new to the forum

[mhanahan]

Hi all, just thought I would introduce myself. My name is Mike, and I'm from the St. Louis, Missouri area. I've owned a lot of cars over the past few years. None of them have been all that "efficient" so this should be interesting. I went from a Trans Am to a Firebird 400, to an RX-7 Turbo, to an RX-7 convertible, to my current toy (for sale) - a Stealth R/T Twin Turbo.

VW diesels have always intrigued me, so I recently broke down and bought one. It's a 1986 Golf N/A Diesel I found semi-locally. Silver, four-door, 5-Speed, clean interior, hardly any rust - paid $400. The car will run, but it  takes a few minutes to start. It has some pretty nice blow-by (like having another exhaust out of the PCV)  :lol: . I'm planning on doing an engine rebuild sometime this upcoming spring. I would like to keep the stock pistons, so I guess I will just have the block bored and then sleeved at a speed shop.

Here are my questions:

- Where is the best place online to buy cylinder sleeves? Piston rings? Bearings?
- I assume replacing the timing belt and glow plugs while the engine is out are also good ideas?
- Should I replace the clutch also?
- Is it easy to remove just the engine in these cars, or do I have to pull the transmission also?
- What else might you recommend? I will try to read up on everything in the FAQ in the next few weeks (already looked a little).

Thanks!

[jtanguay]

you might as well remove the engine & tranny and then unbolt the tranny.  or you can unbolt the tranny and leave it (make sure something is holding it up in place) then remove the engine  just make sure to have it all supported.  you do NOT want to place engine weight on the transmission shaft.

www.dieselvw.com has some interesting stuff.  he sells sleeves and pistons as well as timing tools that you will need.  i dont think anyone here has bought his sleeves or pistons.  i've just purchased 4 injectors from him and am still awaiting their arrival.

the mileage will be night and day difference from what you've previously driven, but at the cost of performance (big time performance drop) but you will need to drive the diesel a little wee bit differently.  the harder you drive it, the more oil it will consume (unless running synthetic)

myke_w on this forum is a good source for parts like pistons/rings/bearings too.

if you aren't looking for too much added power, then the stock clutch should do fine.  they're a little bit pricey... hard to justify spending that much if it works just fine.

[Leumas]

I would wager that your starting problems could easily be resolved with new glow plugs.

I've bought more than one "hard to start" diesel VW from people who were told by their mechanics that the engine was hooped.  I replaced the glow plugs and had very few problems afterwards.

Before you tear the thing apart what is the mileage?  Have you checked compression?  Is it going thru a lot of oil?  There are other things that might contribute to your smoke problem.

The reason I say this is because my experience with these engines (especially the N/A's) is that they go for a really long time.  Once you get hooked on VW diesels you kind of become proud of your high miles.  It would almost be a shame to tear apart an engine that had a couple 100000 km's of service left on it.  

I'm new to the forum also so I can't help you with any sources for parts.  Being a long time vw diesel driver though I can tell you that you've got yourself a car that should provide a lot of worry free miles.

P.S.  I agree with Jtanguay you are definitely going from one extreme to the other on the performance scale  Watch out that 52hp might sneak up and bite you.

[KTZed]

Welcome! You'll love the diesel economy if your used to rotary's...RX7's are gasluts lol. My golf had horrible blowby with the original enigne and I just swapped it for a turbo...highly recommended!

[mhanahan]

Thanks for the replies. No, I haven't checked compression yet, I only have a gasoline compression tester. When the car runs, oil oozes out of the dipstick tube, unless I remove the PCV hose - which causes air to shoot out of it like a tractor exhaust, peppering the entire engine bay with oil.  :oops: I assume that generally means the piston rings are...not doing their job? The odometer went out at 114xxx, the guys seemed to think that the car was nearing 200xxx miles.

[Slave2School]

What is the oil type in the engine now?  Maybe the previous owner (who couldn't be bothered to fix the odo) also used gasser oil and the rings are coked up.

[mhanahan]

That really makes that much of a difference? I'm kind of new to diesels.

[Slave2School]

Yes, diesel oil keeps the soot suspended in the oil instead of making huge large clumping globs of soot collect everywhere.

