[Grifnsqest]

So I kinda ran out of stuff to do with the Touareg a while ago. So what did I do... I bought a motorcycle! An 08 BMW K1200S, to be specific. So I've spent the last couple of months tinkering with that, so that my daily commute can be a bit more fun. Now that the bike is done, I'm turning my head back to the Touareg.

The project... develop a catch can setup!!

Those with FSI motors know that this is a must, in order to keep the carbon build up at a minimum. Let's face it, there's no real way to avoid it, right? So lets try to reduce it as much as possible.

My plan is to retain the OEM PCV setup. The cyclonic action of the OEM unit seems to be a pretty good design. But every time you pull that hose off, there is still a ton of oil that is making its way to the valve. So why not try to limit how much actually gets up there...

Here's what we are looking to reroute...



Now, we could go on the cheap... I could get some heater hose and some clamps and make this work. Just remove that OEM hose going from the driver's side valve cover going up to the PCV. Clamp one hose around the valve cover port and one hose around the PCV. Run them both to a cheap lil can anyone can find on eBay for $50. But who wants that!?!? Don't we all want the cool looking AN fittings, nice black steel braided lines, and smooth curves ta boot!?





Yeah... me too!


As my lil hairy itch got to me this past week, I started researching the "hardest" part. The connections. A lot of modern vehicles use hoses with Norma connections...



The sad part, its not like you have a bunch of sources online to get them from. I've got an email out to them now, I'm just waiting on a response to see if they will sell them to a plain ol guy like me. If I have to buy a Costco-sized pallet... yeah, that just won't work.


So, in the meantime, I've got an extra hose coming from ECS. Once it gets here, I'll toss that in the Touareg and use my original one as the test dummy. My plan is to cut the hose off of the connections points.







I'll determine what sized line I will need for each port connection, and get those ordered up. Toss in a couple other fittings a basic can from ECS, Integrated Engineering, 42DD, etc... whoever makes a decent design at the best price.


As usual, as the project progresses, I'll post up a few pictures and let you all know how its going. Once it's all complete, I'll set you all up specific parts and websites, in case you want to duplicate.

See ya in a few!!!

 

[FSJ Guy]

Interesting. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

 

[Whirly]

There's some nice one for Audie out there

 

[Grifnsqest]

There are. The hard part is that most of the kits out there, with the port adapters, only have them in one size adapter. The connection to our PCV valve is quite a bit larger, which makes it a lil tougher to find the right connection.

I may look into sourcing other hoses, like from the secondary air injection system, and see if their sizes match up. Those hoses are quite a bit cheaper than this particular PCV valve one. And since all I am needed is the connectors themselves, they would be easy to source and cut them off to use in our system with custom lines.

 

[Whirly]

True. I'm a stainless steel engineer gig welding sheet metal etc.give me a shout if you need any info.

 

[Grifnsqest]

Okie dokie... so the OEM hose arrived over the weekend. So I pulled the original off, popped the new one on, and began my surgical procedures on my original hose.




I cut off the 2 ends of the hose, about an inch past where the Norma fittings end. I then put a lil slice in the hose itself, so that I could peel it away from the Norma fitting. If you do it right, you end up with 2 perfectly good Norma fittings that allow you to connect to the driver's side valve cover (left) and the OEM PCV unit (right).




Even though the two connection points are different sizes, the barbed fittings on the end are the same... 3/4" or 19mm.






The one that goes to the valve cover has a slight bend in it, about 45*. The one that goes to the PCV is a straight barbed end.



Once I had it all apart, and the hose size figured out, I scavenged around the garage and found a couple pieces of heater hose that I could play with.





So, let the fun begin with a few basic connections...











With just those couple scrap pieces of hose, I figured if I actually went out and bought say 5ft of hose, and cut it to the correct lengths for each port, I could probably make this setup work. I may been an elbow or bend here or there to make smooth transitions. But the basic concept is there.

