Racingline VWR Oil Catch Tank & Oil Management Kit MQB Platform ea888 Gen3

The VWR Oil Catch Tank & Oil Management System is the ultimate oil separating catch can system for MQB EA888 Gen3 2.0T engine cars.

Not all catch cans are created equal. The VWR system has a dual function: as well as routing undesirable oil and moisture vapours through a sophisticated system of internal baffles and a fully baffled catch can, the VWR Oil Catch Can System also takes our track & motorsport experience of these engines to correct the problem of oil build-up in the top of the engine during high-G braking. The kit includes our Engine Breather Plate – just as the Golf and SEAT TCR EA888 touring cars use to avoid the oil surge issue.

So not only does the VWR Oil Management System condense these vapours into the bottom of the tank, keeping a purer air/fuel mixture and avoiding the problem of slowly filling intercooler and intake pipework with oil. The Engine Breather Plate included in the kit also protects your engine by helping to eradicate oil starvation in very high G braking – an issue when used on track, leading to several engine failures in our testing experience.

Key Tech Specs:

• High Efficiency:
  By extracting oil and moisture vapours into the catch tank, not the intercooler piping or inlet charge, a much purer air/fuel intake charge enters the combustion chamber for maximum efficiency and performance.
• Baffled Catch Tank:
  Many Catch Cans on the market are just an empty container with 2 ports. The VWR system features a four way baffle system inside the tank to ensure superior separation of oil and condensation.
• Optimum Location:
  Two mounting brackets secure the oil tank firmly to the existing LH engine mount, to provide maximum space and OE appearance. The lower bracket uses the main engine mount bolt whilst the upper locates on the thread on the top of the mount.
• Easy Maintenance:
  A beautiful billet dip stick is provided for accurate oil level measurement. The tank has its own drain port for quick and easy emptying
• Engine Protection:
  The billet Engine Breather Plate, (unlike some other kits which do not even replace the standard PCV valve), has an internal angled baffle plate above drain holes, returns oil rapidly into the engine before it even enters the system, crucial under high-G braking.
• Stunning Apperance:
  Manufactured from CNC 5-axis machined billet 6061 aluminium, the kit components are highly polished then hard anodised in high gloss black, finally laser etched with the Racingline seal of approval.

The EA888 Oil Surge Issue

Perhaps the most important and unique aspect of the VWR Oil Management System is that it offers a proper solution to oil starvation under high-G braking. Thanks to our extensive motorsport experience, we have found (to our cost) that the MQB EA888 Gen3 2.0T engines have a tendency to collect a large volume of oil within the cylinder head during combined heavy braking and cornering under track conditions. You'd be very unlikely to experience this on a standard car on road. But push your car hard on-track, with track-tyres and uprated brakes and this is something that you need to be aware of.

Take a look at the Golf 7R in the image gallery: fitted with another aftermarket catch can kit but with rather shocking clouds of white oil smoke billowing out of the exhausts. This is exactly the situation described above. Under braking, the oil is forced to escape through the rocker cover breather ports filling the catch tank in a matter of seconds. The overflowing, overwhelmed tank then spits the surplus oil straight through into the intake, causing this smoke. And that's not all. With no oil returning to the sump, this starves the oil pick up (inside the sump, where it shuold collect oil to lubricate the engine) and the engine can momentarily “run dry” - enough to cause devastating consequences to your engine internals. Not good, to say the least.

Where our clever system differs is by diverting this trapped oil via our integral baffle design straight back down into the main camshaft area of the cylinder head.engine rather than allowing it to escape out through breather ports. It's no surprise that this was achieved by adopting technology similar to that found in the SEATSport/Volkswagen TCR EA888 touring cars. All this add ups to the VWR Oil Management System being essential for reliability, engine safety and performance if you're planning to be pulling high-G forces anytime.

Why use the VWR Oil Management System?

What does the VWR Catch Tank and Oil Management System do? By extracting the “blow by” gasses in a positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) engine such as the EA888, particularly when running higher boost pressures, it collects and condenses the oil and moisture vapours in the catch can. Otherwise, this mist enters the intercooler piping and inlet tract, condenses, so gradually fills it with oil residue. As well as keeping the whole intake path clean, this also means that these oil vapours don't get fed back into the combustion chamber, ensuring a much purer, uncontaminated air/fuel mixture entering the cylinder - oil vapor is not an ideal substance to have entering your combustion chamber. The result – clean intercooler, intake track and charge piping, and a higher efficiency engine for many years.

