RE: [T3] fuel in the valve cover

["Dave Hall" <dave@hallvw.clara.co.uk>]

There's the return hose that could keep the hoses in the engine bay with
fuel in.  How did you seal the various hoses?

A running engine usually evaporates fuel as it warms up, and even water
condensate is evaporated.  That's why you should not run the engine for only
a few minutes to keep it 'healthy' when not being used - it leaves lots of
acids and water from combustion sitting in the oil and various chambers.

Dave.
UK VW Type 3&4 Club
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-----Original Message-----
From: matthew Stanfield [mailto:vw70t3@earthlink.net] 
Sent: 29 June 2008 13:38
To: type3@vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] fuel in the valve cover


> On Jun 29, 2008, at 5:54 AM, Don Robertson wrote:
> If your gas cap produces an airtight seal and there is no effective  
> vent system, pressure can build up in the fuel system during  
> storage as the weather warms up.  The gasoline and air in the tank  
> can expand and thus produce considerable pressure, especially if it  
> was cold the last time the cap was off, and the temperature gets  
> hot before it is opened again.  If the tank is airtight this can  
> cause gas to bypass the needle valve in the carburetor and flood  
> the engine, causing gas to go in the oil.  When the oil and gas  
> mixture level gets high enough, it dumps some of the excess in the  
> valve covers.  This effect may be more likely when the gas tank is  
> full.



That is very interesting. So, under certain circumstances, this could  
actually be a 'normal' occurrence?

I just have two comments:
1] My car is fuel injected, not carbureted.
2] I also had the fuel pump off because i had sent it to Jim for  
repair and had not gotten around to putting it back on again. So, the  
fuel in the tank could not get to the engine.

Since i am an inexperienced / novice mechanic, i would like to know  
if there is a possibility that this could be caused by something  
major that needs immediate attention, or if it is something minor  
that i need to keep an eye on in the future, or if it is an anomaly  
that was caused by it sitting over the winter?

Is it likely that if i had just started the engine without taking the  
valve cover off, would it have gone away with out me be aware of  
anything?

matthewNstanfield
1970 VWfastBack
mansfield, OHio
home.earthlink.net/~vw70t3/VWfastBack




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