Now the tough part... where to mount the can itself. There aren't many options, and you have even less if you still have your OEM air boxes. So I'm going to play around a bit, and see what all I come up with. Right now, here's my potential home...



I'll mount it right to the Evolution Motorsports heat shield from my intake setup. Right now, the best quality for a reasonable priced can I could find is from 42DD (think performance parts, not anatomy!)



I can put a small valve on the bottom of the can, so that I can drain it easily.



The can takes 1/2" NPT fittings. And given the hose I'm using is 3/4", I'll be looking for -12AN connections for the hoses. All black, unless a pop of red finds its way into the shopping cart!



The mounting tabs on the can aren't ideal, but I can make them work...

 

[Grifnsqest]

I'll update more later on. I need to order up the can some time and get it fitted. I will be keeping my eye out for other mounting locations, so that those with OEM air boxes can play along too!

 

[Grifnsqest]

Oh, and look what happens when you use the two heater core hoses from an 01 Maxima...



I have the Gates part numbers too. These could be a neat alternative too. I would be neat if I could just say "here are my lengths, angles, bends, etc... find me the matching heater core hose for a 20XX Blank Blank Car..."

 

[FSJ Guy]

Looks cool! My existing hose is broken, anyway. (It's currently wrapped with electrical tape)

 

[Grifnsqest]

So I got my -12AN hose ends in last week. They are basically clamps that look like AN fittings. And I got my -12AN hose in yesterday. It's a great quality braided hose. My problem is the damn Norma fittings! I can get the fittings snuggly into the hose. And the hose ends fit perfectly around the braided hose. But I can't get the Norma fitting through the hose end. The opening is just too small for the fitting itself, let alone the fitting shoved inside the hose.

I may try to order the next size up of hose ends, which will be a -16AN. But I'm afraid they may just be too big. But I guess I won't know till I try.

The other part I don't like is that a lot of the catch cans out there that have AN or NPT ports, they are usually a -10An or even -8AN. To me, that's just too small. So I'm looking at a Mann Provent 200. It's a somewhat OEM looking part that just has "barbed inlet/outlet ports. It's a lil more expensive, but once I factor in having to get actual AN fittings with other setups, I'm looking at the same price point invested.

So I may have to abandon the cool looking factor and go with function instead...


I'll keep yall updated...

 

[Grifnsqest]

Since I keep getting stuck on the Norma fittings, I figured I'd shoot this out there, in case there is someone with access to a CNC machine. Or anything that can help source what will work.

The closest solution is similar to what is in this kit...

IE 2.0T FSI Catch Can Kit For IE Billet Valve Cover For MK5 & MK6 Golf R 2.0T


In the 3rd and 4th pictures, you see a fitting that has a clamp that fits through it, similar to what would hold a water temp sensor in place.


In the 7th picture, you see it in red, on the right side of the intake manifold.


Essentially, you have a male end with a rubber o-ring, that needs to be able to slide into and see a port. Once inside, you need to be able to slide a bracket/clamp through a pair of slits in the side of the fitting, to secure it in place.


Do you have the means of fabricating such a fitting that would be sized to the 4.2FSI Touareg?


I've tried to contact some of the companies that have similar fittings, but they will not sell them outside the kits. Nor do the provide much information on them at all. Go figure!!!


The 13th picture of this ECS kit also shows a good example...


https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/Catch_Can/ES2960610/


Those, I believe, are block off caps. But the design matches what I need to do, but with adding an AN male to the other end rather than blocking it off.


Thanks

John

 

[Grifnsqest]

IE Billet Valve Cover Breather to -10AN Adapter for VW 2.5L 5 Cylinder Engines



That is actually the perfect piece... I just need them made in OUR sizes...

 

[Grifnsqest]

So I struck out with Integrated Engineering. They are unwilling to make some adapters for the 4.2FSI motor. They need to make them in runs of 100+ for it to make sense. I get it, but frustrating nonetheless.


