Re: engine troubles (itza long one)

[Tom <myttom@flash.net>]

Jake Kooser wrote:
> 
> I know this isn't directly type III related, but I think there's a good
> lesson here.  I drove my super beetle (Barney) to work for the first
> time since I have owned it today.  I have been tinkering since I bought
> it, fixing the fuel and electrical systems, adjusting the valves and
> clutch, etc...   Over the last few months, I have taken the car on
> numerous 'spin around the block' testing runs to check the clutch,
> brakes, carb jetting, nothing over about 10 minutes total driving (even
> less when the alternator wasn't working properly, then it was about 10
> minutes walking, 5 minutes driving).  So, there's the background, I was
> finally comfortable that everything was working well enough to take the
> 20 minute drive to work.  During all these testing runs, there were
> never any major oil leaks from the engine at all, just the occasional
> drop or two from the valve covers.  Well, at some point during the drive
> to work, I noticed a slight trail of smoke in the rear-view mirror.
> Didn't seem major enough to panic over, and the fully functional oil
> light kept it's peace as well.  When I arrived at the office, however, I
> went to take a glance to see where the smoke was coming from, and was
> halted in my tracks.  The good news is, no weeds will grow in the
> parking lot at my office, and my exhaust will NEVER rust.  The bad news
> is that oil was literally pouring out of both valve covers and had
> soaked the muffler of the single quiet pack exhaust, and the j-tubes,
> and the rear fenders, and probably 15 miles of the Florida Turnpike for
> that matter.  There wasn't even enough oil left to cover the LOW mark on
> the dipstick, and the oil light stayed off until the last corner heading
> to the office.
> 
>    I bought three quarts of oil for the trip home, put 2.5 of them in
> the engine (figuring that it was just going to dump out anyway, and that
> maybe the left-over 1/2 quart might be good insurance) and started down
> the road towards home VERY cautiously, glaring at the oil light the
> whole way.  I made it home alright, with the oil light just barely
> flickering at a stop sign about a block from the house, knowing exactly
> how Slim Whitman must have felt riding that bomb in 'Dr. Strangelove".
> I haven't taken a look at it yet, because it's pouring rain and the car
> is in a huge puddle in the garage (and the 5 pounds of cat litter I put
> down before pulling it in), but when I last had the valve covers off,
> there was no damage to the sealing surfaces of either head,  both valve
> covers seemed to fit tightly, and I replaced both gaskets with new cork
> ones.  Has anyone ever seen this happen, and why (or how?)?  The valve
> covers are the stock-style 'made in taiwan' chrome ones, and didn't leak
> a drop when I first got the car (although judging by the poorly adjusted
> valves and cute 'made in taiwan' stickers STILL on the inside of the
> valve cover, I don't think they had ever been removed since the engine
> was built).  I have seen this happen when the valve covers weren't
> properly positioned after installation, but then it happened immediately
> after startup, not 5 miles down the road (not to mention all the trips
> around the block).  I don't get it.  I didn't run at any higher engine
> speed than I had during testing, just for a longer duration.  I can say
> one major lesson I have learned out of this is if you happen to get an
> unknown engine (one you didn't build yourself, or haven't worked on for
> a while), keep a close eye on it and by all means RUN THAT SUCKER FOR A
> WHILE!  It would have been less of a problem if I had discovered this
> problem a mile or two from my house, rather than 20 miles away (with
> tools, but no gaskets. DOH!).  I think the engine is okay, but it will
> probably have to wait until tomorrow when I get home to check it out
> thouroughly.  Hey Toby, good thing I didn't get around to putting the
> high-dollar synthetic oil into it yet, huh?
> 
> Jake Kooser
> '71 Squareback (the little girl, keeps her oil where it should be)
> '66 type 1 roadster (the lifters are in oil, but the rest of the
> engine's scattered all over the garage)
> '73 zooper beetle (there's one in every crowd)
I had something similar happen to me in my bug.  I had been buying
gaskets at checker and they were not worth a damn.  I started to buy the
costlier gaskets at Napa and it never happened again.