Oil Catch Cans. Is It Worth Fitting One?

[steamship]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

...so all the crud that builds up is purely from oil vapour!

In that case, a catch can may actually help, but only if it removed all the oil vapour, which can be quite a challenge.

This may be one of those instances where I might just try it myself, and see what the results are like. Having watched countless videos of oil catch cans in use, I don't see why anyone would want to see this crud being fed back into the engine, if they had a choice. Fair enough, it isn't standard equipment, and then becomes a serviceable item, but if it helps reduce the build up of crud over time, then it might be worth trying.

One of the names I came across for 'quality' oil catch cans was Mishimoto, and emailed them a while back, with a recommendation from them on which of their models to choose from. I'll have to do some more reading on the ProVent, but a quick Google shows them as costing around the same £120 mark.

Since the S8 doesn't get used much, I might even put it in the 4.2 D3, as it's more of a daily use car. If it functions and manages to trap a significant amount of oil, then I can contemplate adding it to the S8 as well.

[PeterHill]

Honestly, I never thought about oil tanks, but I can't say anything.

[27litres]

I learned a little lesson from someone on here about EGR on the D3's (and presumably other FSI engines) where the valve overlap between exhaust and inlet strokes is such that some exhaust gases remain in the cylinder for EGR purposes.

EGR should have been fitted to all petrol engines since the 70's. Its purpose is to reduce the production of Nitrous Oxides formed during high combustion temperatures (by reducing combustion temperatures). It does so reasonably successfully, but at a cost to engine efficiency.
So far as emission requirements are concerned, the D2 should have EGR in some form. But in the case of the D2, the indirect injection helps to wash the inlet valves with solvent (petrol).