very well until it's flooded with oil, and then it's overwhelmed and passes the gunk to the intake. Why would you remove something that functions perfectly fine 99% of the time? The inline catch cans just collect whatever gunk the pcv would have passed on. By removing the pcv, you're removing a closed loop system, and how does it even affect crank case pressure? Those aftermarket plates most likely don't seal perfectly...and none of them have even close to the amount of baffling that's necessary.

Both types of cans will function to prevent gunk in the intake, but neither actually fixes the problem... They're just bandaids. I'd still take a can over none, but I'd rather have the inline... And ideally the baffled pan is where I'd toss my money...

You don't want the gunk coating the back of the valves.

 

[morricus]

You don't want the gunk coating the back of the valves.

Right. Thats where the baffled oil pan comes in. It allows the, from what has been described to me at least, efficient stock system to work as intended by not overloading it with oil. I'm surprised more companies haven't made baffled oil pans. I'm grateful that it was brought to my attention and will be buying mine next week.

 

[jimlloyd40]

Right. Thats where the baffled oil pan comes in. It allows the, from what has been described to me at least, efficient stock system to work as intended by not overloading it with oil. I'm surprised more companies haven't made baffled oil pans. I'm grateful that it was brought to my attention and will be buying mine next week.

The gunk is being injected back into the intake tract and coating the backs of the valves. The oil pan has nothing to do with that.

 

[Stija]

I dunno what kind of catch cans go on vw but in Subaru world they connect to pcv and ccv and work in conjunction with both valves, neither is eliminated.

@morricus a baffled oil pan may prevent from oil being sucked into the pcv (somehow) but it will not protect against blow by/oil vapors. I have seen pictures where people have half a cup of oil under daily driving every 3k miles. Just saying, and I don’t run one either. Yet.

 

[Stija]

@jimlloyd40 how often do you empty yours and how much do you find in it when you do?

 

[morricus]

I dunno what kind of catch cans go on vw but in Subaru world they connect to pcv and ccv and work in conjunction with both valves, neither is eliminated.

@morricus a baffled oil pan may prevent from oil being sucked into the pcv (somehow) but it will not protect against oil vapors. I have seen pictures where people have half a cup of oil under daily driving every 3k miles. Just saying, and I don’t run one either. Yet.

Gottcha. I'm not speaking from experience with this car, I just have never had stellar experience with any catch can and find the prices for the GTI versions to be off putting

 

[Stija]

Gottcha. I'm not speaking from experience with this car, I just have never had stellar experience with any catch can and find the prices for the GTI versions to be off putting

I will, and I suggest you do too, feel inside of the intake manifold (or intercooler piping) for oily residue, and if found then I would assume a catch can could help.

I’m waiting until I install a pitch stop urethane mount which requires removal of my top mount intercooler at which point I will check and make the determination whether to run catch cans. I don’t mind spending money if I am getting something worth it in return.

 

[morricus]

I will, and I suggest you do too, feel inside of the intake manifold (or intercooler piping) for oily residue, and if found then I would assume a catch can could help.

I’m waiting until I install a pitch stop urethane mount which requires removal of my top mount intercooler at which point I will check and make the determination whether to run catch cans. I don’t mind spending money if I am getting something worth it in return.

Can't agree more. I can see the value of the oil pan. But a little bit of oily residue doesn't bother me a ton. These engines seem to have been well designed by our friends in Germany to burn a bit of oil and spending $450 to prevent a small amount of oil going through the engine just doesn't seem worth it to me, yet. Again, I'm saying this with no real experience with this car yet.

 

[jimlloyd40]

@jimlloyd40 how often do you empty yours and how much do you find in it when you do?

Because I drive 1000 miles per week I just empty it every Saturday when I check the oil etc. It usually has maybe 1/2 ounce of blowby in it. Also on the colder mornings when I leave for work when it's under 40 degrees it will collect the condensation. I could just empty it once a month but if I go that long the catch can is really hard to unscrew. I have the Spulen OCC but I didn't use the can that came with it because it only drains through the bottom of the can and you have to drain it into something and there's not much room. I use the can that I had on my Veloster. It's much smaller than the Spulen can but can be unscrewed and dumped.

 

[victorofhavoc]

The baffled pan keeps the oil from surging during high G braking and corner load while off throttle (pcv valve open). The moment your foot goes back on the throttle and the crank is no longer under vacuum, the pcv closes.

Removing the pcv means the system is then open at all times, during vacuum and during pressure build. If you're running a custom tune this isn't normally an issue, but if there are leaks in the catch can system somewhere you may experience some issues. This is also true if the pcv fails, which can happen if it's overwhelmed by the oil surge regularly.

Either catch can solution will stop the blow by and stop the gunk accumulating on the valves, but the always open system will collect significantly more because it'll be open during throttle on, and you'll be topping off oil more frequently. The pcv inline will obviously eventually cause the pcv to fail due to oil/gunk accumulation across the pcv valve, but it keeps things more oem and will still keep gunk off the intake and exhaust valves and from the combustion cycle.

Pcv failure is fairly common on boosted cars, and in fact there was a paper published from an engineering lab in North Carolina in conjunction with the EPA about how pcv valves should be regular maintenance items every 10k miles. This was years ago, and the valves are much more reliable now.

Three different solutions, three different levels of pros and cons, three different costs, and various levels of install involvement... All with the same end result, basically.