Oil Catch Can - should I?

[Crossthreaded]

Ok, my little Ibiza ST has the 1.0 litre 3 cylinder CHZB 95 hp engine. As many will know this is one of the new generation of Direct Injection Petrol power units. It seems quite well established now that because no petrol travels through the inlet tract on this design of engine and therefore the detergent and cleaning additives in the fuel have no access to the inlet tract, carbon (from the oil in the breather and carbon in the exhaust recirculation systems - I'm talking generically, I don't think the CHZB uses EGR?) can, and does, build up in the inlet ports and accumulates on the back of the inlet valves to the general detriment of the running of the engine.

It seems likely that this problem cannot be totally eliminated without feeding fuel into the inlet ports (some VAG engines have 2 sets of injectors with one set injecting into the ports which seems to stop this) But I'm wondering if anyone has experimented with an oil catch can in the breather system to reduce the quantity of oil getting dragged into the inlets? If you have have you think it's had any very noticeable effect?

 

[RUM4MO]

I think that someone has tried this in another version of these TSI engines and found that very little oil - if any - gets collected, also it has been said that while this build up of junk on the inlet tract side of the cylinder head will start to cause a restriction, as these engines are charged, the effect or loss of power/efficiency will be minimal over maybe 60K miles. There is kit available to blast that stuff out/off the inlet tract using walnut shells.

The secondary port injection was, in official VW Group "speak" was to minimise emissions! It only lasted for a few years and now has been dumped as all petrol cars will have GPF fitted to remove some nasties and so allow these engines to comply with newer emissions levels. A bit annoying really.

 

[Crossthreaded]

Thanks RUM that's very helpful. I'll probably not bother then, unless someone else knows something more? I've seen the BMW kit being used on you tube and it looks as if it wouldn't be too difficult to make your own. However at just coming up on 4 years old with just under 20,000 miles on the clock I may be having to hand my licence in due to senility before the fouling becomes a problem!

 

[RUM4MO]

I think that I considered doing something or worried about this, but so far no useful reports coming from owners of older and higher mileage cars in any of the VW Group forums I'm on - ie so far so good!

 

[Crossthreaded]

I think that I considered doing something or worried about this, but so far no useful reports coming from owners of older and higher mileage cars in any of the VW Group forums I'm on - ie so far so good!

Thanks RUM. Very reassuring. There are lots of you tube videos on this problem, many featuring VAG engines. Mind you nearly all are US productions so maybe there's something different going on with Fuel/oil and the way vehicles are used over there. I remember mentioning it briefly at AVW quite some time ago, when I was thinking of buying the Ibiza, so four plus years ago. I got the impression that at that time it was not giving them problems.

 

[RUM4MO]

I think that most reports that have indicated this was an issue will be the Audi RS engines as they are high performance non turbo petrol engines with direct injection, seems it can affect them a bit after a while.