[V8] V8 CV

[Professor GT gmail]

One of the things I have noticed, that indicates to me that the engineers were at least thinking of installing a proper PCV system, is the difference in the cam cover castings from the 1990 covers to the newer ones. 
There are bosses cast into the inside of the covers which should allow added baffling so that vapors can be drawn OUT of the head, thereby not taking excessive oil with it, instead of drawing it out of that poorly designed, half-baked "labyrinth".

The later model covers have a set of ribs cast through the area previously designed for a venting baffle, so obviously the idea was abandoned. 

My guess: The Germans were too stubborn to admit that an American designed PCV system could be superior to their abortion. 

When I worked for VW we (another colleague and I) discovered why the "new" 2.0L introduced in the New Beetle in 1998 was such a terrible oil consumer. For years, since its intro, and still today to my knowledge, AG has stuck their collective heads in the sand about this one, as they are not willing to admit their mistake. It's typical of the 20 year old management style they still cling to: it's not okay to make a mistake, and if you do you'll get crucified for it. This breeds engineers who will not take risks, and will never admit to shortcomings.

Today, smart companies know its okay to make mistakes (that how we learn), just don't keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and don't crucify folks when they do make a mistake!

Anyway, all VWs other engines had no oil consumption issues at the time, just the 2.0L. We found that the piston design of that engine is different: it does  NOT have the typical oil drain back ports at the back of the oil ring grooves! Instead there are 4 notches, 2 per side at the bottom of the oil ring groove tying the oil ring groove drainage to the flat area of the piston pin boss. What this means is that all the excess oil that the oil ring scrapes away must work it's way around to these notches, in order to drain back down the cylinder - NOT!

We concluded that this was just an extremely poor design, and set about to prove it, which we did. How? We took a set of these pistons and drilled them in the conventional manner. No more consumption!
When we reported this they had a hernia and demanded we stop. Well after buying back some vehicles for the THIRD time for oil consumption, we did what we had to do, to get customers handled.
So, I conclude that the V8 CV system is analogous to this school of thought: Problem, we got no problem! Had this been a higher volume model, my guess is they would not have been able to get away with the ostrich campaign they obviously played I'm this case.

We have the knowledge to deal with it though!

Thanks,

ProfessorGT
(Sent from my iPhone4)