Hello

So another oil problem with my MK3 VRS TDI. A year and a half ago I completely rebuilt my engine. I had the typical oil consumption problem. My rings were shot. I have replaced everything there is to replace while doing the rings. The engine worked great and I made 40k+ km. but after 20k I noticed that the engine is oily so I blamed it on the PCV valve. This was not addressed at the time so I bought a new one. Before replacement I noticed from time to time a burning oil smell. I saw that some oil dripped down on the exhaust pipe so I quickly bought a new cover, gasket, bolts,... I took off the old one, cleaned everything and put the new one one, I applied some sealant because I wanted to be on the safe side. When assembling I tightened the first pair of injectors to spec (7Nm +270°) , when tightening to angle I ripped the threads from the head when I came to 180° (shocked, what the hell). So I disassembled everything, drilled the thread out and inserted a heli-coil, cleaned everything reapplied the seal and assembled everything back together but this time I didn't want to push my luck so I tightened the bolts 7Nm+180° (It seems to b e holding). Test drive was OK but after 50km I smelled the burning oil again so I took a look and the back of the cover is leaking again and the 1 cylinder exhaust header is oily. I'm out of ideas on what is happening. New cover and new gasket is leaking more than before. So I did some MacGyver **** and glued an aluminum L profile the whole length from the 1 cylinder to the 4th, so if any oil leaks from the cover it gets rerouted to the gearbox section. After 10km of test drive I took a look and the whole length it is oily and no burning oil smell so it is definitely coming from the head cover.

Any of you out there with a similar problem. For me it is interesting that the oil is only leaking on the backside, the front is bone dry. The leak is more or less always (even from before the change and before my rebuild always the corner (or a little to the right) of the 1 cylinder

 

Thanks

Stupid question: assume you used genuine cylinder head VAG product?  For things like this; I won't touch non-OEM hardware.

Edited 23 July, 20241 yr by varaderoguy

On 21/07/2024 at 18:18, TadyTheFish said:

Hello

So another oil problem with my MK3 VRS TDI. A year and a half ago I completely rebuilt my engine. I had the typical oil consumption problem. My rings were shot. I have replaced everything there is to replace while doing the rings. The engine worked great and I made 40k+ km. but after 20k I noticed that the engine is oily so I blamed it on the PCV valve. This was not addressed at the time so I bought a new one. Before replacement I noticed from time to time a burning oil smell. I saw that some oil dripped down on the exhaust pipe so I quickly bought a new cover, gasket, bolts,... I took off the old one, cleaned everything and put the new one one, I applied some sealant because I wanted to be on the safe side. When assembling I tightened the first pair of injectors to spec (7Nm +270°) , when tightening to angle I ripped the threads from the head when I came to 180° (shocked, what the hell). So I disassembled everything, drilled the thread out and inserted a heli-coil, cleaned everything reapplied the seal and assembled everything back together but this time I didn't want to push my luck so I tightened the bolts 7Nm+180° (It seems to b e holding). Test drive was OK but after 50km I smelled the burning oil again so I took a look and the back of the cover is leaking again and the 1 cylinder exhaust header is oily. I'm out of ideas on what is happening. New cover and new gasket is leaking more than before. So I did some MacGyver **** and glued an aluminum L profile the whole length from the 1 cylinder to the 4th, so if any oil leaks from the cover it gets rerouted to the gearbox section. After 10km of test drive I took a look and the whole length it is oily and no burning oil smell so it is definitely coming from the head cover.

Any of you out there with a similar problem. For me it is interesting that the oil is only leaking on the backside, the front is bone dry. The leak is more or less always (even from before the change and before my rebuild always the corner (or a little to the right) of the 1 cylinder

 

Thanks

Is this oil leakage from the camshaft cover gasket - or the cylinder head gasket?

Defenetly not the head gasket. Even if it was It can't drip on the exhause haders. I can see the top of the headers are oily. These engines have the head in 3 parts. On the cylinder you have the head it self and on the head you have the camshaft module and on top of that you have the valve cover that includes the PCV valve. I tought that maybe there is a leak between the head and the camshaft module, but i glued an aluminium L profile to the module so if it leaks between the head and the module I would still smell the oil, but if it leaks between the module and valve cover it would stop and the oil would accumulate in the L profile. And I do have oil acummulating there, so it must be the valve cover wich is new