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Cliff's Grey Hare

Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
My car is pretty quiet (and I neglected to mention that Griffin also installed thrust sheets between the main and helper springs, which should quiet things down even more), so noise is not my problem. I just have a lot of mods in the car and I am pushing the car fairly hard when I am out on track. That makes each track day a bit of an adventure as I may expose yet another weak link in the car that I have to get sorted before the next event. The car is also 5 years old, so there is the increased potential for some piece of original equipment to fail. I'm hopeful that I'm at an equilibrium point, but you never know.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Yeah, I'm in a similar place, but two years behind you. The hood louvres helped tremendously with heat evac in the engine bay. Highly recommended. I keep the hood liner in on the street so oil can actually get to operating temp.
 

Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
Sure hope nothing breaks...

I had all kinds of mechanical issues yesterday. My coils were failing and causing misfires, but I was able to buy a new set at Seaside VW and I only missed the first session. Then my car started hemorrhaging oil into the catch can. After 1+ sessions my car was a quart low and there was maybe 20 ounces of fluid in the catch car. We emptied the catch can and topped up the oil and I went out for the last session to see what would happen. When I came in I was a half quart low and there was 3-4" of liquid in the catch can. Griffin had the head apart to fix an oil leak last week and I think something isn't right with that repair. I decided to bail on Sunday and avoid risking damage to my engine.

A few laps from my last session Saturday. I went out towards the back of the run group with the goal of seeing just how much oil my car would consume in 20 minutes. Turned out to be a half a quart. I briefly got stuck behind a couple of cars that started after me and came close to passing an R8 that started in front of me. Griffin is researching my oil consumption problems.

 
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Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
A bit of an update on my oil consumption issues. I emptied the catch can last Friday and it was full of nearly pure oil. I contacted Griffin and their initial thought was to swap PCV plates between their VWR-equipped A3 2.0 Quattro shop car and my car to see if that made a difference. That was originally going to be done this afternoon. I decided to conduct an experiment and emptied the catch can, went for a 100 mile freeway drive, then emptied the catch can again. This time the contents of the can were a reasonable 50ml of fluid with the expected composition of oil, fuel, and condensed water vapor, i.e.: chocolate milk.

Griffin's hypothesis is that the oil was overfilled somewhat and this caused the PCV plate to siphon actual oil from the sump and not just the blow-by. They had previously experienced similar behavior in their shop car, which they corrected by removing excess oil from the engine. My car had been with Griffin to replace the valve cover seal to fix an oil leak, and the repair was completed a couple of days prior to the HPDE event. Griffin indicated that it is not inconceivable that the tech overfilled the oil a bit when completing the repair, or alternatively that the oil was correctly filled but that it expanded once the engine and the oil warmed up to race temps.

Their recommendation is that I arrive at the track with the oil a ¼ to a ½ quart low, and monitor and maintain the oil level during the course of the event. I'm going to perform an additional experiment in the next couple of weeks and go for a 75 mile canyon run to see what happens.

Contents of catch can after 20 minute track session and 100 mile drive home

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Contents of catch can after 100 mile freeway drive

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victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Have you considered trying a catch can which does an inline catch with the pcv, rather than running open? If you have an air leak under pressure in the can system somewhere it could cause a significant accumulation like that.
 

Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
That's still a lot for just 100 miles. It takes me about 6000 miles to accumulate that much.

No argument. Since the plate has no moving parts and it was installed by a VWR dealer, it's hard for me to imagine why I am having a problem.

Have you considered trying a catch can which does an inline catch with the pcv, rather than running open? If you have an air leak under pressure in the can system somewhere it could cause a significant accumulation like that.

I am considering other options, yes. One would be to go with the 06K103495BL plate along with some other catch can.
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
I am considering other options, yes. One would be to go with the 06K103495BL plate along with some other catch can.

I considered the same plate when I was doing my bfi can but wanted to see how much I'd catch with stock +bfi before going to the other valve. So far, after about 14 sessions (slow year) I have caught approximately 85mL. I checked it during the 2000 street miles since install and nothing was in the can, as expected. I might try the newer pcv and see if I catch more or less.
 

Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
I considered the same plate when I was doing my bfi can but wanted to see how much I'd catch with stock +bfi before going to the other valve. So far, after about 14 sessions (slow year) I have caught approximately 85mL. I checked it during the 2000 street miles since install and nothing was in the can, as expected. I might try the newer pcv and see if I catch more or less.

My OE plate has probably made it's way to an Asian recycler by now, so if I have to replace I may as well go with the B9A4 plate that people are recommending.
 

Navi

Autocross Champion
Location
BK/NYC/Hamptons
That's still a lot for just 100 miles. It takes me about 6000 miles to accumulate that much.

I agree. Still seems a lot for a 100 mile freeway drive. Takes me about 1000 miles to get that much oil from freeway driving.
 

Cliff

Drag Racing Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
2015 Cayman GTS
id recommend leaving it bolted down with the “one time use bolt” (with a new bolt of course) but replacing the drain plug on it with a fumoto drain valve. Myself and Teemy have done this. I can still drain it with a small tube without removing anything, even with oil cooler lines routed in that area.

edit: found a pic. It fits without spacers

I bit the bullet and installed one of these today. At the very least it will make it easier and less messy to transfer the contents of the can into whatever container I have on hand. Fumoto F106SX, M14x1.5: Amazon product page.
 
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