Date:         Wed, 12 Sep 2001 11:08:32 -0500
Reply-To:     jmileham <jmileham@BLUE.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         jmileham <jmileham@BLUE.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU>
Subject:      1.6L Diesel Blow-by
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Hi Volks,

Sorry about all the questions...  A sincere thanks in advance though,
seriously!!!

Just wanted some opinions on some diesel blow-by I'm having.  FYI, I've been
driving the Westy for about 800 miles - which included some pretty good
inclines (the pass on the west side of Chatanooga on I24 for example), some
decent hills (most of TN, KY and southern IN; along w/ a couple hundred miles
of flat land (northern IN).  All of my driving has been tender, and I've been
careful to vary the top speed (anywhere from 40 to 55 at the very top-end).
I'm not over-revving this thing by any means - and top speed averaged about
45mph, much to the dismay of every driver that encountered my smoking
gemstone.

The bottom end has 64K on it, and a new head was installed about 1K ago.  FYI,
the guy who did it (apparantly) cut every corner possible....  (To date - he
didn't use pressurized tubing between the injectors - he didn't use VW heat
shields on the injectors - and he didn't even torque the injectors anywhere
close to correct...)  I shudder to think what else is out of spec., but I'm
sure I'll be finding out shortly.  At this point, I'll probably tear the whole
thing down sometime this winter, but for the time being, I'd just like to get
her home w/ the least amount of wear and tear possible.

Sorry to be so long winded - my question is this.  I'm getting a pretty fair
amount of blow-by - the worst seemed to be in the mountains, although I won't
know for sure until I clean the back of "Allie" up today and see what deposits
from this point on.  Anyway - what kind of visible exhaust should I expect w/
this vehicle?  Is it normal to get some speckling on the back door?  Is it
normal to see some exhaust fumes in the oncoming headlights of traffic in the
rear view mirror at night?  (I used to see this in my Rabbit diesel, but not
until about 100K after the rebuild.....)  FYI, can't see much in the daytime,
but I realize this means little as I can't see the first several feet behind
the van....  Or, could much of this be attributed to the combination of diesel
and oil that's accumulated on the pan beneath the engine - at least part of
which is probably a result of the previous blown engine.

So is this a fatal thing, or could it be as simple as the timing isn't dialed
in correctly.  (It doesn't start right up at (or near) the first crank, like I
know they should.)

One other thing of possible relation.  The guy who rebuilt this used brass
washers as heat shields, and they're about half the thickness of the regular
heat shield.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get two of them out - so I just put
the new heat shields in over them.  (Believe me, I spent about 4 hours trying
to get them out too!!!!)  My guess is that this is certainly contributing
here, but I question how much.

Sorry about the long post, thanks for reading and for any input.

Regards, John

'82 Wet Westy named Allie