85 turbo diesel,
did an oil change - checked it cold on level floor and it was between the marls - didnt check it till later when it was acting funny, and was about 1/2 quart over filled. sucked out the exces and here we are.
it starts kind of hard, and rquires the cold start to be pulled to advance the timing.
decent amount of smoke and poor idle. gets better at operating temperatures.
it feels similar to when a cylinder is mis-firing due to lack of fuel. i checked all the injectors, lines and pump, and i dont see leaks.
is it possible having too much oil in ther threw off the timing?
i went for a highway drive of 50+ miles, and had problems upon arrival during slow stop and go traffic - acting funny and was running a bit warmer than normal. it seems to be putting out more smoke than normal, especial when cold.
FYI, took it out for a drive - runs fine on the highway- you would never know it had an issue.
could be sticking injector, and or low compression... something people also overlook is sticky lifters. they only seem to stick at low idle. mine does that, and one time i nearly stalled the motor and it felt like one cyl wasn't firing... the lifter like jammed or something so i had to give it a good run to get it to un-stick.
could also be the timing etc... hows your air filter?
adding above the oil level will just increase the oil consumption. i leave mine at about halfway on the dipstick. any higher and it eats oil like theres no tomorrow (i also hit 20 psi often... when the wastegate is on 10 psi, there is very little oil consumption)
the white smoke can either me the oil burning off, or improperly burned fuel, or worse, coolant.
I have an 86 Jetta that does the same thing. I think I am going to sell the block and build my MF motor... I did a compression check on mine and the #4 cylinder was at 300 psi the rest were good. I checked the oil it was normal on the dipstick. It had been sitting a while and I thought driving it would help it out. It missed occasionally on that #4 but when it got up to temp it wasn't noticable. after driving it around for several hours same BS. All the smoke and when I checked the oil this time I had gained some. The more I drove it the more oil it would gain...no coolant loss, but my oil started to smell more and more like diesel. The guy I bought it off of said it idled weird but just needed I head gasket, since then I have put on a head, head gasket, IP and injectors before I bought that compression tester. 300 psi I hoped was good enough, but I guess not for me. I hope that you don't have the same problem as I did.