Soot balls & the Exxon Valdez

[Jettage1]

Subject - 92 Jetta Eco.

So I fire the car up in my shop - like I've done many times before - only this time I get lots of fluffy black soot "balls" out the back.  What a mess.  Anyway, any ideas why?  The only thing I can think of is that it's a cold rainy day, the car was sitting outside all night before being driven in cold and maybe the soot "precipitated" more on the exhaust than usual...??  Or am I reaching?

And now it's doing it's best impression of that ill-fated tanker - my re-usable rubber valve-cover gasket is now leaking profusely.  This is since I had the mechanic do the head gasket for me.  My best guess is that he torqued the snot out of the nuts & now it won't seal properly.  I've had it back off & cleaned it & reinstalled it with a more gentle torque, to no avail.  Any remedies, or am I looking at throwing my money away on a new one?

Thanks all!

Steve

[macka]

Sounds like he crushed it, time to get another, they don't do to well after being over torqued.

[Jettage1]

You're probably right.  Just ticks me off.  $16 down the crapper.

[Rabbit TD]

Subject - 92 Jetta Eco.

So I fire the car up in my shop - like I've done many times before - only this time I get lots of fluffy black soot "balls" out the back.  What a mess.  Anyway, any ideas why?  The only thing I can think of is that it's a cold rainy day, the car was sitting outside all night before being driven in cold and maybe the soot "precipitated" more on the exhaust than usual...??  Or am I reaching?

And now it's doing it's best impression of that ill-fated tanker - my re-usable rubber valve-cover gasket is now leaking profusely.  This is since I had the mechanic do the head gasket for me.  My best guess is that he torqued the snot out of the nuts & now it won't seal properly.  I've had it back off & cleaned it & reinstalled it with a more gentle torque, to no avail.  Any remedies, or am I looking at throwing my money away on a new one?

Thanks all!

Steve

Actualy I think you might be right about it  happening on a cold rainy day,  My Rabbit does the same thing I've noticed at times.  It did it today and it was a cold rainy day here too.  Probably has something to do with releasing some built up soot in the muffler or the soot in the exhaust somehow condenses  from the weather condition instead of being just black smoke.  I cut one of the old Rabbit diesel mufflers apart once and you wouldn't believe all the soot in one of these things.  I know a person doesn't have to worry about choosing between a glasspack or a steel pack because after about 1000 miles the perforations will be full of soot and the packing material will be usless anyway

[Baron VonZeppelin]

On the valve cover - check to see if any of the studs have come up (unscrewed).

And check to see if the cover lip itself is nice and flat / strait.

Do you still have all the metal tabs in place that go between the cover and the nuts ?

[Jettage1]

Rabbit: Thanks for the  confirmation - it just surprised me...

Baron: Studs are tight, metal strips are present & accounted for.  Cover should be true, but I'll re-check it.

[rabbitman]

Them covers warp easily and won't seal until it's flattened out