[Vwdiesel] Blue smoke at startup?

[gary]

Shawn,
A car in storage is a terrible thing!

Seals get dry and shrink, hence oil leaks and such. Short of dropping
the oil pan to scrape out the sediment that has caked up over time in
storage, use an engine flush. The drivable kind(vs. the idle type). Then
get some really cheap oil and run the car for a week on the cheapo
stuff. Change. Another week. Change. A third week.  Then use a quality
synthetic. The synthetic will re-liven the seals(hopefully).

Drive it like you stole it to blow out any carbon.

-Gary in Orlando



On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 21:55, Shawn Wright wrote:
> I've noticed my new '85 Jetta D seems to be blowing blue smoke at cold
> startup lately, something which I didn't notice when test driving it a few
> weeks ago. I of course changed the oil when I got it, since the old oil had
> been in for an unknown length of time, probably more than a year. I used
> cheap Walmart 15w40 diesel oil and a Cdn Tire (FRAM... shudder...) filter
> just until I can fix the leak(s) and switch to something better. The head
> look pretty clean inside when I changed the VC. I've only driven it about
> 1500km since then, so it's hard to tell if it's actually burning oil, but the
> level has dropped maybe 1mm if at all.
> I'm assuming this blue at cold start is valve guides or seals - if so, is there
> anything I can do to improve it, or is it too late for that? Also, I noticed
> there is a fair bit of blowby, although probably no more than I've had on
> other diesels. I've never driven a diesel with less than 180k kms though,
> so I don't really know how much blowby is normal when they are new.
> Pretty hard to measure blowby I guess, or could I put a plastic bag over
> the outlet and time how long to fill it up at idle? Then maybe we could all
> compare :-)
>
> I'm wondering if there is anything I should do before switching to synthetic
> oil (I have some Amsoil 15w40 left), such as engine flush? This car has
> had a bit of unusual history - it drove 175k kms in the first 4 years, then
> another 50k in the next 4 years, then only 30k total during the next 11
> years! The owner spent 6-8 months out of the country, so it spent a lot of
> time sitting, likely with old oil in it. I don't know if this kind of history
> warrants any special treatment? It starts easily when cold, so I believe
> compression is ok. It also has had a new injection pump in the past 10
> years, according to the PO...
>
>
>
> --
> Shawn Wright
> http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
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