Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 20:20:02 -0800
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Shawn & Janis Wright" <vwnut@smuslabs.smus.bc.ca>
Subject: Re: 84 Westy Hydaulic Lifter problem
> >| One mechanic suggested that a mixture of transmission oil and
> >| regular oil run in the motor for a short period would refill the
> >| lifters.Any experience
> >| others may have had would be helpful.
>
> I had this happen on a trip after changing over to syn oil, scared the
> hell out of me as there had been no noise just two days before on a 90 miles
> trip up to Steven's Pass (trivia, where was I?). Just as we were about to
> leave for home, the engine starts tapping real loud but it doesn't go away
> after 10 minutes. I dug through the archives and found advice on adding ATF,
> so I let out some oil, dumped in about 1/2 a quart of Decron III and took a
> trip around the block. Less noise, then no noise... I let the car run a few
> more minutes for good measure and then went about changing the oil.
> When I crawled under to loosen the drain plug, I found loads of oil
> running down from the engine support. After a looking more investigation, I
> found th oil was coming from the seal where the crankshaft enters the block.
> I recently changed from reg oil to syn oil and so I hoped what I was seeing
> was just oil leaking from a seal which had not been wet/oiled? in a long
> time. So I set off on my trip home with another case of oil which proved
> unnecessary by the first gas stop.
> When I was looking over amsoil webpage, they mentioned one should
> not put load on the engine while their cleaning product has been added to the
> engine oil. My guess is that by doing anything more than idling the car, I
> raised the oil pressure high enough that in combination with seals that had
> been dry for a long time, allowed some of the oil to squeeze by... It cleared
> up the noise and everything seems ok now (though I must admit I am still a
> little scared that I killed the seal on the crankshaft)...
>
> dave
I'm confused by this - the sythetic (Amsoil?) caused increased lifter
noise AND seal leakage? I've heard of the leakage problem, but never
the increased lifter noise. My '88 saw immediate cure of lifter noise
upon switching to Mobil 1.
What's the explanation for the noise?
Shawn & Janis Wright
'88 Westy (338k) '85 Jetta TD (367k)
VWnut@smus.bc.ca (swright@smus.bc.ca)
http://www.islandnet.com/~swright/vw.html
| 
