MK7 2.0TDI oil pan upgrade options?

_Blade_

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2016
Location
Bucharest
TDI
2.0TDI DSG Golf MK7 (Stage 1)
I run a stage 1 tune and a Milltek cat-back exhaust on my 2.0TDI DSG, harvesting 205whp and 424NM on a SuperFlow WinDyn. Today was the first day that i was able to push it hard on the highway and I noticed that when flooring it and keeping it there, my oil temp gets from 100C to 120C in about 1min.When stock, the car would not pass 116C when worked hard. Obviously I panicked a bit, did not want to push it harder to see if and where the oil temp would stabilize,but by the looks of it it would still be climbing if i did not ease on the throttle. So I let it coast to a lower safe speed to cool the oil.The temp dropped back to 100C within a few minutes and stays at 98-99 under light loads. This does not work well for me given the fact that i have mountainous regions in my country and a lot of trips will involve climbing hills with the boot fully loaded.
I think that my oil cooling capabilities are unable to handle this amount of power in a safe manner.Before thinking about oil coolers and stuff, I noticed that my oil pan is plastic (cheap VW engineering), so i found a nice aftermarket upgrade from Wortec. It is made of cast aluminum and has nice cooling fins around it.They say it will lower your oil temps by about 10-15C and add an extra liter of oil to it which is absolutely perfect .The downside is that it is for the GTI and R. I looked at some pictures on the internet and it seems by the looks of it that the OEM oil pans are the same size and shape for both the 2.0TDI and 2.0TSI engines.Can anyone confirm this, or does anyone else have any other suggestions how to increase the oil cooling capabilities. There are plenty of Stage 1 TDI by now, did any one else noticed these increased oil temps under heavy loading? It's almost winter now and i hate to see the oil temps climb even more in hot season.
This is a real show stopper for me, as i have a GTD1449VZ turbo from a rear ended GTD along with it's better injectors and ECU to copy the software from.Now i'm holding off on installing it until i can get the oil temps steady within optimal values.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
I wouldn't start worrying until oil temps reach 140*C.
 

[486]

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 1, 2014
Location
MN
TDI
02 golf ALH
added thermal mass won't change your oil temp rising when you get on the go pedal
don't be a wuss about it, the oil channels in your pistons are probably 250 deg C, the sump temperature doesn't really affect that, it goes through the pump, the cooler, then the filter, then the galleries, note the cooler bit, oil's at coolant temp when it goes out the piston squirters

run synthetic oil like you should and ignore the gauges like you should
 

adjat84th

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
TDI
'01 Jetta TDI/'15 Golf TDI
The oil pan has a plastic cover on it, the pan itself is not plastic. If you want peace of mind for the oil, send it out for an oil analysis when you change it.
 

_Blade_

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2016
Location
Bucharest
TDI
2.0TDI DSG Golf MK7 (Stage 1)
great, thanks for your comments; they are really helpful; i will give it another go tomorrow night on the highway.

Isn't 140C a bit too high? At what oil temp will the car go into limp mode?
My oil service intervals have been at every 30.000km as per the manual with 5W-30 synthetic oil.what should my service intervals be now and should i switch to a thicker oil because of the higher temps?
 

adjat84th

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
TDI
'01 Jetta TDI/'15 Golf TDI
Get your oil tested. That will tell you if you need to switch oil weights or shorten intervals, which you likely are just fine. A downpipe would help reduce EGTs and I imagine oil temp would follow a similar pattern as it did on my car, though very little. For what it's worth, I've got a "stage 2" tune with downpipe and no muffler running 15k mile (24k km) intervals with my oil and that's beyond our US manuals recommendation of 10k. Also, that GTD turbo will flow better and would help to lower EGTs even more.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
140*C might be a bit high for sustained continuous hours of operation. But the good synthetic oils we use are designed to give good protection at temps over 150*C/300*F for quite awhile. I would personally lift off the go pedal around 150*C.
 

_Blade_

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2016
Location
Bucharest
TDI
2.0TDI DSG Golf MK7 (Stage 1)
Did another test run on the highway the other night. The oil temp in the sump climbed quickly (~ 2 mins) and stabilized at 132*C @ 220km/h in 6th gear @ 4000rpm, outside temp 9.5*C with throttle position around 60%. I kept it like that for about 5 mins, no errors and the engine sounded like it was running fine. Funny thing is that when i cut the throttle the oil temperature increases by a few degrees an then it starts to cool down. The same happens on lower speeds as well. I don't understand why.
Anyway, i don't feel comfortable with these numbers. If it were July i imagine that these temps would have climbed higher. I'm considering additional oil cooling.The ideal case in theory would be to tap directly into the oil sump with a secondary oil circuit a radiator, a pump and a thermostat.That way i will not affect oil pressure in the main circuit in any way. I'm also considering going back to stock and do some extensive logging on the car, so i have a base line.
 
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