[Vwdiesel] Smoking valve cover

[Dan Sloan]

I've got an 84 Rabbit diesel that has apparently started leaking smoke (or
possibly exhaust?) out the valve cover...or at least it smokes rather
rhythmically...like its being pushed out under pressure.  I'll be replacing
the valve cover gasket, and adding an oil baffle this next week or so...any
suggestions about the smoke?  The car got noticeably louder, and abruptly
ran rougher this last week.  The louder I attributed to the snorkel
vibrating off and getting chewed up by the alternator fan, (another part on
order...) I suppose the rougher could be injectors or rings?  Any
suggestions on where to start? I've been using more oil lately, but most of
that was running down the front of the engine (out of the leaking valve
cover)  I normally go through a quart about every 40 gallons of fuel or so,
the odometer currently reads 134k, (though to be honest, the odometer didn't
work when I got the car...60k miles ago)

It was mentioned that before asking questions we should look at the
archives...any easy way to search them?  It looks like we have to manually
look at all the topics and guess which one(s) are relevant.

-- Dan Sloan
   Nevada, Iowa