[Vwdiesel] Re: Did the Rabbit do it with you driving it---??? --"Runaway".

[Nate Wall]

<<<That's when I found the rusty rabbit up the road for $250, which I later
found contained a Volks Canada remanufactured turbo diesel in like new
condition.  I'm still driving that engine in the jetta at 450,000km and runs
perfect. No oil consumption, starts at unbelievable low temperatures, and runs
just fine>>>

Wow, what luck. My Jetta TD had POOR oil control from day one (when I bought it at
56,000 miles) at a quart in 750 miles. It lived that way 'til about 208,000 miles,
when it would not idle (missed on a cylinder) properly. A compression test
revealed just in spec compression on 3 cylinders and about 250 PSI on #4. So I
pulled the pistons to do a re-ring and hone. I pulled #4 first, pushed it out
while lying underneath the car. The top compression ring fell off as the piston
came out, and half of it hit me in the face! It was broken exactly mid-way around
its circumference. I figure at 56,000 miles it was broke too! But I never had a
runaway problem, had LOADS of blow-by but also had the baffle in the head. The
re-ringing lasted about 40,000 miles until oil consumption got to 1 qt. in 300
miles!

--Nate

Sandy Cameron wrote:

> At 04:26 PM 1/15/03 -0800, you wrote:
> >Mine had ONE broken ring as well---would you describe the car -----This one
> had about 62000 Km  on the odo.
> >I have dealers say -never heard  of it ! ---Capilano VW BC.-----and one
> mechanic here doubting my word --- LOL.Scary with no brakes and going
> downhill.----but for 300 dollars ???--hell I was laughing my head of  -----
> >
> >Thanks --Hagar.
>
> Mine is a 1987 Jetta turbo diesel. the original engine broke a ring in #4
> around 300,000km, and then the fun began. my son discovered it on a trip to
> toronto and thought he had blown up the engine until he hauled it down with
> the brakes, and then it was normal again.
>
> I didn't know about the broken ring until I took it out of the car, but I
> was suspicious that would be the problem. I drove it 2 years in that
> condition, with the "oil separator" until the "smoke-downs" became
> embarassing and it got too hard to start in cold weather.
>
> That's when I found the rusty rabbit up the road for $250, which I later
> found contained a Volks Canada remanufactured turbo diesel in like new
> condition.
> I'm still driving that engine in the jetta at 450,000km and runs perfect. No
> oil consumption, starts at unbelievable low temperatures, and runs just fine
> on canola oil (where can I buy that in 45 gal drums?)
>
> When I opened the old engine, it looked like the edge of the piston below
> the precombustion chamber had been eroded away, right down to the ring. Not
> sure if the ring was actually broken as I did not dismantle the short block,
> Gave it to Dominique in Guelph and he posted the tear-down on his web page.
>
> http://kozmik.guelph.on.ca/gtdproject/autopsy.htm
>
> The runaway thing was a significant problem for a lot of old volks (pun
> intended), and VW finally sold a baffle to fit under the valve cover of
> engines with excessive blow-by, to prevent the oil from getting into the vent.
>
> Sandy
>
> _______________________________________________
> vwdiesel mailing list
> vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel