So, I've decided to go back to the all-original setup. I repurchased everything that I had discarded the first time, including pulling a used air cleaner box and some tubing from a junk yard 300SD. My question is, this will put me right back facing the same problem I had in the first place. If I mount the air cleaner box in the rear threaded holes of the air cleaner bracket, the oil drain tube at the bottom fits in nicely, but everything else doesn't line up correctly (wide turbo inlet tube at the top is a half-inch away from where it should be, same thing with the fresh air tube coming from the front of the car), plus the air cleaner is barely a quarter inch from the firewall. If I mount the air cleaner in the forward non-threaded holes of the bracket, the air cleaner is a nice distance from the fire wall, the turbo inlet tube fits perfectly, the intake tube fits well, but the oil drain tube underneath does not fit. Am I to keep trying and make it fit? I don't want to break it. Am I not doing it right? Thanks guys - Mike

That's a nice looking intake system.


I'm more curious about your positve ground electrical system.

Bill; Not posground. I was in a position where I was desperate for a ground cable and could only find red in 4 ga. I labeled it "neg" and will replace it with 2 ga black cable soon. Probably this Winter while desperate for something to do.

I have ditched the factory air intake system and installed a underhood IC just above the stock turbo which left me a issue of what to do with the CC ventilation. I used a OM616 oil sep unit and vented it to a gatorade bottle filled with fishing line. Of course the bottom of the sep unit still drains to the oil sump. It takes over five years to fill the gatorade bottle to half full. I did find out that the car ran great until the 2500 rpm range when there was only very small holes in the gatorade bottle- it literally bottled up the vapor. When I greatly increased the hole size and number performance was regained. With a high restriction on the vapor the engine would suffer and mid to high rpm performance was greatly reduced. Your oil sep unit appears to be far too small. If you simply re route and vent it temporarily to the ground (with no oil sep unit) and performance is normal then you know you have found the issue.

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I was just razzing you. It definitely caught my attention though. I nearly ruined my wife's GTI a couple years ago. I had to use an older battery from my 240D to get her to work on time. I was in a rush and although the battery fit in the tray alright, the posts on the old battery were poorly marked and opposite to her battery. I reversed polarity on a modern vehicle that uses electronic modules to control everything from the intake flaps to the passengers vanity mirror. I lost my lunch but got lucky. I only blew the main, radio, and horn fuses. I felt like an idiot.