Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 09:29:28 -0700
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Intermittent smoke after stop signal wait...
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEu+NAVzCxvyh2NLJNX5qhtfsnjMYmEhKJn8gLDH7PCFzNw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Added....When I said "stinky" that was misleading. I have never
actually smelled that cloud, since It is behind the van and I am
driving....I just used "stinky" because that is what it looks like it
should be, when viewed in my mirrors.... If I could smell it myself, maybe
I would know if it is gas or oil-smelling....I know it is not coolant,
since I have not added any coolant in almost a full year and I normally log
at least 20k miles or so each year...
On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 9:21 AM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:
> I sometimes see a nasty grey cloud of smoke from the exhaust of my 84.
> Digifant EMS on an inline VW motor. I am guessing it may be a faulty
> throttle switch that sometimes goes to 'full rich' for whatever reason. By
> intermittent I mean....When I go to town, perhaps 1 trip of four, this
> smoke shows up. It doesn't smoke at every signal....It may do so for two
> in a row, then no smoke at all the rest of the driving around. It
> sometimes even smokes breifly on start up, but very seldom...
>
> Here are the specifics of how this occurs and when: It normally happens
> in the city when I am stop and go driving or hitting traffic lights.
> Everything might be normal without any problem then I will roll up to a
> signal and idle there while the light cycles then as I leave, the van puffs
> out an embarrassing cloud of grayish exhaust smoke, lasting perhaps two
> seconds before the exhaust clears back up and is again invisible. I have
> also noticed that on start up, then coasting down a longer hill the exhaust
> will backfire....I do have an air leak in my exhaust system which probably
> allows air in to make the loud bang more likely...
>
> I see no smoke on long hill descents. Nothing when I redline the
> motor to 6000rpm. I don't burn much oil for a VW inline, but I do have a
> slight leak at my homemade filler when I park with the nose up on a steep
> incline...a quarter sized puddle below maybe.
>
> I think my throttle switch is NLA...I think it is the longish leaf
> springy looking type...It seems to click correctly with linkage movement
> and it clicks off when the throttle is closed...when I do it in the engine
> by hand...consistently and correctly..
>
> Anybody have any other ideas about this stinky cloud of smoke I sometime
> see? I hate puffing that into our air, though it's probably nothing
> compared to, say, a coal fired power plant...a minor 2-second visible
> exhaust puff a few times a week...
>
|