Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:28:53 -0400
Reply-To: Wesley Pegden <wes@CS.UCHICAGO.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Wesley Pegden <wes@CS.UCHICAGO.EDU>
Subject: Re: White smoke? (UPDATE)
In-Reply-To: <46D1EEA2.2050702@cs.uchicago.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I forgot a potentially important piece of information.
I didn't wait for the engine to get up to operating temperature before
testing because I was worried of messing something up. I ran it for 20
seconds or so... it was smoking and dripping as before, and then tested
it. Could doing it with the engine "cold" be throwing my numbers way off?
Thanks as always,
Wes
Wesley Pegden wrote:
> Thanks guys for the responses.
>
> Just finished doing the compression test: 155 155 160 155.
> Here are my notes on the spark plugs:
> 1: oily black (ugh)
> 2: oily black (ugh)
> 3: nice looking tan
> 4: also tan (maybe a tad bit grayer than 3? hard to say).
>
> Still has all the symptoms as before. Out of the tailpipe, apart from
> white smoke I see now that it's dripping some grayish liquid---what I
> might guess to be a mixture of coolant with oil?.
>
> I'm guessing this van is in for some major engine work??
>
> Oh, and it sounds like one of the lifters is noisy after sitting for a
> while. Because of the other issues, I haven't run it to see how long it
> takes to quiet down.
>
> Here's the non-mechanical situation: We recently acquired our 83 westy,
> and so were planning on selling this (the 84 gl) to free up some cash.
> I had just started driving it regularly after 2 months of mostly sitting
> to make sure it was still in decent shape (guess not!). Before that it
> had been my daily driver.
>
> Anyways, bottom line is, since I'm mostly interested in converting the
> van into money, what repairs do people think are advisable? I obviously
> don't want to put $1000 dollars into getting this fixed. And if it's
> heads I need, I don't think I want to do that work myself. I guess I'm
> wondering what it's worth as it is or with repairs I would be willing to
> do (not dropping engine, and preferably not dismantling exhaust).
>
> Thanks very much for any help, guys...
> Wes
>
>
>
> John Rodgers wrote:
>
>> Wes,
>>
>> The "White Smoke" syndrome of the Vanagons is indicative of an
>> internal failure resulting coolant leaking into the cylinder - usually
>> a cracked head, but could be some other seal issue. Another
>> possibility is that you actually have a "Blue Smoke" syndrome. Unless
>> you are really familiar, they may look so similar as to look the
>> same. You need to have a compression test done immediately before
>> further driving, or you could cause a catastrophic engine failure,
>> resulting in so much damage that you cannot fix the problem at
>> reasonable cost, but will have to replace the engine completely. The
>> white smoke syndrome in my case was really a bluish smoke - but seen
>> at night it was difficult to tell. A hold burned through the piston,
>> scored the cylinder, destroyed the piston, over heated the head to the
>> point the head had a melt point on it and put metal all through the
>> engine.
>>
>> You have some thing major happening, and the compression test will
>> help isolate it an give you info on the direction to take for repair.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> John Rodgers
>> 88 GL Driver
>>
>> Wesley Pegden wrote:
>>
>>> My '84 1.9l started blowing white smoke a few weeks ago. I made it home
>>> mostly coasting (under a mile) and checked it out, the vacuum hoses were
>>> all shot (cracked, falling off, etc), I figured that was the problem.
>>> (It also was idling really erratically). Haven't driven it since then
>>> until today: I fixed the hoses finally, started it up, idles fine, drive
>>> it around the block, starts blowing smoke again halfway around. When I
>>> get back to where I was parked before (2 minutes later) it's idling
>>> badly.
>>>
>>> Ideas? Did I mess something up?
>>>
>>> Thanks very much!
>>> Wes
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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