But the VWR Catch Tank and Oil Management System delivers more than just this important function. The EA888 Gen3 engine, when used on track with track-spec tyres, can suffer from oil-starvation under very heavy braking G forces. The oil pools at the top front of the engine during this high-G occurrence, which has ultimately led to engine failures on our circuit cars. Most breather systems will simply swallow up this pooled oil, adding to the risk of oil-starve. The VWR Catch Tank and Oil Management System is different in that it replaces the entire PCV block, and uses the same solution to avoid this as the factory TCR/Seat Sport EA888-engined race cars do. A large header volume in the Engine Breather Plate on top of the engine contains a carefully-angled baffle which instantly diverts this excess oil straight back into the engine’s oil return, greatly reducing the chance of surge. To our amazement, some catch can systems on the market simply retain the standard PCV block connected to a catch can, rather than replace the Engine Breather Plate - to us, that is only half of a system.

Development:

Oil level measurement in the can is via a beautiful billet dip stick – avoiding the clear plastic level window that discolours rapidly on some catch cans. Emptying is simply via drain port supplied complete with blanking plug and nitrile rubber o-ring – no need to disconnect the pipework to measure or empty the can.

Two mounting brackets secure the tank firmly to the existing engine mount. The lower bracket utilises the main engine mount bolt whilst the upper bracket relies on the M6 thread located on the upmost part of the engine mount casting.

The tank location gives it the maximum capacity and means that it’s a direct bolt-on for GTI models; on R models, where the washer bottle is in this space, intelligent design means that simply removing the filler neck for the washer bottle allows fitment of the catch can (a remote fill kit for the washer is available separately as an option above).

The hard-anodised billet engine breather plate is produced in two sections (base plate and separate tub) plus a removable internal baffle plate to allow for easy cleaning and inspection.

Included in the kit are two AN-10 "210 series” oil lines in the perfect length for easy install. Constructed with a CPE synthetic inner rubber lining the hose is then reinforced with a layer of stainless steel braid and finished with a black nylon outer weave providing added protection and an attractive finish.

Performance:

For an engine to produce the maximum amount of energy per ignition of the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber, any amount of oil in this mixture causes a decrease in octane which will hamper the explosion resulting in less energy released, detonation, and carbon buildup. The VWR Catch Tank collects and separates these vapours.

Where other systems vent directly out of the rocker cover (or even, to our surprise, don't replace the PCV engine breather plate at all), the VWR system is very similar to the solution used on the EA888-engined factory TCR touring cars – the larger header volume of the breather plate is combined with both an angled internal baffle plate plus multiple drain holes, allowing immediate oil return during high-G incidents.

This allows a first stage of oil separation to drain straight back into engine, which will help prevent the engine failures through oil-starve under high-G braking. Other catch-can solutions simply swallow that oil into the catch can.

Most Catch Cans on the market are just comprised of an empty container with 2 ports - which in the worst cases just allows the vapours straight through the can and into the intake charge. The VWR Oil Catch Tank system uses a sophisticated four-way baffle system inside the tank to ensure vastly superior separation of oil and condensation vapours.

Take the hassle out of emptying your new catch can

RacingLine's Drain Kit is a really simple addition that makes emptying the Oil Catch Can a quick, clean and simple operation. It houses a beautifully machined on-off ball valve with lever for easy and controlled draining. Included is a 500mm silicone tube that attaches to the end of the valve to allow accurate draining into your waste oil container.

You can add this drain kit via the option above under the related products section.

Fitment/Applications:

• 2015-2021 VW Mk7, Mk7.5 GTI
• 2015-2019 VW Mk7, Mk7.5 Golf 1.8T
• 2015-2021 VW Mk7, Mk7.5 Golf R (requires Racingline Remote Fill Kit)
• 2015-2020 VW Mk7, Mk7.5 Golf Sportwagen 1.8T
• 2017-2020 VW Mk7, Mk7.5 Golf Alltrack 1.8T
• 2019+ VW Mk7 GLI 2.0T
• 2019+ VW Arteon 2.0T
• 2015+ Audi 8S TT
• 2015+ Audi 8S TTS
• 2015-2020 Audi 8V A3 1.8T/2.0T
• 2015-2020 Audi 8V S3 (requires Racingline Remote Fill Kit)

Golf R and Audi S3 Fitment Note

Unfortunately for Audi 8V S3 and VW Mk7 Golf R owners, the MQB catch can kit from Racingline mounts the catch can where the filler neck for your washer fluid bottle would normally be.

The Racingline Remote Fill kit solves that issue by relocating the fill cap to the front panel of the vehicle. In addition, the anodized billet aluminum fill cap looks way better than the flimsy plastic piece that it replaces.

You can add the Racingline Remote Fill kit via the option above under the related products section.