If that was what was happening, then your catch can solution on track would have solved the issue and caught a bunch of oil, no?
So the oil that is burning in the engine, causing the huge smoke cloud was not entering the intact tract via the TIP hose/vent.
With the stock pcv plate/oil separator/whatever, there is also a way for air/oil vapor/liquid oil to get into the intake tract and that is directly into the intake manifold near the valves.
With the aftermarket pcv plate solutions, that intake manifold path is completely blocked off and is likely the real fix for track use. The catch can is just an extra on top that is nice.
That's my line of thinking anyways.
I did a track day and lasted about 3 laps until my catch can filled with oil and then spilled out on my headers. Huge smoke cloud, I'm just lucky the car didn't catch on fire. But I feel ya, it's really frustrating.
That was a different car, but the problem was similar in a lot of ways. Oil pooling in the head, high vacuum from intake manifold literally sucking it up (into the can in my case). So I think that may be what's going on here.
If there was a way to block off the vacuum source on the stock pcv plate, that would be pretty neat I think. Utilize the stock "oil separator" in the valve and have all venting go out to the TIP. Probably more hassle than it's worth though I imagine.
Different car, that was on my C5Z at the track. I don't even have a Golf yet, I'm just a lurker who is bored and wanted to jump in on some tech discussions, lol. Been looking at Golf Rs though.
I have a Focus ST right now and there's been a lot of discussion and results showing that OCC has little to no effect on carbon buildup on the valves, so I don't run an OCC on it.
On a Golf I probably won't run on either unless I get into some autocross or track stuff and come across the issue. But I think "fixing" the pcv plate is probably the most important thing to do here for track stuff.. an OCC on the line is just a nice extra touch. It seems to be more of an oil control problem than a blowby problem-- seems like any of the full systems that include the pcv plate would work well for track applications.
This diagram shows the air flow path/direction in vacuum, note that air is actually pulled FROM the TIP, down past the PCV valve into the head/crankcase in this scenario, and that fresh clean air then circulates thru the engine.
This diagram shows the air flow path/direction in vacuum, note that air is actually pulled FROM the TIP, down past the PCV valve into the head/crankcase in this scenario, and that fresh clean air then circulates thru the engine.
This last bit doesn’t make any sense. There is a check valve in the OEM PCV that prevents air going from TIP to PCV. The purpose of the connection to the TIP is to both provide vacuum to the crankcase and vent crankcase pressure from blowby.
Speaking of which, OP, your method of adding a “catch bottle” was preventing the PCV from doing its job of venting crankcase pressure I would think... this could explain the smoke later on using that method.
If the PCV doesn’t vent, oil will get past your turbo seals, your upper timing cover, basically it will start coming out everywhere it shouldn’t and this will cause smoke. This happened with my VWR plate once it busted.
I don't know what you mean by "air going from TIP to PCV". As you can see in the diagram you quoted, fresh filtered air flows from the TIP, past what is labeled "pcv valve" in the diagram. Now this air is located in the valve cover and circulates thru the entire crankcase. This circulated air picks up a lot of blowby, fuel vapor, water vapor whatever else along the way and enters the pcv again in the top left port in the diagram...thru the pcv and then finally into the intake manifold where it's sucked thru and burned in the cylinders.
At wide open throttle, boost pressure in the intake manifold closes check valve 1. Elevated crankcase pressure from blowby opens check valve 2 and it takes the path of least resistance out via the TIP. The TIP should create a slight suction force with high velocity air streaming past it... but from what I've seen it's relatively small amount of vacuum and not hugely significant, but hey I'll take any assist that I can.
At the end of the day it functions like every other single modern pcv system I've seen, but the design is a bit different. I had to stare at those diagrams for a while for everything to make sense. I guess standard german fashion.. let's just make this thing overly complicated lol.
The aftermarket systems remove the functionality depicted in the diagram you posted. In which case you are exactly right-- all pcv flow is out the TIP and is the only (minor) source of vacuum in the system.