Oil catch tank on a TDi

[Teejay]

Has anybody fitted an oil catch tank to a TDi?

Obviously with the soot from the EGR and the oil vapour from the cam cover breather you get loads of black sludge in the intercooler and intake pipes, which needs cleaning out every 10-20k miles.

Disabling the EGR (or removing it) gets rid of part of this problem, but would fitting a breather filter or catch tank help as well? I know the breather feeds in down stream of the MAF, but upstream of the turbo - would it be better for the turbo to have 'clean air' as well?

Cheers,
Tim

 

[devonmikeyboy]

 

[Teejay]

How often do you have to empty it Mikey?

Assume you've also had the EGR removed?

Do you get any black sludge in your intercooler now?

Cheers,
Tim

 

[devonmikeyboy]

Had it fitted for about 5000 miles now. The breather filter isn`t leaking any oil and is still breathing easily so haven`t bothered to look yet to be honest, slack i know. Intercooler pipes etc are totally clean. EGR used to be situated just below the inlet manifold where the straight alloy pipe is now with all the censors fitted.

 

[Teejay]

Is that a Forge replacement pipe, or something Allard knocked up to get rid of the EGR?

What's the extra pipe at the very top of the engine? Looks to be quite big, but nowhere near as big as the air intake pipes...

 

[devonmikeyboy]

Is that a Forge replacement pipe, or something Allard knocked up to get rid of the EGR?

What's the extra pipe at the very top of the engine? Looks to be quite big, but nowhere near as big as the air intake pipes...

Allards make a replacement pipe see HERE don`t think Forge do a EGR replacement pipe for diesels might be wrong though.
As to the pipe your asking about if it the one with two samco 90 bends on with a censor on in the middle that goes over the turbo it`s the air inlet pipe comming out of the turbo over then running down the left of the engine bay onto the intercooler.

 

[Teejay]

why the complicated pipework path from the turbo to the intercooler?

 

[devonmikeyboy]

The turbo was not designed for an Audi A3 2.0 BKD transverse engine. It comes from a vechicle with a longitudinal engine where the turbo would be on the right of the engine bay. The air would flow straight into the turbo and back out to the front of the car to the FMIC.

 

[Teejay]

aha. I understand now. cheers for the info Mikey - really helpful!!!!!

 

[devonmikeyboy]

I aim to please.

 

[Teejay]

Ah, was gonna order the EGR replacement pipe and it looks like the Allard site has started to close down...

Any news on if they are still trading Mikey? Think they've still got some stock they'd like to sell?

 

[devonmikeyboy]

As far as i know Allards have stopped trading but they might have some bits laying around to sale off if you email them.

 

[Teejay]

I've not had a response to an email I sent 8 months ago yet...

Will try calling tomorrow.

 

[M7R]

on my old 1.9PD engine I vented the oil brether to atmos, the theory for this was 2 fold.

1. when the turbo comes on boost its sucks hard, at this time it will suck hard on the oil breather too, drawing lots of vapour into the inlet to coat the turbo, intercooler, this can cause the sticking of the egr valve and also the sticking of the vnt,

2. the air sucked from the breather is un meetered as it doesnt pass through the MAF, this means that in theory the engine will always be a smidge lean, so if this is removed and all the air is passed through the MAF then the engine will be more economical as its a cleaner burn due to less oil and also a more accurate air to fuel ratio.

Im tempted to try this again on my new 2.0L PD, but I need to clean out the intercooler and egr first.