Re: starting up

[Toby Erkson <Toby_Erkson@ccm.jf.intel.com>]

If it was burning a lot of oil you would see it as smoke coming out of your 
exhaust pipe!  So chances are your car is leaking the oil.

Get the engine cleaned, either at a car wash or at home using a spray-on engine 
cleaner (follow the directions!) or have a air cooled VW mechanic do it for you.
 Once it's fairly clean look at it all over then take it for a drive.  Park over
a clean area (like concrete) or lay some newspaper down.  Then poke around the 
engine, top side and bottom, looking for oil.  Now, there is a breather tube 
that comes from the oil breather (located on top of the engine) and it should 
open on the bottom side of the engine; it's natural to see a little oil here, 
like a drop or two, but not a lot.

It's normal to see an old VW leak oil since the cases do all sorts of expanding 
and shrinking so don't be too alarmed.  But if you see quite a bit of oil, say, 
a patch on the ground that's bigger than 3" you could have a bad leak.  Kinda 
hard to say what's "normal", but at least you've noticed and that's good.

How many miles are on the engine?  How often must you add oil (don't include oil
changes)?  Do you see any oil on the exhaust pipes or on the back of the car 
(take your finger and run it along the hatch, does it look/feel oily)?
     Toby Erkson, air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
     '72 VW Squareback 1.6L bored and stroked to 2.0L
     '75 Porsche 914 1.8L
     Portland, Oregon, http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/8501/

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: starting up
Author:  type-3-errors@umich.edu at SMTPGATE
Date:    10/26/97 12:59 PM


I have a 72' squareback(fuel injected).  I'm having a lot of problems
getting it started.  It acts the same way a car does when it needs to be
warmed up in the winter. However, it never really warms up. It's turning
over no problem, staying started is where my headache begins.
 Also I'm looking for a heater tube...any suggestions, is this a part I
can order from somewhere?  There is a VW parts store in phoenix where
I've been told I can get it, however I fear it won't make it to
Phoenix(175miles).   One more problem(I swear it's the last one)  The
car has just started to burn oil pretty bad. No leaks as far as I can
see. It's not coming out as smoke through the back either.  And we do
often get high from some mysterious fumes the car produces.  HELP!
  stacey mackowiak