New to Me 86 Jetta 1.6TD White Smoke

[curt5446]

pull the number 1 injector and see if the piston is there.

LOLOL!! This probably should have read, pull the number 1 injector with the engine at TDC and see if the piston is actually at TDC.

[curt5446]

Went out there this morning and ran the car for a few minutes and, evidently I didn't run it long enough to get all the air out of the pump. She ran rough for a few minutes and then started to idle on her own. Gave the pump a little tap towards the head and she's purring like a kitten.

Thanks everyone for all the help!!

[ORCoaster]

So it was the crappy IP in the first and last place.   Good to know we can fix things from a far.  Don't let the kitten purr to long.  Drive it like you stole it.  Recent rebuilds need wear in.  Up and down on revs and no long haul 55 mph for hours driving. 

[curt5446]

The driving won't be a problem. I do field service on industrial robotics and rarely drive less than a thousand miles a week. It's the varying rpms that are going to be tough. That and keeping it below 3,000 rpms. Guess I'll have to drive my gasser until she's broken in. 300 miles so far......

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[curt5446]

33 degrees here this morning. Went out , cycled the glow plugs once, pulled the cold start lever and less than a full engine revolution she fired up.

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[theman53]

The driving won't be a problem. I do field service on industrial robotics and rarely drive less than a thousand miles a week. It's the varying rpms that are going to be tough. That and keeping it below 3,000 rpms. Guess I'll have to drive my gasser until she's broken in. 300 miles so far......

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Don't keep it under 3,000 rpm unless you never plan on running it over that. Take it to redline, gently, or it will never seal up like it should

[curt5446]

Really?!?! I've always heard you can't run them over a certain percentage of redline or you can risk damaging something. I definitely plan on running it over 3k. Guess I'll start running the gears out a little further before I shift.

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[theman53]

don't side step the clutch, but use the entire rpm range. The same bearings and crank are in the 16v gasser that revs almost 2x what ours do due to the pump gov. Every engine I have ever seen broken in not using the full rpm range had oil consumption issues if you ever went over that break in rpm. All the racing atv's I used to have the engine guy would say "so many hours then you can use the full rpm" Later when he sponsored me he said "I only say that to people to buy time and if there is an issue I can say they ran it too hard, in reality if I did something wrong it will show up no matter what they do, just run it"

You want to use the entire rpm, but not like a drag race. Take it up a bit, hold a second, take it up more, hold a second, etc, for the first drive to get to redline, you don't want to knock the temper out of the rings. Then use the full rpm range for a while but don't do the .15 seconds for the pedal to be on the floor, take like 10 to 15 seconds or whatever, don't just run the piss out of it use the full rpm range but gently. Get some miles on it and run it like normal. I tend for overkill so I do 500-1,000 before I run it completely normal, after 100 it is probably fine.

[curt5446]

Thanks for the info!! There are so many different thoughts on engine break-in out there you never know which one to believe.

The first 200 miles on the engine were pretty much normal driving but under 3k. Normal take offs and stops no beating on it. It took about 30 trips around my neighborhood which has some good uphill grades so it was held at about 2.5k for 10-15 seconds at a time to build cylinder pressures to seat rings. The other 125 miles (it has 325 miles on the rebuild now) were typical suburban driving between 25 and 55 mph going up in the RPM range to about 4k.

I can feel a difference in the engine. Almost like it's getting more powerful as the rings seat. Oil was changed at 200 miles and, I will probably change it again when it hits 400-500 miles. still a little grey tint to the oil meaning things are wearing in.

[air-cooled or diesel]

and she's purring like a kitten.

Thanks everyone for all the help!!

hopefully that will keep you going, :thumbs up:.
while theman advice is true, only take from that what you need, if you have a daily driver break her in easily, stay in the driving range you usually will be at, i add some speed/rpms to this, these are old girls, and were built for economy, they are fun , like the bugs, to put some work into and add power, understand theman and some of these guys are egoists and have some giddy-up in his machines, i take it he likes to get power from his whole rpm range. for break-in use different speeds, rpms, throttle, throttle use easily up to 2/3rds at first(max), 3/4 throttle for later, but like i said use different throttle settings. etc.