GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

RacingLine Golf MK7 Oil Cooler

bobivy1234

Go Kart Champion
Location
Greensboro, NC USA
Car(s)
2016 VW Golf GTI
Thing is i haven't noticed any fluid spray and this car has seen a good amount of track time at 1.1G.

I HAVE noticed a super crappy engagement of the dsg on take off, but only after a second start up after a short drive. I wonder if that's related...

Ugh, this now being my daily and having a dedicated track car, I have a pile of things to be done to un-crap the car as a street car... Get the coils off, align it like a street car, water pump, replace dogbone mount with factory rubber, replace poly bushes with rubber. Not sure if the breather will make the cut, but then again car prices are nuts right now and it only has 39k on it, maybe it's time i cut my losses?

Yea interesting you haven't seen fluid but you somewhat have to be looking for it. If you remove your airbox and look down right in front of the battery tray there is a little black cap on the breather and I had fluid piled up around that area. May be worth adding some trans fluid and doing a leveling procedure to see if you were low, that's what I'm doing.

For the other stuff, are you planning on selling it soon or something? I basically have all of that myself and drive it as a mixed street car and track car. I'm about to install coils/LCA and plan to daily it. Only thing track specific is a dedicated set of tires.

Alignment may be the main one separating duties, depends on how your toe is setup today.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Yea interesting you haven't seen fluid but you somewhat have to be looking for it. If you remove your airbox and look down right in front of the battery tray there is a little black cap on the breather and I had fluid piled up around that area. May be worth adding some trans fluid and doing a leveling procedure to see if you were low, that's what I'm doing.

For the other stuff, are you planning on selling it soon or something? I basically have all of that myself and drive it as a mixed street car and track car. I'm about to install coils/LCA and plan to daily it. Only thing track specific is a dedicated set of tires.

Alignment may be the main one separating duties, depends on how your toe is setup today.
I run the pss10 coils and metal top mounts along with toe 0 front, toe slightly out rear (I mess with rear toe 0 to slight in to out all the time), and lots of poly bushes everywhere. The pss10 are too soft for the track and too hard on the road. There are times that I go over railroad tracks (daily) or over expansion joists and it feels and sounds as if someone just hit the front end with a sledgehammer. It was a mixed duty car and the coils are way better than the previous mss track springs or the 034 springs, but it's just too harsh for a daily, especially with an 18 month old I cart around.

The brake pads on the front are ebc reds right now after I pulled my gloc r16 after the last track day I did last year, and they need to go. They are so much worse than the oem pads. I've got a set of ferodo ds2500 for front sitting on the side as well as brake lines, rotors front and rear, rear Porterfield r4 pads, rear hatch silencer, lower control arms and other things I just don't have time to install. The track car needs some work between every event and I just broke my splitter recently so I have to cut it back and relay carbon on the edge, which means no time to work on gti.

I've also been dealing with the pcv worn out again (happens every 5k miles with mixed duty use and more boost, normal), the dsg being super jerky in specific takeoff scenarios, and coolant that needs a top up every 10k miles or so.

The laundry list gets bigger and bigger, and I keep debating if it's worth keeping. I like the car a lot and I like how tiny it is, but I can't have my kid behind me anymore because he's too big and just hits the front seat, and if behind passenger my passenger can't be more than 5'7". The constant creaking door seals are also a nuisance because this car just sits in my driveway... I can't keep it perfectly clean so the door seals gunk and creak after just a few weeks of cleaning and lubing.

My wife wants a vert, so if I can find a vert that's a manual and can fit a convertible car seat in the rear I would get rid of the gti, get that for my wife, and take her q7 as my daily/tow vehicle. It's already my tow vehicle so not a far stretch.

Keep in mind I have put 28k miles on this car in 3 years and I average 4k mi/yr on the street. It has seen a lot of track time, and there are a lot of melty bits to prove it.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Sorry for the novel... Back to oil cooler thread...

You need vents to get hot air out, you need front sealed to keep drag down and force air through the stack, the racingline kit is fine to run but needs a 205 or preferably 212 thermostat and a sandwich plate that has a recess to avoid spilling oil. A bigger exchanger will help but with louvres and proper front sealing its not necessary for the is20. An is38 will need a 15 row minimum and a stage 2 is38 or one pushing closer to the 400hp range demands a 20. Baffled oil pan is a strong recommendation and borders on "not a suggestion".
 

