[Vwdiesel] turbo 1.6 or non turbo advice and oil burner

[Bart Wineland]

Hagar and all,

Some more background on my problem (hopefully not to much). My car is a '89 
na. Jetta I bought it knowing it needed an engine or a rebuild 2 years 
ago.  I wanted a VW diesel in the worst way and they are not easy to come 
by in my area (N.W. PA) so I bought a fixer upper because I found it.  I am 
not much of a mechanic and admit that up front but will try whatever I can. 
I signed up on this list before I even had the car to pick up what I could 
and I have had a ton of help and appreciate it all.  I pulled my original 
engine out and when I got the car and pulled the head found one of the 
precombustion plugs had come out of its seat and was hammered back in place 
almost sideways with a perfect impression beat into the top of the piston 
and top edge of the cylinder wall so that engine was destroyed. I started 
watching hi and low for a different engine and ended up buying a "rebuilt" 
off a fellow on e-bay. He delivered it 2/3 of the way to PA from NC.  I 
think for the most part the engine got new rings, hydraulic lifters, oil 
pump, valve job etc. but of course really have no idea what all was done to 
it. I installed it and all was great aside from some weird electrical 
problems that Loren solved (add heavy additional ground from battery to 
transmission).  It ran well for the first 18k miles. Late last summer I 
started having trouble with it running. If I started it and  tried to drive 
off right away it would die.  If I tried to restart it it would spin over 
wildly as if it had no compression. If I let it warm at an idle for several 
minutes before trying to drive off it would be fine. Eventually it got 
cooler in the mornings and it got worse and would start and idle for 2 
seconds then die. If I plugged in the oil pan heater for a while before 
starting it there was no problem. I ended up taking it to a 1 man VW shop. 
I told him what it was doing and he said he knew what it was. A valve of 
some sort in the oil pump was sticking with the cold heavy oil causing the 
oil pressure to spike very high overpumping the hydraulic lifters and 
holding the valves open until they would eventually bleed off again.  Warm 
oil no problem.  Sure enough he replaced the oil pump and all was better, 
except immediately after that it started smoking and using oil like crazy. 
About a qt. every 200 miles. I park on a concrete garage floor and it is 
not leaking (much.)  I can see the smoke most anytime in the rear view 
mirror but it is at it worst after the car has sat for awhile and is still 
warm and I jump in it with stop and go traffic. When I pull away after 
sitting at a light it will leave a large cloud of bluish white smoke. 
People hate following me. It seems to have as much power as it ever did, 
starts great even on 0 degree mornings all last winter. I don't know it if 
is just a coincidence that it started this right after the oil pump was 
replaced or if when the oil pressure was spiking enough to overpump the 
lifters if a seal could be damaged, or maybe while I was trying to drive it 
before getting it fixed maybe it was oil starving the rings and they got 
damaged?  Per Loren, Chuck, and Roger I checked my crankcase venting and 
replaced the old diaphragm pump with the rotary off my original engine.  I 
ordered a compression tester and hope it is here soon. They way it started 
all winter I want to say the compression must be ok but at this point I 
really don't want to say anything for sure.  I'll try the calling card test 
at the vc vent and get pump #'s etc.  I have been using Rotella T dino 
since I got it. Did not do anything for break in other than drive it easy 
and changed the original oil at 1k.
Additionally I should say mixed in between the blue/white smoke sessions 
now is much more black smoke when I load it down going up hills, so it 
basically smokes one color or another all the time.

thanks,

Bart



At 08:56 AM 7/10/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>My '89 Jetta with a "rebuilt" 1.6 na engine with 25k miles since I bought
>and installed is smoking blue and using a quart of oil every 200 miles
>Bart
>
>Bart --  it hard to troubleshoot by mail , but lets give it a try.
>
>Q :    Using or Loosing ?    --- check it out it may not all be burned.
>
>Q :    200 miles pr US quart ?  ---lots of idling ?
>
>Q :    Blue smoke ?  when warmed up ?   Blue smoke is normally a gasser word.
>
>Q :    Did you do the break in --?      Ring seating ?
>
>Loren and Doug Ferguson  are a good bet for help on this one.   Loren 
>mentioned the
>usual spots like valve seals  and so on   -----so I will only mention the 
>weird
>ones --like the fact that this type of engine brings oil from block to 
>head --through
>the head-gasket.(I prefer a line on the outside)-- a leak to cylinder is 
>not impossible.
>Glazed cylinders are a big problem ---ever since the oil with anti wear 
>additives were introduced.
>
>We all tend to go for perfection ----meaning a fine honing ---- too 
>fine.  Running it at too low
>a power for good seating of rings. Metal to metal contact is needed.
>Now I do the honing with a much coarser stone. And use straight oil 
>(mineral oil) for
>the break in.
>Then after all was done -and cylinders are glazed anyway -- it is time for 
>the Bon-Ami.
>
>Hagar.
>
>PS :   We all ?  yes us non mechanics.     And watch out for PO distortion
>of time and space.
>_______________________________________________
>Vwdiesel mailing list
>Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
>http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel