Passat 1.8T - under the valve cover (before/after)

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Nothing earth-shattering about this, just a visual of my cleaning efforts on a 2002 Passat 1.8T with 120k miles. It had Mobil1 0-40 for most of its life at 5k OCIs. I was unimpressed with the cleanliness of the valve cover and valvetrain when I had it apart to fix a gasket leak. I cleaned out the underneath part of the valve cover as much as possible and then ran 2 OCIs, first was 5-40 HDEO, Seafoam treatment towards the end of that, then the last 5k miles have been on G-Oil. Possibly the most significant action to clean out the valvetrain was fixing the PCV system which occurred early in the HDEO OCI. Left is before all of the above, right is after. Is it cleaner? Yes definitely, though a bit hard to tell because of illumination differences between the pics. And keep in mind I cleaned the underside of the cover (bottom pics) manually, that did not happen just from the oil.

 
what did fixing the PCV system entail? how long was the PCV system compromised? that seems to be alot of junk for a good oil at modest OCI's. makes me want to congratulate myself for saying no to extended drain hysteria.
 
I wonder if the high polarity of the ester (G-Oil) had any extra cleaning effect?? Guess we will never know that one. That engine must run pretty hot, I am surprised that that engine wasn't clean enough to eat off of with that oil and OCI schedule. It was not bad by any means but I would have expected better myself.

Do you think you will continue with G-Oil?
 
Originally Posted By: chubbs1
I wonder if the high polarity of the ester (G-Oil) had any extra cleaning effect?? Guess we will never know that one. That engine must run pretty hot, I am surprised that that engine wasn't clean enough to eat off of with that oil and OCI schedule. It was not bad by any means but I would have expected better myself.

Do you think you will continue with G-Oil?


That was my thinking. So much for a good quality synthetic oil keeping one of those engines clean.
 
Originally Posted By: zanzabar
... Possibly the most significant action to clean out the valvetrain was fixing the PCV system which occurred early in the HDEO OCI.


Wonder how long you had an issue with the PCV system. Going by what you have posted I would suspect it was some time ago and the prime cause of the varnish buildup, not the M1 or your OCI's
 
Originally Posted By: LineArrayNut
makes me want to congratulate myself for saying no to extended drain hysteria.


Hysteria, huh?
crackmeup2.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: LineArrayNut
makes me want to congratulate myself for saying no to extended drain hysteria.




let me fix that for you.
Quote:

makes me want to congratulate myself for saying no to extended drain hysteria... on known sludger 1.8T engines with PCV problems.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: LineArrayNut
makes me want to congratulate myself for saying no to extended drain hysteria.




let me fix that for you.
Quote:

makes me want to congratulate myself for saying no to extended drain hysteria... on known sludger 1.8T engines with PCV problems.


crackmeup2.gif

Well put Rand! There sure is a lot of "Chicken Little" mentality here!
 
Originally Posted By: zanzabar
It had Mobil1 0-40 for most of its life at 5k OCIs.

Are you the original owner? Are you absolutely sure of its maintenance history?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: zanzabar
It had Mobil1 0-40 for most of its life at 5k OCIs.

Are you the original owner? Are you absolutely sure of its maintenance history?


Nope and nope. I do have records of at least half the oil changes showing where M1 was used, so yeah this is truly an "M1 engine" and has not been neglected nor has it seen any dino oil or longer than 5k OCIs as far as I can tell from the maintenance history.
 
Originally Posted By: zanzabar
I do have records of at least half the oil changes showing where M1 was used,

Well, then you really don't know what was used for the other half. If the car was dealer serviced during warranty period, then the dealer would have used mineral oil back in those days.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: zanzabar
I do have records of at least half the oil changes showing where M1 was used,

Well, then you really don't know what was used for the other half. If the car was dealer serviced during warranty period, then the dealer would have used mineral oil back in those days.


True, but again - let's not get too crazy here and go blaming the oil, I think it's fairly clear that the PCV clogging does this on these engines. The M1 reciepts I have were from the second owner, which was between 50k and 110k (when I got it), so yeah if it was dealer serviced it may have seen some dino early in its life.
 
Originally Posted By: chubbs1
I wonder if the high polarity of the ester (G-Oil) had any extra cleaning effect?? Guess we will never know that one. That engine must run pretty hot, I am surprised that that engine wasn't clean enough to eat off of with that oil and OCI schedule. It was not bad by any means but I would have expected better myself.

Do you think you will continue with G-Oil?


I will keep using G-Oil, my UOAs on it are too good not to. Although if they stop the rebates and I have to pay full price for it I'd probably switch to Rotella T5 for $13/gal.
 
Originally Posted By: LineArrayNut
what did fixing the PCV system entail? how long was the PCV system compromised?


Entailed removing, cleaning, replacing, and re-installing a dozen or so pipes and hoses. The system is actually pretty baffling in its complexity.

Another reason why G-Oil and its extremely low noack might be a great oil for this engine.
 
Sure would like to know, even a guess, as to how long the PCV system had been compromised.

Scoff if you will, but almost every mechanic on the web and on the street I've talked to says the push to longer OCI's is ridiculous in the US as the high sulfur fuel, smallish crankcase volumes, low speed regimen, and spotty oil/oci choices/habits are causing more and more eyebrow raising scenes like the above.
Most dealers are not even aware of different viscosities and OCI's for the two motors in my newest car. All my good oils were less than $5 qt w/ good filters added at $5 ea as well. The difference between 4K miles and 8K miles over 100K miles ownership is $480 or .0144 of the cost of the car. I truly believe it's ludicrous to be concerned w/ a cost of that nature just to satisfy some craving to be green or something or other.
 
Audi's 1.8T is known for varnish and sludge no matter what you put in it. A google will show numerous identical pics as yours. IMO the 1.8T engine is not a candidate for extended drains. 5k and a maintenance dose of Kreen is what I would do. Agree with others on extended drains. This engine is prone to deposits and has no bearing on extended drains in general.
 
Originally Posted By: LineArrayNut
Sure would like to know, even a guess, as to how long the PCV system had been compromised.

Scoff if you will, but almost every mechanic on the web and on the street I've talked to says the push to longer OCI's is ridiculous in the US as the high sulfur fuel, smallish crankcase volumes, low speed regimen, and spotty oil/oci choices/habits are causing more and more eyebrow raising scenes like the above.


I would GUESS that the worst of the PCV lines, including the crankcase breather, were about 50% clogged at 80k miles, and 80% clogged at 115k miles (when I swapped them out and/or cleaned them) and the suction jet pump was completely shot probably by about 100k but I neglected to replace that until around 120k.

Listen, it's clear that long OCIs (>5k miles) are not appropriate for some engines, this one included, as well as probably most of the DI engines like your Sonata, but have you seen the 30k OCI UOA on the Pontiac Vibe? (http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...nt=2&page=1) MOST engines are just fine with extended drains of 7500 miles on dino and >10k on synth, and some can go much farther than that. This idea has been made abundantly clear here on BITOG.
 
Originally Posted By: zanzabar


Listen, it's clear that long OCIs (>5k miles) are not appropriate for some engines, this one included, as well as probably most of the DI engines like your Sonata, but have you seen the 30k OCI UOA on the Pontiac Vibe? (http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...nt=2&page=1) MOST engines are just fine with extended drains of 7500 miles on dino and >10k on synth, and some can go much farther than that. This idea has been made abundantly clear here on BITOG.


http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-201/

"Change your oil every 3 – 5,000 miles and at least every spring." by AE Haas

Bottom of the page, lol!

Mostly just joking... ;-)
 
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