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Re: [T3] White exhaust?


On 30 Oct 2001, at 1:08, Mike Wodkowski wrote:

> OK, so last week I set my valves, .004 intakes, .006 exhaust.
> I noticed Russ said he set his at a loose .004 and a tight .006
> That was after I did mine, which were set to a tight .004 and a tight .006
> I haven't had a chance to loosen the intakes yet.

This really get pretty subjective quickly. You don't ever want to adjust the 
valves to a "tight" anything, because then you don't really know what you 
have. To me at least, "tight" would mean that I've actually started to 
compress the valve spring, and once you do this you can't tell by how much. 
So a "tight" .004 could be .002 or .000 which would definitely bad.

The same thing pretty much happens with "loose."

You have to get the feel for just that intermediate amount of drag that 
signifies that you are right there, just squeezing on the feeler gauge, but not 
exerting the force of the valve spring.

> This week I noticed two things:
> 
> 1) When I start the car, I get  big puff of white exhaust. Just as it
> starts. It doesn't continue.

That's just the engine burning off a small amount of oil which flowed out of 
the ring area into the combustion area of the cylinder. There's ALWAYS 
some of this, because the rings have to be lubricated, but the amount varies 
a lot. I think it looks white rather than blue just because there's so little oil 
involved.

What you see will also vary depending on how the engine is sitting. If you 
park it leaning to one side, then a little more oil will flow to that side and burn 
off when you first start up.

In general, I agree that this is not the best situation, but my 68 did this on 
occasion when it was nearly new, and it never had any other problems 
related to this.

The thing to watch is your oil consumption per thousand miles. In general, I 
changed oil every 3000-5000 miles with the full flow filter. In that distance, I 
would often have to add a quart. If you get better than 1000 miles per quart, I 
think most people consider that adequate, but I like to see it at more than 
1500 miles/quart. Some of my engines use virtually none between changes, 
some get close to the quart per thousand miles. I hate to waste oil, but when 
you consider all the other costs of operation, it's pretty minor.

I don't think you should be concerned, but being aware and informed is 
clearly a good thing.

> 2) I can really hear the exhaust now.
> 
> I checked the exhaust leak I know I have down by my right heat exchanger,
> and it's there alright. I can't tell if the temporary fix has gotten worse. But
> it sounds alot louder. I thik this is coincidental to the valve setting.

I doubt if it's related to the valve adjustment. Probably just the hole in the 
pipe getting a bit bigger. You have the repair pieces there, don't you? You 
may want to look into options for getting them welded in.

-
Jim Adney
jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711-3054
USA

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