Let me start by stating this may be too long a post as it has been a frustrating problem I have been trying to solve for a while and am getting nowhere fast. Have a cup of JO on me and bare with my rant.
I have a transplanted 1984 Jetta TD (1.6L CY code) in a 1982 Rabbit all done by the PO. When I got the rabbit home, there was absolutely NO smoke on start up or highway running. The car had other issues but not any with the engine...I thought. The PO had a NA pump on the TD engine and explained when he used the TD pump for the first time it leaked badly so he put in a non leaking NA pump and never resealed the other one. I took compression numbers before purchase and it varied from 434PSI-439PSI cold. It started right up after sitting for 9 months once I put in a battery. The car had some power (better than an NA) but nothing like my TD caddy so I figured it was the pump.
Now the problem. Being compulsive by nature, I drove the rabbit home and checked the timing immediately. It was retarded by my standards and was showing 0.6mm. I normally run the 1.6 liter at 1mm for performance. being "Mr know it all" I set the timing at 1mm, changed the timing belt and tensioner, changed air/oil and fuel filter,adjusted valves to cold specs and put in a TD pump I had for a hydraulic engine and buttoned it up. It started fine and ran really well, but now I have white/gray smoke at idle and at any RPM I choose! I checked coolant and no evidence of water contamination with exhaust.
I did the old smell test and it definitely was unburnt fuel. After trying different scenarios with no result (I won't bore you), I did a hillbilly tuneup(my first time) and retarded the timing and voila, the smoke disappeared! I checked with my gauge and it was back to 0.6mm now.
My first thought was I never had the engine at TDC when setting crank/pump/cam timing, so I rechecked and the flywheel is different than any other I have seen. It only has one hash mark which I assume is TDC, but no "v" shaped raised casting nibs with the "0" in the middle like all the other flywheels I have seen. Very strange. I rotated the flywheel in 5 degree increments and no other marks noted. It seems to me that it should have cleared up the smoke by advancing the timing if in fact it is unburnt fuel, not retarding. I should include that I have not put back the old NA pump, but as mentioned above it was set at 0.6mm when I got the car home. I resealed the original TD pump that came with this engine and I still have smoking issues unless I retard the timing.
Now for my questions:
Have I missed checking any other parameters that are telling?
Is it possible the flywheel is not at TDC and how would I establish TDC if their is not a mark on the flywheel and having precombustion chambers, I cannot use a dial indicator to establish TDC?
Has someone been through this before and can shed some light on the subject?
Any and all ideas are welcome at this point as I feel like I am going no place fast. I will post this same story on another forum to run it by anyone else who may not be on this forum. Thanks in advance, Tom
Topic: Timing and Smoke (Read 2263 times)
