RE: [T3] Oil and Smoke!!

["Kevin Guarnotta" <kguarnotta@usa.net>]

"I've had spring bails which had gotten distorted by someone (me) trying to
take
them off by pulling them down. They remove upwards only. I had to rebend
them
to get them to exert sufficient force."

i have never heard this before...i am not sure how i remove the bail, but i
am sure i have done it by coming down once or twice. as for the rubber type
valve cover gaskets-i have heard they are also nice as they last longer, and
don't really disintegrate like the cork ones...

-kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Adney [mailto:jadney@vwtype3.org]
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 10:37 AM
To: type3@vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Oil and Smoke!!


On 3 Jul 2003 at 21:57, JBRIGS wrote:

> My '73 fastback was smoking after short drives. The smoke was actually
> coming out of the air intakes! It appeared that the valve covers were
> leaking and oil was hitting the heat exchangers. I changed the valve cover
> gaskets and used high temperature silicone gasket compound between the
cover and
> the gasket to insure a good seal. I took the car for another drive tonight
and I
> still have the same problem. It looks like oil is coming out of the front
lower
> corner of both valve covers and leaking on to the heat exchangers. I also
see
> oil on the underside of the engine. I powerwashed the underside of the car
after
> I installed the new gaskets because I wanted to be able to see where the
oil was
> coming from. Now I think it may be coming from several places! What should
I do?

It sounds like you're doing a good job of tracking this down. What do your
valve cover gaskets actually look like? There are a lot of kinds out there
and
some of them are actually so thin that the sealing pressure is inadequate.

In general, to get the covers to seal you need: undistorted covers and
spring
bails, clean cover sealing surfaces, clean head sealing surfaces. A bit of
sealant can be helpful to keep the gasket in place when installing, but
should
not be necessary to actually seal.

I've had spring bails which had gotten distorted by someone (me) trying to
take
them off by pulling them down. They remove upwards only. I had to rebend
them
to get them to exert sufficient force.

The most common sources of problems are the gaskets that are totally light
tan
in color and are too thin. The good gaskets are cork in black rubber, or
just
straight black rubber. They are MORE than 1/8" thick.

Other suspects are dirty sealing surfaces. Run your fingers all over both
surfaces and carefully scrape off any old glued down dirt, etc.

Once you fix your leak, it will still take awhile for the old oil to burn
completely out of your heat exchangers.

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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