Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 09:08:13 -0400
Reply-To: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Organization: Bulley-Hewlett
Subject: Re: 85 Vanagon Blowing Smoke
In-Reply-To: <003501c25981$52498b80$c4442341@cfl.rr.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Head gasket. Tear down rebuild.
Pocket guide to smoke:
Plentiful (James Bond) white smoke which dissipates = steam = water =
head gasket
Very little white smoke & water for first 10 minutes = normal
condensation burn-off
Grey-blue acrid smoke which lingers = oil = rings/valves
Black Smoke = Fuel (rich) Fuel system
Black smoke w/flames = fire
Red Smoke = Glenda, Good witch of the East
Green Smoke = Wicked witch of the West
Developing business and guiding change since 1996,
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Marketing & Communications
Business: www.bulley-hewlett.com
AIM = IExplain4u
Phone: +1.919.658.1278
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Curt Lewis
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 6:52 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: 85 Vanagon Blowing Smoke
Hello everyone! New Vanagon owner here! My wife and I are the proud
owner
of a 1985 Vanagon GL, 184,330 miles, slight surface rust, interior in
fair
to good condition, and it runs - just not real well. And we got one
heck of
a good deal for it, at least we think so. Also, the heads do not
leak!!!!
Basically a perfect 1st time project vehicle for me.
I have a couple of questions, the most important to me right now being
the
engine. I haven't received my Bentley's manual, but it is on its way
and
should be here in a few days. Also, I did do a search on the newsgroup
but
didn't see anything pertaining to this problem. I must admit I didn't
read
every hit that the search found.
The engine. It starts up billowing huge, HUGE amounts of white smoke
and
does not idle until driven around the block a couple of three time.
Once it
does warm up and will idle, the smoke pretty much disappears, from what
I
can tell. The compression tests for the cylinders are as follows:
#1 120 psi, #2 140, #3 140 and #4 180. The Chilton manual I referenced
gave
the specs for compression at 116 - 189 psi.
I'm thinking that even though I have good compression, or fairly good
except
for #1, but billowing all the smoke is that the rings are worn. Any
thoughts? Do I need to do just a top end or full blown overhaul.
As far as idling rough, I saw a picture of an engine from a van being
sold
on eBay and noticed that the way my fuel lines are run, particullarly
from
the fuel filter, to various places are not exactly the way it was shown
in
the picture. I'm pretty sure that mine is jerry-rigged all to hell.
But
that is for another discussion and can wait until the Bentley manual
comes
in. I don't want to try and describe the routings since I don't know
the
name of all the pieces parts yet. Kind of hard to visualize when all
the
parts are described as the thing-a-ma-bob is connected to the do-hickey.
And I'm sure there are other considerations to what is causing rough
idle.
Sorry for the long email. I will try to keep future ones down to the
bare
minimum.
Thanks -- Curt
