My Mars Red Mk1 - Thread REBOOT- P82

Nice one, ta!

I'll be sure to ignore the instructions in a typically male fashion too...

 

The last engine died from running low on oil. It did this by breathing it all out of the crankcase breather under boost. So I was keen to monitor this engines behavior and address and issues before killing it! So I modified the ebay catch tank I had to do some analysis.





The Inlet/outlet has no baffles between them and are of a small diameter. Luckily, the lid is fixed with small allen key screws.

I traced the lid to steel and set about making a new lid with larger dia fittings.



I made the tubes different lengths to reduce the oil traveling directly across the ports. I would also fill the catch tank with stainless steel mesh to help separate the oil from air.







Welded the pipes in place and done!



I fitted the tank with the crankcase breather connected to one end, and the other end connected to the turbo intake pipe to draw out the gases.






So with this lot fitted, I carried out a series of high load acceleration/deceleration tests that have historically caused the engine to breathe.

Gurds

 

I monitored the breathing over a couple of weeks and took note of what I found. The engine still breathes out a little oil and can easily put out 250ml of oil when driving hard under boost. This is a high rpm boost related only breathing issue and does not occur under light loads and low rpm. This would be an issue at circuit when driven hard lap after lap. So in the interest of reliability, I developed the breather system further. I carefully studied OEM solutions from the 20vT through to Jap machinery and came to the conclusion that the crankcase breather alone was not enough to vent the boost blowby I was seeing. So i decided to employ a cam cover breather and a new larger catch tank with a drain back to the sump. I paid a visit to my friendly fabricators.



Bent some 3mm aluminium using some big machines.





Add some holes.







Some mesh.





And some tasty fittings. I went with AN-10.



This has been designed to sit in the scuttle area of the engine bay.

So the cam cover needed some work too.

Milled off the fins and added a slot.





Created a baffled box to sit on top. The baffles are slightly tilted to aid drainage.



And finished off with some more fittings.



This is the tank being fitted.



And cam cover going in.



And all in. I have a 120 degree fitting on order as the one nearest the boost pipe is a little stressed.





I ran this setup on the road under varying conditions and far more aggressively than before. So far? Zero oil blowby! I will continue to test the setup in the run up to the track days in March and with some luck will cause no issues there either.

Gurds

 

Looks good. I have the exact same catch tank.

Won't that pull oil mist in to your intake? And oil if the catch tank fills up during a track session?

ETA: Posted while you were adding the second post.

 

Genius!!!

 

Love it! Think we've to do similar to the Quattro since it got the new big turbo...

 

Good work.
How does this compare to the PCV and breather system on the VAG 2.0T FSI engines etc?

 

Thanks guys, I just hope this resolves the breathing issues.

Rayhoop, I haven't looked too closely at the TFSI setup but the principles are pretty much the same across petrol engines. The TFSI will have other systems that need to be kept happy.

Gurds

 

The mk5s generally love to eat oil. My ed30 uses a litre in just over 1000 miles, which is well within vw spec still, but it's running 360bhp and more boost.

The pcv system does break on them. If you remove the hose and blow into it, it should close up. Vw have released quite a few revisions of the pcv, and for info the diverter valve (check yours for splits, easy on a k04)



Good work on the mk1 gurds

 

Great work , will this be appearing at bedford ?

How much boost are you currently running?

 

Looking forward to trying to keep up at Bedford

 

Yup it will be at Bedford on the CGTi trackday. It's currently set at 1bar max. I'll see if I can fit in a visit to the rollers for a tune up.

Sambo, your car is a Beast! If anything, yours will be the hard car to keep up with.

Gurds

 

That engineering work is very smart. I wish I could tig!

 

Serious ingenuity throughout all! Only catching up on this and many others in here now



Brian,

 

Thanks! I wish I could TIG too. That's all MIG though ;0). Fabricator has a pukka Lorch MIG that does twin arc and autostart for aluminium. Awesome welding machine.

Thanks Brian. A lot of ideas are inspired, many from this forum. I like to try things out.

Gurds

 

Nice breather. Looks a lot like the camcover breather channel keith murray has on his 80 quattro. I remember going to oulton park with bill a few years back and his ibiza was blowing half a liter out in a few laps, monitored with a pop bottle catch tank we made at the time.

 

Thanks Rob. Keith's car is indeed an example I was keenly interested in. I'm not sure exactly what's inside the box on that one but I'm sure it must be some sort of oil separator. The symptoms described are pretty much what I was seeing too. Will be good to give the engine some proper stick without worry now.

Gurds

 

Really looking forward to getting back on track together at Bedford Gurds, it's a shame our play time was cut short at Combe!

I guess with the forged rods fitted now you're fairly safe up to somewhere mid 300's on your current setup? How far do you think you'll take it when you have the map altered?

 

T'was a shame but back better and stronger hopefully! I will be at Rockingham on the 9th too remember

I will see if I get a chance to try some high boost stuff out before then. The turbo should be good for low to mid 300's as you say but I would like to keep it efficient rather than turn it into a heat pump. Let's see eh?

Gurds

 

Just what I was thinking!
Nice setup! Look forward to seeing the car in the metal one day!