not sure if anyone remembers this thread anyway quick update:- the cars been stood at work for 6 months ish and i haven't touched it up until today, i was planning on attempting a 16v conversion, but i've been mulling over what the hell could be wrong with this one. with the oil control rings theory i've been thinking, is it more likely that not all of the pistons would have their rings stick?? the thing is when i removed the head the previous time all 8 valves were black. i'm just wondering does this point to the head being incorrectly torqued initially, as it would be rare for the rings on all four pistons to stick?? whats got me thinking is i started her up today and she started first time, needed a bit of help on the accelerator at first but was idled at around 1200, bit lumpy but it does have the piper 285 cam in it. some white smoke out of the exhaust but nothing major. so i ran it for 30 mins at 2.8k, it didn't use a drop of water and was still a little smokey. where i work has a large airfield with various perry tracks and roads etc that are dead on a sunday so i took it out for a good blat. it pinks a bit but it really shifts and pulls all the way to the red line, i drove it hard for another 30mins doing around 20 miles. then wen't back to work stopped and it appeared to have cleared when i got back, brilliant right?!?! i then parked the car up with the engine running on a pretty steep incline hill to talk to a mate, to say hey looks like its cleared!! it then started smoking again[:^(] [:^(] when i parked it back on a flatish area its still smoking??? its really weird with the bonnet up there is smoke rising up from the back of the engine, there is also a tiny amount coming out of where the stereo should be in the dash plus the stuff out of the exhaust i really thought it had cleared there for a min could it be somehow that the oil/**** that is in the exhaust is still partly liquid and that when i've parked on the hill some of it has run forward again and started smoking?? (clutching at straws here ) the exhaust isn't brilliantly fitted either tbh, i could only get the car on axle stands when i fitted it so its not the best, also the the downpipe to exhaust does not have a d clamp on it, its just push fitted with sealant on it, could this be giving me the smoke at the egine rear and dash?? any other advice or direction you think i should go in?? if you've read this far i really appreciate it, thanks for your time Chris
I'd put an exhaust clamp on it anyway, for the sake of 2 or 3 quid. Otherwise you might need a whole new exhaust if it falls off. I read a couple of the earlier posts... did you ever re-torque the head with new bolts? I've had bolts go very soft on me, and changed them for some other ones (bought from vwspares.co.uk) which were fine. It's hard to say what the smoke is, but it's pretty easy to spill some oil on the exhaust or block, which would start to smoke when it got hot. I'd suspect that your engine bay smoke might well be this type. How much smoke are you getting at tickover, from the exhaust?
after the first attempt, i had the head reskimmed, fitted it with new headgasket and new febi head bolts, followed the torque sequence to the letter. ref the exhaust i only slaved it on so i could move the car tbh, if all had been well i would of taken it to an exhaust specialist so they could get it all lined up properly, but the smoke started so it never happened at idle before i parked on the hill it seemed fine, now there's a fair bit coming out. just not sure whether to cut my losses and get another engine cheers for the reply mate Chris
It's not got the wrong dipstick/tube in it or anything? My mate MarkD had a Mk2 that smoked like a train, horrible thing. Turned out he had what I think was a 2E dipstick in it (in a PB) and so it was horribly overfilled with oil. When you were thrashing it and the smoke cleared it would have been pumping any overfilled oil all round the engine, then when you parked up it would have all come back down into the sump and smoked again. I'd drain the oil to the minimum level, then thrash it and see what happens. Otherwise, I think that given the price of a new gasket set, possible skim, maybe the block decking, and still being unsure, I'd just pick up another engine for 75 and whack it in and be happy!
i changed the dipstick tube over from the dx to the 3a as i'd changed the sump and oil pick up over too would this be right?? could be worth me draining it and seeing how much is in there, would i go on what a dx holds or the 3a though?? the head is p+p'd so want to keep hold of that if poss, if i took it off would it be worth getting it pressure checked incase i have a crack or something somewhere?? thought about it before fit but cost put me off the other thing is i have an ashley steel manifold on there and it seems about right height with the 3a, if i have to get a tall block i'm not sure if i'll run into clerance issues?? cheers for the reply mate much appreciated Chris
I don't know what length the dipsticks or tubes are between engines, but try draining oil until it gives you a low oil pressure bleep, then switch it off and add a litre. That would get you in the right range, at least. Then run it until it is really hot, take it for a good hard run, and see if it still smokes. It could be the same as Mark's - his uncle wondered why it needed 6 litres of oil, lol.
Clean it up first and check it for cracks by eye, no point paying for something you can do yourself! Don't worry about tiny cracks between the valves, it's very common. Then is your choice as to whether or not to pay to have it tested - how much do they want to charge?
iirc it was around 90 quid. didn't have time to drain the oil etc today but did notice that it had used some since yesterday. it was on the max when i started yesterday but is now on the min, so this could prove your theory of it being overfilled, or in a worse case scenario what could this be?? theres a ultrasonic bath at work, so i'll bite the bullet and whip the head off and bang it in there should clean it right up. cheers for the help mate Chris
There's a man in a shed could get your head pressure tested for a lot less than that (I think 40ish quid was the number he mentioned). However, you'll also need to shell out for another set of bolts and a head gasket. The man also tells me that it's very rare to get serious cracking/porosity problems in a VW 8v head. In fact he said he'd never seen one that failed internally, without being obvious on the outside. I'd leave the head on for now, and do as TSC suggests on the oil front. You could always drain it out into a clean container, and see how much there is. Should be about 3.5 litres if you don't take the filter off. Probably a little bit less to allow for dregs left in the engine. Do you know how much oil you put in when you filled it up?
Oh yeah, and what's all this tosh about exhaust specialists? You fit an engine but don't trust yourself with an exhaust??
its not that, its just i was sick of getting crud in my face lying with the bottom of the car only a couple of inches above my conk, as i could only get it that high on axle stands. bloody coilovers, they look good but are crap for getting under the car! so for the sake if 20 quid i thought i'd get someone with a ramp to sort it out for me i should have access to a ramp myself next month so should be able to sort myself. not sure how many times the head has previously been skimmed anyway, do you know the min size/height you can go to on them?? cheers again Chris
tbh i wish i'd just got a head with bigger valves off the man in the shed as at least i wouldn't be doubting it now. Chris
Once it's on axle stands, it doesn't make any difference how low the suspension is! Maybe you need bigger stands. I've changed plenty of exhausts with drive-on ramps or axle stands... wuss
Well if it's now on the min, keep a bottle of oil in the car and keep driving it - if you end up with an oil pressure light then it's not just the dipstick!
i suppose you're right it dodn't help that i seemed to get the exhaust paste just about everywhere but in the bleeding joins will try and take it out tomorrow and see how i get on, just don't want to get stopped by the on site police though with no mot or tax so when/if i get low oil pressure i'll hear a buzzer?? sorry to be a noob i disn't even realise there was one cheers again guys Chris
A red light at low revs, or a red light and a buzzer if you're over 2100rpm. If they come on, stop the engine straight away and throw some oil in. You quite often get an early warning on hard cornering/roundabouts, as the oil slops to one side away from the pickup.
There isn't really a strict minimum on an 8v, but the car will start pinking like mad if it's been over-skimmed.
hmmm, it was pinking under load hopefully it just needs the timing adjusting to bang on, i did set it up with a light though so it can't be far off. cheers Chris
You might need to knock the timing back a touch from standard - the head having been skimmed, combined with you putting 2 litres of mixture into combustion chambers sized for 1.8 litres will have upped the compression a bit.
