Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (March 2002, week 2)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Wed, 13 Mar 2002 07:55:39 -0500
Reply-To:     Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject:      Re: ENGINE FAILURE-could be caused by too lean air-fuel mixture
Comments: To: "Smola, Tony" <TSmola@TRIBUNE.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <23F66E6D73F4D31181C60004ACA369D7FB181F@ERD-LA-EXMB1>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Lean mixture causes corrosive oil? Good imagination! A lean mixture will only affect the oil if it is causing the rings to get so hot that the oil is getting burned. At that point, the engine will be suffering from a lean miss- fire. A lean miss-fire can possibly cause gas to get past the rings, especially on a cold engine. If the engine is running correctly and the catalyst is good, the CO after the Cat will be near 0. If measured before the Cat it is usually somewhere around .3 to .7 but this is because this is the best that the ECU can control it. A lean mixture can cause warped-burned valves and melted pistons. So will over-advancing the ignition timing. Over the years, I've have yet to see a WBX engine ever wear out the pistons, rings, or cylinders. Whenever they go bad, it has been a failure such as stuck rings from excessive deposits, excess heat, melted pistons from excess heat, or holes in the pistons from coolant getting into the combustion chamber. I don't recall how many miles you have on your engine but your compression readings indicate that you engine suffered what I'll call an "Event" that is bringing on the failure. Your advancing the timing has contributed to this event. One consideration with WBX is that under load, you can not hear it ping until the ping is really bad. At this point, engine damage is occurring.

Dennis

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Smola, Tony Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 1:26 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: ENGINE FAILURE-could be caused by too lean air-fuel mixture

A machine shop here in the San Fernando Valley says that if the CO is too low like .01-.05....something really low like that, you run the risk of too lean a fuel mixture, which could cause the pH of the oil to become corrosive and hurt the bearings. He did not notice any thrown rods on the 2.1L, but he said if there was a lean FI that the engines suffered from bearing failure, cracked heads between the seats...

So make sure your CO ( carbon monoxide) on your emissions is between 0.7 and 1.0..........

Malibu Tony 85' Westy 1.9L finding out lots of stuff about the motor and how to make it really last........anyone have any 1.9L bearings or a complete 2.1L w/ all the hardware?


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.