EGR/CCV delete

I've been watching videos of people cleaning their intakes because they are caked with soot. I'm considering deleting the egr to mitigate this. From what I have been reading it doesn't make for a happy car in cold weather. My question is how cold are we talking? Average temps are in the mid 40s but we ocassionally get down in the low 30s kissing the 20s on a very rare ocassion. Wondering how this would affect me?

Second is I am going to add a catch can to help keep the intake/turbo clean. Can I run it in place of the CCV or should it be in line with it?

There was a hack to program the EGR valve for less operation.
Try searching for it here.
With less recirculate the intake stays cleaner.
Also you don't violate the law's about this.
The catch can should be better.
Not sure if deleting the CCV would be easier or not.

Get a dynamic EGR tune that shuts the EGR off after the car warms up a bit. That's what I have and I don't foresee needing to clean my intake manifold again... or for 200k+ miles.

The CCV isn't what soots up a turbo... it's the exhaust with the soot in it, which is inherent with a diesel.

My goal with the CCV is to keep the oil out of the intake. The top of my motor was covered in oil because the line on the CCV was loose. I tightened it up so the mess is gone but now it's flowing into the intake.

Where can I get the egr tune?

So I would have to buy the tuner and the tune/add ons or do I have to send my ecm in to have it coded?

Homebrew01 said:

So I would have to buy the tuner and the tune/add ons or do I have to send my ecm in to have it coded?

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Find a person local to you with tuning hardware and they can write the tune in a half hour or so.

There will always be a small amount of oil bypass into the intake on a turbocharged vehicle.

Don't KNEE-JERK!

Most of the clogging is the result of MANY years, years which also included heavy sulfur fuels and less forgiving oils. Driving style also has a LOT to do with it.

There are people on these forums that have a lot of miles and have never had to clean their EGR valve and intakes: one person is one of the highest of high gurus.

If you're looking to totally eliminate ALL oil from your intake then you're going to have to remove/disable your turbo. Turbos pass oil (of course, healthy ones don't pass much, but if the goal is to eliminate ALL oil then that doesn't matter).

ULSD - check!
Improved oil - check!

How to mitigate:
1. Clean everything.
2. Periodic spirited driving such that you push some good boost will help push through oil.
3. Make sure engine gets ample time at full operating temperature. (short-tripping is not good- this is true for all ICE engines).
4. Get a tune that reduces EGR function, such as Malone's Dynamic EGR.

All of those above things are things that I've done (on two of my cars). My car came to me with 114k miles and it was severely clogged (mostly city driven, by a woman). I now have 168k miles and I have zero reason to even check to see how things are holding up: performance is great, starting is great, FE continues to give me 50mpg+ (3 year average is over 50mpg). At 153k miles (we got it with 143k miles) the wife's car's EGR and intake were pretty clogged as well but performance was still very good (and FE was good). It's now got 208k miles and it's doing the same as my car. I fully expect to never have to clean the EGR valve or the intake on either car, ever again. Keep in mind that, with the wife's car, it went 16 years and 150k miles (and performance was still fine).

Tweaking the EGR via Adaptaion (VCDS) doesn't work. There's a thread around that goes into all of this. ECU really needs to be programmed to do it correctly: one can get a tune for this or have it included in a performance tune (that's what I have on my three Golfs - two other MKIV TDIs in the family are also setup this way).

I second what UhOh said. You will loose some fuel economy until the car fully warms up.

If you look around a bit here on the site, you'll eventually come across people doing CCV filter modifications.

One that I saw and liked the general design of is using a strainer from a farm/ranch type of store, as shown in this thread: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=1797671&postcount=9

To answer your temp question... my boy's Golf has an EGR delete and has no problems running below zero. The car warms up in a decent amount of time. I've had the best luck keeping the rpms in the low 2's those first few miles until it warms up.

IMO, a skid plate/side skirts are a bigger factor in warm up time than EGR. I've got 3 cars without plates that have each configuration (EGR intact/functioning, tuned out and deleted) and they all warm up about the same. My car with under/side protection has EGR tuned out and it warms up significantly faster than the others. I also have tried the foam blockers on the bumper inserts - it helps somewhat.

oh yeah - the best way for quick warm up... get a Frostheater. Love those things.

