[Vwdiesel] What could be going on here?

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

> 82' Vanagon diesel (reg 1.6na) starts fine, drives up hill WITH CAP OFF OIL
>  FILLER, oil spews, red light comes on.  Vanagon diesel is OVERFILLED  with
>  oil, drives away seems ok.  Quits.  Oil every where, dripping from exhaust
>  pipe.  Won't start again.
>
>  I cant' imagine how oil could drip from the exhaust pipe.  A compression
>  check supposedly was done, 145 # all around, oil brings it up a bit.  A
>  broken timing belt would cause piston-valve crash and so leaking from the
>  head-- but oil out the exhaust?  It would be obvious too.
>
  Agreed with what Harmon said only compression should be more like
500 to 550!  145 is normal for a VW gas of that vintage so I'd overlooked
that at first!  :o  If it was overfilled then there's a good chance they also
used the wrong oil.  How long was it driven that way?  It's not likely the
crankcase is diluted with diesel since if any burns, most of it tends to
burn and all cylinders are equal.  If non burns, you can't crank it over
long enough to dilute the oil.
  Since ALL cylinders are that low (unless it's a type) I'd say the wrong
oil coked up the rings and they're stuck.  Some soaking might free them
up then fill it with synthetic oil and try to pull start it.  The synthetic
will
clean best as it also doesn't contribute to the problem.  All rings being
broken is possible but not as likely unless they were driving it hard and
it hadn't for a long time and had a carbon or metal ridge at the top  of the
cylinders.
  A good solvent/ATF/diesel/something soak and another compression
check is the cheapest way to start.  If that doesn't do it then it sounds
like disassembly time.
  An instance like this is what switched a die hard Castrol user friend of
mine.  His Subaru turbo did just this only it just smoked heavily and still
ran.  The rings were carboned all the way in.
     Loren