[mhanahan]

Yes, diesel oil keeps the soot suspended in the oil instead of making huge large clumping globs of soot collect everywhere.

Meaning I could possibly change oil and glow plugs and have a good-running engine again? Are there any additives I can use to clean everything up? What brand/weight of oil do you recommend?

[shegel]

Before you tear the thing apart what is the mileage?  Have you checked compression?  Is it going thru a lot of oil?  There are other things that might contribute to your smoke problem.

like what????i have the same problem, but would rather not tear the engine apart if i dont have to.

[Leumas]

Thanks for the replies. No, I haven't checked compression yet, I only have a gasoline compression tester. When the car runs, oil oozes out of the dipstick tube, unless I remove the PCV hose - which causes air to shoot out of it like a tractor exhaust, peppering the entire engine bay with oil.  I assume that generally means the piston rings are...not doing their job? The odometer went out at 114xxx, the guys seemed to think that the car was nearing 200xxx miles.

Last time I looked the diesel comp testers are pricey.  There are some great links to parts and suppliers here on this site though so you might find something reasonable.

As for your engine it definitely sounds like you have some pressurizing going on there if you have oil blowing out the dipstick tube.  If the rings are all coked to hell I don't know if there is any additive that would entirely fix that.

I might be going out on a limb here and I mean this as a compliment....

Judging from your previous rides I would suspect that you are the kind of guy who likes to drive a pretty tight ship.  You probably won't be happy driving a high (unknown) mileage engine around that is billowing smoke and going thru oil.  I wouldn't feel great about it either.

That being said I've had a few diesel VW's that I was sure were on their last legs and I drove the hell out of them for years.  Some years commuting 100+km a day.  They really are amazing engines.

It might be best to rebuild the thing just for peace of mind though.  What impression do you get looking at the engine as far as how it was maintained in the past?

[Slave2School]

Princess auto often has the compression testers for like $12

I as well don't know anything that can really undo the damage of having rings get all gummed up.  If it was run with unknown oil/intervals it could explain a few things  That much blow by can't be good at all.  My friend has well over 500k on his original engine (no rebuilds, just turbos, pumps etc) and it doesn't have a 10th the blow by you are describing.

Elf makes some good synthetic, Castrol makes anice 5w40 that is rated for the TDI's (should be more than plenty for IDI usage), availble at most Canadian Tires up here, as well as shell having a "Rotella" that seems popular too.  Weights...well I'll leave that up to you, but I would go 5w40 in a healthy engine for the summer or 0w40 in the winter if it gets REALLY cold where you live, otherwise 5w40 is going to be fine for nearly every location on the planet.

My friend uses the latest ELF 507.00 5w30 I think it is.

[jtanguay]

wynn's sells a product to free sticky lifters and stuck rings.  i would hesitate using it on a turbo engine, but not an N/A.  can be found at crappy tire here in Canada.

ebay usually has cheap compression testers. get one that says it has the VW adapters.

you could probably just pull the head, pull the pan, take the pistons out & install new rings on them, and put everything back together.  its a bit ghetto but the ring gap will be much much smaller and blowby should be reduced significantly.

the best oil is ELF oil which is changing names soon.

[mhanahan]

That being said I've had a few diesel VW's that I was sure were on their last legs and I drove the hell out of them for years.  Some years commuting 100+km a day.  They really are amazing engines.

It might be best to rebuild the thing just for peace of mind though.  What impression do you get looking at the engine as far as how it was maintained in the past?

Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, I'm the kind of guy that likes to build my own wiring harnesses and everything to remove any doubt. When running properly, this car will be used for deliveries, ~ 50-150 miles per day on average.  

The guy pretty much said that his wife drove the car daily until about 4-5 months ago, when it "developed an oil leak" :shock:  . He said that the only maintenance he did was oil changes and the occasional adding of freon to the A/C system. Air filter looked clean, so that was probably changed as well. I'm thinking a new timing belt, new v-belt(s), fuel filter, etc are also some things I will change.

[Leumas]

like what????i have the same problem, but would rather not tear the engine apart if i dont have to.

There are several causes of smoke.

This link explains it very well.

http://vwdiesel.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10588