Well the plot thickens....really weird situation. Just swung by the shop and talked to them, some high strangeness indeed!
Firstly - engine is eat-off clean inside so thanks Liquimoly/M1/Quaker State/LM MoS2/LM Ceratec/LM Engine Flush and last but not least....HPL oil and engine cleaner!
So the root cause? Bolts that were holding the timing chain tensioner to the block both snapped causing the tension to become cattywampas and the spring broke (piece of in the oil pan). Can't believe I drove it for ~6 mos. this way including hard mountain hooning and over 40 runs down the drag strip. The loud noise on startup in April had to be it breaking. This caused rubbing in a few places which is clearly the source of the higher aluminum in my UOA and bits in the filter. The strangeness part now...1) the bolts that broke were not factory parts, they were v. lightweight aluminum and 2) there are paint marks all over for timing it...that is not how they come from the factory. Our guess is that since I bought this car new with about 50 miles on it that either at the factory or port something was wrong and it was re-timed and the bolts...who knows why they used those non-factory fasteners. I'll be writing VW a letter with all the pertinent details. She called the dealer and they had no records that I wasn't privy to. I'm incredibly lucky to not have to have a new engine. My shop is great. Should have back on Wednesday.
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