Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 10:54:09 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: YIKE! Lost 3 qts oil in 30 sec, messy eng. compartment...
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.20000902120636.007dc3f0@pop.loop.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Hi gang,
Blew something in my diesel vanagon yesterday, and lost nearly all
our oil in just a few seconds, coating the engine compartment with
oil spray, and leaving a 200m trail of oil down the road in the
process.
I'm getting a tow truck over to the island here this afternoon, and
I'll have my mechanic on the mainland look at it and give me a
diagnosis. If any of you clever people want to take a stab at
guessing the problem, I'll post the names of the guessers with the
follow-up (if you want).
I'll post a follow-up on this when the problem has been identified.
Hopefully,the following description, when combined with the
follow-up, may help someone out in the future.
A description of the problem follows. (For the record, I'm hoping
it's a problem with--or related to--the oil cooler).
Vehicle:
--------
1982 vanagon westy, 1.6l NA DIESEL engine, <10K miles on engine
rebuild. Castrol GTX 20/50 dino oil, last oil and filter change 500
miles ago.
The failure:
------------
Following a cold start in 70 degree F ambient air temperature, drove
up a steep hill at moderate load (2nd gear @ 20 mph). During the
upshift to 3rd gear at the crest of the hill, oil light blinked on of
1/4 second, went out for a little less than 1 second, then came on
and stayed on. I turned off the engine less than 3 seconds after
first blink of oil light. No untoward engine noises were heard at
any point, although valve clatter was *perhaps* a little louder than
usual while the engine was shutting down. No bangs, clunks,
hammering, lurches, power loss, or any other "expensive" symptoms.
After rolling to a rest at the side of the road (less than 1/4 mile
from starting point), I saw the following:
- Dense trail of oil on road heading back over the crest of the hill
(walking back home later showed oil trail started about 50 yds from
my driveway, but without a pronounced starting splat or anything.
Volume of oil loss along trail appeared to start heavy and decrease
in volume only in last 1/3 of trail--coincides with decreasing
remaining oil volume just before oil pressure warning triggered?)
- Underside of engine area heavily dripping large volumes of oil.
Oil dripping from all over right side (FIF) of engine.
- Removing the engine compartment cover, entire right side (FIF) of
engine compartment heavily coated in oil, with spray concentrated to
forward portion of engine compartment. Appeared to indicate a high
pressure, high volume spray of oil.
- Hard to determine the source of oil with the engine not running and
given the copious oil everywhere, but my guess is oil was coming from
the oil filter area.
- Oil filter was still threaded firmly to oil cooler. Removing the
oil filter did not reveal any obvious splits in filter. Filter still
full of oil. Dipping my finger into filter, the oil did not feel
gritty or otherwise contaminated. Oil temp at failure could be
described as luke warm.
- No obvious holes in the case under filter area were visible.
- I did not not check oil level at the dipstick, as I had parked on a
steep downgrade and the dipstick reading would be wildly inaccurate.
- Left side of the engine compartment, and rear of engine (injection
pump, timing belt) completely unaffected by oil spray. One modest
sized drip on the alternator, one small spot on the battery.
History:
--------
Less than 10,000 miles on rebuild. Oil and filter changed every 3000
miles or less. Oil and filter changed less than 500 miles ago.
Bosch or Mann oil filters and Castrol GTX 20/50 oil used exclusively.
Engine has run smooth, strong, and cool since purchased last
February. No noticeable leaks in the filter area previously. Engine
has consumed little oil since purchase, averaging less than 1 litre
added between oil changes. Most of between-change oil loss due to
(likely) rear main seal leak, which lightly spots driveway, dirties
transmission/motor mating area, and speckles rear hatch with oil
droplets on highway speed drives. Engine will push bus to over 65
mph, and can cruise at 65 mph on level ground comfortably. I always
cruise no faster than 62 mph, usually a little slower. I never push
the bus up hills, preferring to fall back to either 38 mph in 3rd or
22 mph in 2nd to avoid labouring the motor. (Remember, this is a
diesel transmission, so gearing is lower than in gas-powered
vanagons).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi {. .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT 7,400 km ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/
|