Let the tinkering begin...

[Transporter]

2. Crankcase venting.

My god!

At 800kms, my inlet was SOAKED with oil, and there was actually a pool in the elbow just prior to the turbo. Undoubtably my intercooler is already nicely oiled, and this is fine, but once the exhaust gas recycling joins the party just prior to the black plastic inlet, well I reckon soot plus oil equals sludge.

I first played around with a simple foam / scourer pad filter in the short CCV vent tube, but the sheer amount of pressure ( I would guess due to the high diesel combustion pressures ) was too great for this, and it wanted to pop off all the time. A LOT of oil venting takes place, so serious venting needs be considered.

I ended up installing the Mann & Hummell Provent 200 as outlined on TDIclub.com.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread...ht=provent+200

The good news is there is a Man & Hummel distributor in Sydney. The bad news is they are friggen expensive at $200 PLUS post. Ow!

I'd have to say that it is indeed a well designed and engineered item, and thus far has been working a treat in the TDI. The inlet is still spotless, and the filter is only just starting to get soaked with oil. Finding suitable hose was the biggest issue, I purchased reinforced Dunlop rubber hose to fit the 3/4 inch Provent fittings initally, but this was simply too huge. I ended up with the smaller rubber hose I bought for the lower oil trap. I made an alloy bracket between the battery platform and the firewall, and put the rather big filter below the inlet tube in the only real space there is. Only hose specific shops have any sort of suitable hoses, I tried several places first, auto shops, bunnings etc.

Running hoses was a major biarch, and mine is still only temporarily plumbed in ( ie sikaflex involved ) until I can locate either better hose, or a nicer way to plumb it.




The bottom line is that it is definately filtering out ALL the oil vented, and given the size and design, should be good for the life of the engine.

I installed provent200 to my T5 and after 6 months filter insinde provent200 was drawned in oil. So get some spare filters I ordered 2 with Provent.
Also I used silicon hose for reliable instalation.
For proper hoses you have to go to Hose specialist.

You have done very good write up mate. Good on you.

[SoVeReIgN]

Interesting write up, pretty cool doing the tinkering but in reality how much difference is it all going to make?

RE the chipping situation : I believe the Oettinger offerings are backed by factory warranty.. but really, given what goes on in europe I can't see VW Aus changing their tune anytime soon.

[motk]

2. Crankcase venting.

My god!

At 800kms, my inlet was SOAKED with oil, and there was actually a pool in the elbow just prior to the turbo. Undoubtably my intercooler is already nicely oiled, and this is fine, but once the exhaust gas recycling joins the party just prior to the black plastic inlet, well I reckon soot plus oil equals sludge.

...

The bottom line is that it is definately filtering out ALL the oil vented, and given the size and design, should be good for the life of the engine.

Why doesn't VW take account of this in the standard engine? Is there a "clean sludge out of intake" note in the standard service task list that is meant to take care of this? Seems ... inelegant

[Jaymz]

3. Cooling.

The biggest power robber to turbo's is heat, so this is my next area to attack.

I will run an intercooler misting system, for I reckon this is a great idea especially up here in ( usually ) sunny QLD.

Greg i have been watching this article for quite some time and thought you might be interested. I have asked a few questions to these guys and i believe it will be a good addition. Intelegent intercooler water spray

The intercooler pipes seem well plumbed, but I've yet to really look into how close they come to heat sources. I now have a lot of sticky heat tape to wrap the inlet in, so I'll be going to town there.

This sounds interesting, i would like to know how you go here. The inlet manifold is plastic and there is a couple of rubber hoses in the pipework leading up to it. These could be replaced with some good quality silicon hoses which are more effecient.

It's all in the aim of reducing underbonnet temps, thus reducing inlet temps. I had planned to take a lot of before and after temp and pressure measurements, but was simply too keen to get in there and start modding, so I've no proof of anything. I've boost, EGT and oil temp and pressure gauges coming, so I can get some readings as I go.

I just bought one of these today and it come complete with a thermocouple and the accuracy is + or - 1deg. It needs to be lengthened to get to the inlet. The other hurdle is getting it inside the inlet near the manifold and not creating a boost leak. It may have to be slipped in to the factory rubber inlet pipe before the manifold. Will see how i go.

Cheers,
Jamie

[Greg Roles]

Ahh a man after my own heart.

I love Julian Edgar. Have for a long long time.

