[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [New Search]
My son Steve was treating his '82 Polo to a post-winter cleaning, and I was aware of a smell of petrol as I passed. It wasn't the fuel tank, or the hoses to the carb as in the past, in fact nothing seemed to be leaking at all. Pipes underneath maybe, I thought. Hard plastic seems to have stood up to the rigours there, making our Type 3s with the pipe(s) through the tunnel look over-engineered as one comes to expect. Under the car, there was a moist looking oily piece of pipe, which had a distinctly petrol smell. Well, oil leaking from the head gasket is pretty normal for these - cold oil pressure is over 100 psi! Looking from above, the lower end of the cotton-covered return hose was distinctly moist, and seemed to be growing white fungus. What IS that? I removed a piece between finger and thumb and examined it. As I watched, it changed form, into a drop of water. The evaporating fuel leaking from a split in the hose had been condensing moisture from the atmosphere in the cool breeze, and turning it to ice crystals. Isn't Physics wonderful! Anyone who has ever suffered carb icing knows what a pain it can be, and that's why we have complicated warm-air mixing valves on the air filter intakes on our carbed Type 3s and 4s. Dave. UK VW Type 3 & 4 Club http://www.hallvw.clara.co.uk/ ------ ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org