Oh Joy! The intermediate shaft seal has fallen out.

[fatmobile]

Must be a MK2 NA..
Drill out the restrictors in the intake.
 Probably a groove in the I-shaft where the seal rides, the pressure does it.


 Pull the I-shaft out a little ways and check the bearings,
side-to-side play won't tell you anything,
they chip out.

I think this guy figured it out, I wonder if he was right about it being a MK2?

[smutts]

Mk2 GTD with SB engine.
now 230K miles, so the new seal hasn't blown.........yet.
One thing that might have helped it to go, the night before, Plymouth disappeared beneath a total deluge. Deluge is the default weather for Plymouth. So a Plymouth deluge has Noah building boats. Lots of driving through miles of 18" water, sewage, s, h, one, tee, and rags and debris. So can that help dislodge a seal?

[fatmobile]

 So have you drilled out the intake restrictors?
 Is oil coming out the dipstick?
 I don't see how water from outside the engine could cause it. Doesn't mean it can't happen.

[smutts]

No problem with blowby yet. Engine doesn't leak a drop, and only burns about a litre in 5000 miles of 80 mph plus commute. (Gentle warm up first.) But so far so good. Just curious, which or what are these intake restrictors? Sounds like something for an old Yamaha RD350 Elsie, not an old Golf.

[rs899]

So have you drilled out the intake restrictors?

Please tell us what this means....

[vanbcguy]

So have you drilled out the intake restrictors?

Please tell us what this means....

The NA engines had a restrictor on the CCV hose from the valve cover to the intake.  They were probably originally intended to help reduce the chances of runaway (engine running on its own oil sucked up the CCV hose).  The "better" fix for that problem is making sure the plastic splash shield is installed inside the valve cover and that the "hockey puck" oil separator on the valve cover is in good condition. 

Problem with the restrictor is that as the engine wears and blowby increases, it becomes too small to handle the volume of blowby gasses produced by the engine.  This means the block gets pressurized and then all kinds of weird things happen - seals blow out, dipstick jumps out of its tube, oil leaks everywhere, etc.