Prairie Chicken said:

To answer your temp question... my boy's Golf has an EGR delete and has no problems running below zero. The car warms up in a decent amount of time. I've had the best luck keeping the rpms in the low 2's those first few miles until it warms up.

IMO, a skid plate/side skirts are a bigger factor in warm up time than EGR. I've got 3 cars without plates that have each configuration (EGR intact/functioning, tuned out and deleted) and they all warm up about the same. My car with under/side protection has EGR tuned out and it warms up significantly faster than the others. I also have tried the foam blockers on the bumper inserts - it helps somewhat.

oh yeah - the best way for quick warm up... get a Frostheater. Love those things.

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I run my Jetta in the high 2s until it warms up. I start every morning with a Frostheater... I also have the factory VW grill block, double coroplast blocked radiator, and a 2.0 intercooler vent block. I change my shifting habits to let the car idle instead of engine braking as well. I can't imagine not having the help of the EGR to warm the car up.

We may be a unique case in MN where we have had weeks of -0F high temperatures, though.

I have all the skirts on mine. The car starts easily (39 degrees coldest its been since I have owned it) I normally start it and drive it to the local 711 to get my morning cup about a mile away. I leave it running while I am inside and by the time I come back out it is at temperature.

Never heard of engine braking vs idling... I idle whenever possible so I guess I'm good to go there.

djrhetoric said:

I change my shifting habits to let the car idle instead of engine braking as well.

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Are you saying that you pop into neutral so that the engine runs rather than down-shifting and off the accelerator? (see below for why this would make sense)

In case folks weren't aware of it (it took me a while before I accepted it), above 1,200 rpm and let off the accelerator means ZERO fueling: I have proved this to myself using VCDS. Not burning fuel means less heat produced.

Yep! No fueling coasting in gear...

The coast from the top of Smoky Mountains at New Found Gap to the north toward Gatlinburg is several miles. The Temp Gauge will actually drop down to about 100F (analog gauge, ALH in my Vanagon) while I coast off that mountain in gear. And, of course Scan Gauge shows 9999 MPG.

My 2000 Jetta temp gauge does basically the same on a short 2 mile coast on a hill nearby where I live, especially on a freezing cold day!

Never understood why low SULFUR content in fuel would result in less CARBON in the intake from the EGR.

UhOh said:

Are you saying that you pop into neutral so that the engine runs rather than down-shifting and off the accelerator?

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Correct! Great description of why this helps with heat, by the way!

KLXD said:

Never understood why low SULFUR content in fuel would result in less CARBON in the intake from the EGR.

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Might be a bit overblown, but, pardon the pun, blowby might have some to do with it.

Oil plays the biggest role. Less ash content in newer oils: better able to deal with heat such that it doesn't coke up and stick?

completely delete the EGR nonsense and "elephant hose" the CCV, meaning vent to the atmosphere. Just run a hose from it down to the bottom of the engine. I've used a heater hose going on 4-5 years. My intake is nearly bone dry other than what little gets past the turbo. The vacuum pump vents to the crankcase so that adds extra vapor in the crankcase

PGM jetta said:

completely delete the EGR nonsense and "elephant hose" the CCV, meaning vent to the atmosphere. Just run a hose from it down to the bottom of the engine. I've used a heater hose going on 4-5 years. My intake is nearly bone dry other than what little gets past the turbo. The vacuum pump vents to the crankcase so that adds extra vapor in the crankcase

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There are actual emissions checks in some places. Further, just because someone can do something that doesn't mean that they should.

I'm fully EGR equipped and I've got zero issues (and I'm not dumping excess pollutants into the environment either).

UhOh said:

There are actual emissions checks in some places. Further, just because someone can do something that doesn't mean that they should.

I'm fully EGR equipped and I've got zero issues (and I'm not dumping excess pollutants into the environment either).

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Same. There are ways to tune this or for it to just work like designed.