John Rodgers wrote: > White = possibly water/coolant getting into cylinder. But other symptom > would be present.- like missing. Also, white smoke when the engine is first started, especially on cold days, is normal. It's caused by the water vapor normally created when gasoline is combusted, the additional water vapor created in the catalytic converter, and condensation in the exhaust. If you have water getting into the cylinders you'd see white smoke all the time. You might also have foamy oil (from the coolant getting into it) and the spark plug on the affected cylinder might look unusually clean ('cause it's getting steam-cleaned!) And you might have an oil slick floating on your coolant. It's perfectly possible, though, for an engine to blow a small amount of combustion gas into the coolant without a noticable amount going the other way. I think you should have the cooling system pressure tested. If that doesn't turn up any problems, test for combustion gases in the coolant. There was a recent case on the list where someone had a combustion gas leak to the water jacket, but it only opened under combustion pressure and didn't show up on a leakdown test. -- David Brodbeck, N8SRE '82 VW Diesel Westfalia '94 Honda Civic Si -- For Sale '86 Volvo 240DL wagon |
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Vanagon mail messages have been archived.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.