8v - Not sure I hav any ATF knocking about, is power steering fluid the same sort of stuff? I was also thinking, because if I am cleaning the pump off the vehicle, what about petrol? I know normally it kills fuel pumps but thats when you have a fully pressurised system and injectors, but with all that stuff its not under as much pressure and potentally safe?
I can't believe you ran the motor sounding like that. When a motor sounds like that shut it off and find out why before you ruin everything. It sounds to me like you do not have enough oil pressure to keep the lifters pumped up. Does the light even work? Put a gauge on it for a while to verify what the oil pressure really is. If that's OK check the cam timing. I don't care if you checked it 2 minutes ago, recheck it NOW. Something in the valve train is banging hard. I expect you don't have much more running time before it gets really expensive. Make SURE you get an oil pressure reading when it's banging it guts out, not just during a quiet period. If all that is good, then move on to fuel issues.
FYI running that WVO crap through these motors ruins them, so don't do it on anything that you do not intend to scrap when it quits. U of Idaho did a lot of research on this along with their BD stuff and discovered that do to incomplete combustion of the glycerine in the WVO, you end up with a bunch of gummy deposits on the injector nozzle that collect carbon particles to form a nice abrasive goo that eventually sheds and eats the rings and cylinder walls.
Seriously get off your high horse there chap, the noise is injectors not the engine turning inside out, our tractor has a very similar clatter to some of its injectors and thats something that has pushrods, it also has a bit of smoke but having done a mechanical rebuild on that except the fuel system we know its the injectors, equally my dad with 30 years of experience said you'd be surprised how loud it gets when the injectors arent firing correctly. The oil pressure light it fine and works great as I get slightly low pressure on idle when the thing is really hot (when its running normally) and apparently this can be quite common. The oil light comes on at 13psi so as soon as I pick up the revs by about 50rpm it goes out, I may just have the idle set a little low, but generally this is only a problem when hot. Having enquired about the various oil types someone said VW dont actually give a idle spec, its 2000rpm 28psi minimum and the amount it was leaking when the rocker gasket wasnt seated right, I think its easily achieving that.
Installing any sort of pressure gauge isnt possible, especially one I can see, its a Van and to get to the engine is a nightmare. The engine actually runs like a bag of nails on idle at the moment, not at the higher RPM which it was doing, so something has cleared a bit.
Now the point also is the fact that about 2 weekends ago I was driving this and it was fine, I drove it 35 miles home from my g/fs and it was still running perfect when I parked it up, its more like something seized/stuck up into position when I turned it off and left it for a week. Now there is the potential for this with WVO, but not in the couple of hundred miles its done on the stuff.
The WVO I am using is actually fairly good grade, it comes from our restaurant at work and the chef has worked in many places and said how bad some stuff can get, the stuff he gives me he said is actually the cleanest he has seen out of a restaurant and theres not much water in it either. The oil itself I leave to settle for a month or 2 then its strained through a sieve, then felt 100/50/25/5/1 Micron Filters meaning it is free from ***/debris and is actually filter to a micron rating below normal diesel filters (which tend to be 5-7 micron). Then in my van I have a fully heated second tank from the main heating system, a preheater near the pump and heated lines, it then runs through a big double tractor style filter which has 2 filters and a glass bowl for water trapping. In my mind the system is actually built to one of the best specs I have seen and people are slugging in any old crap and having less issues than me!
As previously mentioned I have noted a small leak from somewhere which I am going to investigate today weather permitting of course. If its leaking from the pump, its a definite change!
