Adding oil catch can to PCV system

[befarrer]

First off, I know the car has an oil separator on the engine. My PCV system is new, but I am getting annoyed by the oil dripping from my turbo inlet tube from the PCV system, and I would like to add an aftermarket oil separator as a second method to get rid of the oil vapor in the PCV. I know it is from this as I ran with the PTC nipple plugged, and the PCV venting under the car for a few months, and my turbo and intercooler weep hole were dry, now a month after I re-connected it, they are both leaking again. I am not getting any excess crankcase pressure from my PCV, it is not plugged. I Was thinking of running a new line up, over the engine, and put the separator above the exhaust manifold to keep it warm in the winter months, then back down into the PTC nipple.

Has anybody else added one, and where did they put it, and how did the plumb it in?

I installed an oil seperator on my 05 Golf TDI, and it works great, the stock breather just had a baffle in the valve cover, then went straight into the intake, the intercooler on the TDI does not have a drain hose, and is prone to filling up with oil from the PCV, since I added an oil seperator to the line, I have had none in 8000KM, the vaccum pump on these engines for some reason vents into the crankcase, so there is a decent amount of air going through the PCV system on that car.

[erikv11]

I can't recall exactly how I plumbed it when I ran one for a couple years but I can tell you it has been done dozens of times there are a lot of variants to choose from, I'd suggest a search especially at Volvospeed and SwedeSpeed. LookForJoe at Volvospeed went through several iterations and his posts are especially informative but there are many options.

[befarrer]

I added a catch can, mounted it to the rear engine strut above the turbo, ran a hose from the end of the original pcv where it connects to the PTC, up into the catch can, then back down to the PTC nipple. It seemed to work as I had a decent amount of water in there after a week. But today, I noticed oil burning shortly after startup, oil blowing out of the oil cap, so I disconnected my catch can, and re-installed it OEM, now its good. It iced up and plugged, I was hoping mounting it over the exhaust manifold would prevent this, but I guess not. So, it will be a summer only add on I guess. I would like to find a way to seal the intake piping to the turbo inlet so it doesnt leak oil, soaking the coolant pipe under there with oil.

I have the same catch can mounted on my TDI golf, it has lots of crankcase blowby being a diesel, and the vacuum pump vents into the crankcase as well. It has been on there since the summer, but being on the front of the engine, I added a coolant heat line and insulation to it and the breather hoses going to it, but there is less moisture in diesel crankcase as well, I've only caught oil vapor in that can, no water.

[erikv11]

Thanks for the update. How often do you need to train the cans?

[befarrer]

I don't know, mines only been on there for a few weeks, haven't even ran a tank through it, but depends on driving style, long highway trips are probably longer between drains vs short city trips.