I don't remember if you have your breather hooked up to the intake. In this thread, Gizmoman found that hooking to the intake for positive crankcase ventilation reduced oil leaks.
http://vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php/topic,37269.0.html If your crank vent is not hooked to your intake between air filter and turbo, you might find that connecting it in that manner will eliminate the oil puking. Andybees on TDI club/Samba installed an evac fitting into the exhaust for positive crank venting that doesn't route to the intake. That might be another option.
I've been venting to a catch can, and indeed I have wondered if this is the problem. The can is mounted in the back of the engine bay (in the corner opposite the oil filter), and so the hose has to bend 180 degrees. It's long enough that it doesn't kink, but I think the bend creates a restriction. Also, the fittings on my can may be restrictive. I never actually get oil in the can, and tried disconnecting the hose and running it straight out and to the front of the motor. It will be interesting to see if this solves the problem.
It might not be too much trouble to create a fitting to an intake pipe -- I have a Donaldson filter mounted above my transmission, so there's a long run with both silicone hose and aluminum pipe. I could maybe make a steel section and weld in a bung. Or I could cut a hole in the silicone and attach a section of hose with RTV . . .
And I can keep my catch can in the system to keep oil out of my intercooler. (Although, again, I've never had to empty the can.)
Just to be clear, if running to the intake, the connection needs to go after the air filter but before the inlet to the turbo compressor. You should also have all of the crank vent run through one of the hockey pucks. Bypassing the hockey puck increases the risk of engine runaway even on a healthy engine.
Right, thanks for the clarification. I do have the puck. And I was thinking about connecting it to the pipe that runs to my air filter (between the filter and turbo), which has both aluminum and silicone sections. Or, it might actually be easiest to make a hole in my filter canister, which is plastic (again, keeping in mind that it should be after the filter).
It was a rare problem until recently -- I think made worse because I'm running higher boost. After disconnecting my catch can today I drove quite a bit and have not seen oil. It's a shame -- the catch can is a nice, solid aluminum unit, but I think it is at least part of the problem. However, I'll bet if I connect one end of the line to my intake, the vacuum on the intake will more than make up for the restrictions of the can.
Since I haven't been seeing any oil in my catch can, I may run it with a disconnected hose for awhile and see if that fixes it.
Also, I fitted my boost controller -- now it seems max psi is 18. But I only reach that in very short bursts, with heavy acceleration.
And with the timing adjustment, I am seeing I think a little more smoke and higher EGTs. At full throttle I triggered my alarm at 1350, but just for a very brief moment. My gauge seems to react very fast -- as fast as my boost gauge -- and if I push it hard, both will jump up to what I would think is approaching the margins of safety. I've only done a few brief highway runs, but I think I'm seeing around 1000 f and 10 psi at 75 mph (top speed seems way beyond this, but over 70 I feel like I'm crashing into the air). I'm afraid the aerodynamics of these rigs limits the reasonable top speed to around 75.