[Vwdiesel] Hydraulic lifter question

Bart Wineland bwinelan at allegheny.edu
Mon Sep 30 11:39:20 EDT 2002


Hello:

I am pretty new to the list and this is my first post, so first off let me
say thanks to everyone for the good info I have picked up. I am
learning.  I have a '89 Jetta n/a. When I bought it a few months ago it was
clear it would need a overhaul or a engine replacement. I'll spare the
gruesome details but I ended up buying a rebuilt (I know that is a very
broad term) hydraulic '86 engine from a fellow. He indicated when I picked
up the engine on one of his tests runs it ran a bit rough and he was
concerned that one of the new hydraulic lifters might not be pumping up.
Later he said it smoothed out nicely and was ok after that.  I installed it
and once when I was test running it I saw what he described. I drove it for
a week and a half and pretty much figured it had worked itself out and was
fine. Now it is back. The majority of the time when I start it cold it runs
pretty rough for the first couple miles and throws quite a bit of black
smoke but eventually smooths out fine. After it sits awhile it may or may
not do it until it gets cold then it pretty much always does it.  While
talking to a guy yesterday at a VW show he said even with a collapsed
lifter it should run ok but would be very noisy. He said the hydraulic part
of the lifters really only acts as a shock absorber to the valve stems but
even collapsed would have plenty of lift??  Curious if anyone can offer an
opinion?  That kind of conflicts with what I thought I understood about
hydraulic lifters. I am in N.W. PA and coincidentally the weather is
starting to turn cooler so not sure if it may just be related to that?  I
am using the cold start all the way out in the mornings but have tried it
in also and it still runs rough.

Thanks much,

Bart




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