ShagginGSW

Go Kart Newbie
Location
MD
Ugh, this now being my daily and having a dedicated track car, I have a pile of things to be done to un-crap the car as a street car... Get the coils off, align it like a street car, water pump, replace dogbone mount with factory rubber, replace poly bushes with rubber. Not sure if the breather will make the cut, but then again car prices are nuts right now and it only has 39k on it, maybe it's time i cut my losses?
Who says you can't daily a track car?
 

ShagginGSW

Go Kart Newbie
Location
MD
I run the pss10 coils and metal top mounts along with toe 0 front, toe slightly out rear (I mess with rear toe 0 to slight in to out all the time), and lots of poly bushes everywhere. The pss10 are too soft for the track and too hard on the road. There are times that I go over railroad tracks (daily) or over expansion joists and it feels and sounds as if someone just hit the front end with a sledgehammer. It was a mixed duty car and the coils are way better than the previous mss track springs or the 034 springs, but it's just too harsh for a daily, especially with an 18 month old I cart around.
Is it possible your top mounts aren't tightened up correctly? I have never driven in a car with solid strut mounts but that doesn't sound right.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Is it possible your top mounts aren't tightened up correctly? I have never driven in a car with solid strut mounts but that doesn't sound right.
Nope, they are fine. The coils were actually installed by a mechanic who's a crew chief for an imsa team. He knows what he's doing. They're just rough with monotube coils. I also live in potholeepidemicville which doesn't help. Three rims eaten by the same road now :(. On a very smooth highway it's all great, but manhole covers feel like craters on roads.
 

ShagginGSW

Go Kart Newbie
Location
MD
Nope, they are fine. The coils were actually installed by a mechanic who's a crew chief for an imsa team. He knows what he's doing. They're just rough with monotube coils. I also live in potholeepidemicville which doesn't help. Three rims eaten by the same road now :(. On a very smooth highway it's all great, but manhole covers feel like craters on roads.
Damn, and as for the track car I was referring to the Golf, but it sounds like its pretty bad.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Damn, and as for the track car I was referring to the Golf, but it sounds like its pretty bad.
If I was in my early 20s, I'd probably tolerate it and run around saying "because racecar" but I had a wrx to do that with back then. I'm just older and spoiled by the plushness of the audi. The taycan cross is looking more and more appealing every day, as is the cayenne hybrid 🙃
 

bobivy1234

Go Kart Champion
Location
Greensboro, NC USA
Car(s)
2016 VW Golf GTI
Sorry for the novel... Back to oil cooler thread...

You need vents to get hot air out, you need front sealed to keep drag down and force air through the stack, the racingline kit is fine to run but needs a 205 or preferably 212 thermostat and a sandwich plate that has a recess to avoid spilling oil. A bigger exchanger will help but with louvres and proper front sealing its not necessary for the is20. An is38 will need a 15 row minimum and a stage 2 is38 or one pushing closer to the 400hp range demands a 20. Baffled oil pan is a strong recommendation and borders on "not a suggestion".

As far as the race stuff, to recap I installed the 16-row Setrab cooler that is part of a modded Racingline kit with a Mocal 185 tstat. Worked great at the track, 40 minute WOT sessions capped at 266f on a 85f day and no leaks. Also have the iAbed baffled oil pan and the Spulen v2 catch can with PCV plate replacement, both have been solid. Tried the 'BL' Audi PCV plate that was awful at track and the OEM one wasn't as bad but wasn't great. I think these three mods are mandatory for track use, agreed I would recommend the baffled oil pan mainly as a confidence/sanity check but definitely need the oil cooler and PCV replacement.

No engine issues at the track this past Tuesday except for high IATs with my new Majesty SMIC (was FMIC before oil cooler install with sub-10f IAT deltas) which I'm attributing to blocking off the engine-side intake with the OEM plastic part without having hood louvers to evacuate the engine air and the engine area was just too heat soaked. I'd guess that if I took off the block off plate and/or installed hood louvers, all temps would drop (oil, dsg, coolant) but I couldn't test that since my tire got a puncture after my 3rd session and had to retire. Debating on whether or not to installing black Verus hood louvers on my black GTI to keep it looking stock, I know it would help a ton with track temps.