So here's where I'm at so far...

Here are the lines (or line) coming off the manifold and OEM PCV...



I ordered the line in a 10ft section, just so I had some room in case I make a mistake or feel like adding a line to the passenger side valve cover as well.

Right now, I just have the line pressed on to the Norma fittings. No clamps or anything. When I fired up the Touareg, and gave it a couple revs, the line didn't pop off.




The line itself is pretty stiff. So I may just mount the can to the core support. Somewhere around here...




I think if I decide to mount the can down towards my heat shield on the driver's side intake filter, I will need to incorporate some elbows in order to make it work, given the stiffness of the hose.

 

[Grifnsqest]

So I tried two different sizes of these things...



They are purely for a visual purpose. But, as it turns out, neither size would work for that purpose. The smaller size fit the hose perfect, but wouldn't fit around the Norma fitting. The larger size allowed the Norma fitting, but was too bulky once it was clamped on. It didn't look right.


So I dug around and found a couple OEM spring type clamps...





I figured this way I have both form and function. They secure the hose to the Norma fitting... and they aren't a shiny chrome metal $.02 clamp.


I'm still going to keep the two main lines routed the same as I had before. I'll run them side by side up to the radiator core support.




Now that I had my two main lines cut, with a few inches extra, just in case... I wanted to see how the rest of my original 10ft line would play out. So I started looking at the passenger side valve cover. Since there is capped off port there as well, I figured why not try another line...?








It seems like running it behind where the throttle body is makes the most sense. I thought about running it down the front passenger side, and then across as to avoid a clutter look on the driver's side. But it really didn't look nice. Plus, to make a hard 90* was the only way to really make it look ok, and I'm still trying to keep the lines solid/continuous. A break in the middle to make that turn... ehhh... maybe I'm just picky.


So I have a generic Mishimoto 3-port catch can coming next week. I will try to mount it to the the core support the best I can, so its out of the way and not interfering with anything. Will keep yall updated...

 

[Grifnsqest]

Oh how time flys when you aren't focused on a project!

So had a tough time finding the right size metal fittings to go from the catch can to the braided lines. I finally found some coolant pipe barbs on Rockauto that were a perfect match! So I tossed some thread tape on the lil bastards and got to work.

I mounted the can to the core support. The mounting bracket wants you to screw in from underneath, going to the side of something. I imagine to have a "floating" look to it. I found that if I were to do that, the can would be sitting to low and cause the lines to bend too much at that angle. So I bent the bracket flat and mounted it that way...




Once I got the can sitting right, I started routing the hoses and trimming just the right amount to fit the bends right...






I'll probably find some kind of line management system (aka zip ties) to try and group the 3 lines together in a more cleaner fashion. Right now, they kinda look like an octopus or squid is trapped under the hood...




The next step is to actually pull the intake manifold for another cleaning of the valves. And then retest a year from then to see if the can helped.

Anyway... project complete!

 

[Grifnsqest]

So it's been a couple weeks, and I decided to open up the can and see what all I had accumulated. Keep in my, the Touareg is not my daily driver, so I've put MAYBE 1000 miles on?

The can was about 1/3 full, and it was mostly oil. No sludgy milkshake like you sometimes see in other posts.

I would have taken a photo, but clumsy me spilled the damn thing all over the floor!

 

[Perry01]

Better than on your valve stems ?

 

[Grifnsqest]

So another couple weeks, almost a month really. Maybe 2k miles? Here's what I am catching...




So it's definitely evolved from just being oil to the more traditional milkshake like color. It was also quite "sludgy" at the bottom of the can. Kind of like a really runny pudding like consistency, that you can see coagulating at the bottom of that cup.

Now, I don't know if its because the can was more full this time? Maybe excess air agitation?? Or maybe the fact that its colder out??? I don't know.


Either way... its that much LESS crap making its way into the OEM PCV system and intake tract.

 

[Built4Sin]

How did you mod your T into making you espresso!