In fact I'll let you in on a little secret of mine.....



Autospeed is basically this book.

I agree on the intercooling hose, some of it is very very soft. When I pull the radiator and intercooler out, I'll take a lot of pics and report on what I find. Probably happen over Easter.

I'm plumbing in the oil cooler this week, so it's back to the Geebung hose shop!

I have a pretty accurate twin reading Aquarium LCD thermometer, so I'll see if I can slip in in around the EGR / throttle flap doobie for some readings.

Yours will obviously be higher due to the chip running more boost.

[Greg Roles]

OK, Easter is finally here, so the intercooler comes out over the weekend. Will be interesting to inspect, and check out the plumbing. Also interesting to see just how much oil has made it that far before the provent 200 went in at 800kms. I'll take some pics.

On the Provent front, the biggest problem is plumbing it in. There is little room in the golf. I went back to the hose specific shop today, and spent more in the hope of doing it neater, but hose is still an issue. I'll see what I come up with, but even at a hose specialist, with a guy with 20 years of experience, we were scratching our heads!

On preparing to mount the air/oil cooler, I have come to realise the factory oil cooler is smallish for a reason, it's a water/oil cooler! Wow, that's a bonus! FAR more efficient that air coolers, but the only problem is it runs the engine coolant. I guess that's great as it helps heat the oil from cold quickly, but a negative in that the oil will only lose a bit of heat to the engine temp water at normal running temps.

Perhaps a smarter move would be to use this small air radiator to circulate fluid with a suitable electric pump, and plumb in the factory water oil cooler to this.......hmmm I'm liking that idea....hmmm.

Going to be a wee bit trickier to plumb in the additional air oil cooler, but I'm determined!

All my nice shiny gauges showed up this week as well, so looking into plumbing the oil temp, pressure, boost and exhaust temp probes. Gets tricky trying to think where best to mount them, and I've been doing a bit of late night research this week on the yankie truck forums.

If you think modifying this new car so far has been scary, just wait till I drill and tap holes in manifolds etc for the probes...

Still, without some base readings, I am really just all theory....

[Jaymz]

Good luck with it all mate. Take lots of pics. Where are you going to mount the new gauges?


Been doing some testing this week myself with the temps in the air box. Results are scary to say the least, have seen 69deg C at the worst this week and it hasn't even been hot! Im scared to put the temp probe near any of the hot stuff.
Average has been roughly mid to high 40's, so i will be interested to see the difference when i mod the feed to the box like yours. It will be an interesting comparison to see the temps after the cooler. Have had another look around but as its so tight in there, still scratching my head on the best place to put the probe. Was thinking about modding the rubber cooler hose before the inlet by cutting it in half and putting a join in it.
Then i can drill a hole and secure the probe somehow.

When you have it all apart this weekend let me know if there is an easier way. Could just drill a small hole in the rubber hose and silicone the probe in

[Greg Roles]

I'm swapping out the factory head unit for a nice Alpine single din. I purchased an exceptional fascia adaptor from e-bay uk. For the less than $50 Au delivered, it is both very high quality, and has exceptional wiring adaptors. The adaptor that goes from the VW plug to the aftermarket stereo is clearly labelled on both the plugs AND each wire!, which makes for a dead easy head unit install. I bought a similarily nice, but crazy expensive gauge holder from Venom motorsport UK, which I had to post to my brother in the UK then forward onto me. Is awesome though as the guages are slightly angled towards the driver.



If I were you I'd be putting the probe wire into a hose/pipe junction with a little silastic, and then tightening the hose clamp back down.

I'll put my thermometer probe in during the strip down as well, as close to the manifold as I can.

Your numbers don't suprise me mate, as the book above shows how a non intercooled early nissan turbo inlet's temps exceeded 100 degrees on a single quarter mile run!
Cars seem to ingest much hotter air than you'd imagine, which is WHY both you and I KNOW the importance, and performance benefits of keeping it as cool as possible!

[TDI Dude]

Hmm all well good, sounds great but OOOPS me thinks someone has voided their warranty already!!! Let me know how you go come first visit to a VW dealership.. be interesting to see what they say.

[Greg Roles]

Having spent a lot of years both in and around the motor industry, I'm hardly worried at this point. Compard to an ECU mod, this is minor, minor stuff. Still, I can tell you for sure as next Thu they have their 1500km checkover.