I've got a 16 month kid as well but definitely haven't caged it and stuff so visually my car is a daily but with all the under-the-hood and suspension mods for HPDE and track usage. About to install EQT standard length coilovers w/ camber plates, Whiteline LCAs and adjustable ball joints, Porsche Macan 4-pot brakes and then using Schroth Racing quickfit pro 4-point harness to keep the stock front/back seats in.
 
Last edited:

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
As far as the race stuff, to recap I installed the 16-row Setrab cooler that is part of a modded Racingline kit with a Mocal 185 tstat. Worked great at the track, 40 minute WOT sessions capped at 266f on a 85f day. Also have the iAbed baffled oil pan and the Spulen v2 catch can with PCV plate replacement, both have been solid. Tried the 'BL' Audi PCV plate that was awful at track and the OEM one wasn't as bad but wasn't great. I think these three mods are mandatory for track use, agreed I would recommend the baffled oil pan mainly as a confidence/sanity check but definitely need the oil cooler and PCV replacement.

No engine issues at the track this past Tuesday except for high IATs with my new Majesty SMIC (was FMIC before oil cooler install) which I'm attributing to blocking off the engine-side intake with the OEM plastic part without having hood louvers to evacuate the engine air and the engine area was just too heat soaked. I'd guess that if I took off the block off plate and/or installed hood louvers, all temps would drop (oil, dsg, coolant) but I couldn't test that since my tire got a puncture after my 3rd session and had to retire. Debating on whether or not to installing black Verus hood louvers on my black GTI to keep it looking stock, I know it would help a ton with track temps.

I've got a 16 month kid as well but definitely haven't caged it and stuff so visually my car is a daily but with all the under-the-hood and suspension mods for HPDE and track usage. About to install EQT standard length coilovers w/ camber plates, Whiteline LCAs and adjustable ball joints, Porsche Macan 4-pot brakes and then using Schroth Racing quickfit pro 4-point harness to keep the stock front/back seats in.
Sounds like the route I was working down. I just ended up hitting the point of diminishing returns and ended up being cheaper and safer to buy a ready car. I do about 64 sessions per year and then about another 12 to 16 sessions of 45 - 60 min of TnT or private days. The gti is totally out of fuel, gusto, and brake after 40 mins on track, while my z can easily do an hour+ with me constantly pushing 10/10 or even 11/10 (slicks are fastest when driven slightly over the limit). The gti was going to get there, but brakes are just too costly for it.

I love my verus louvres but I have to keep the hood liner in on the street or the oil won't reach temp, lol. Totally worth it to get them and the guys running verus are awesome!
 

bobivy1234

Go Kart Champion
Location
Greensboro, NC USA
Car(s)
2016 VW Golf GTI
I love my verus louvres but I have to keep the hood liner in on the street or the oil won't reach temp, lol. Totally worth it to get them and the guys running verus are awesome!
Nice I've heard the hood liner piece for street to keep temps, maybe I will do that to solve some issues. Agreed on the other stuff and the GTI was my family/track car compromise, I'm maybe doing one track HPDE weekend a month and you're doing way more so I get it.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Nice I've heard the hood liner piece for street to keep temps, maybe I will do that to solve some issues. Agreed on the other stuff and the GTI was my family/track car compromise, I'm maybe doing one track HPDE weekend a month and you're doing way more so I get it.
If you're going to cut them yourself, I recommend a remote dremel attachment with the composite cutoff wheel (the 20$ single wheel), and masking tape off the ENTIRE hood. Mark your hood/bolts before removing the hood and tape a string onto the washer nozzle bits as a pull rope so they're easy to pull back through later.
 

Mini7

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Car(s)
2017 GTi Sport PP
Just ordered a 180F thermostat for my oil cooler install.
 

j255c

Drag Racing Champion
Location
New York
Car(s)
2018 Golf R Manual
So did anyone clone the vwr oil adapter plate?
i found this on AliExpress:
US $263.20 BATTLE BEE Oil Cooler Kit for VAG Volkswagen Audi Golf MK5 MK6 1.8T 2.0T GEN2 EA888 ENGINE
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mN8Fys7

Is this the same adapter?

Im see 265-270 at the track. Want to try to keep things below 260.

thanks.
 
Last edited:
Top