Club 80-90 Forums

chrisbeck wrote:does this sound like its had deisel put in instead of petrol, anybody?
Did you fill up with fuel before you left to go on your trip?

Aye, that is a possibility and as mentioned above, a serious mechanical fault with the bores/pistons etc would normally be blue some.

By the way Ros, the guy who just posted above named "ajsimmo" (Andrew) is a very trusted VW T25 expert and runs his own T25 specialist business near Grantham. It would be bad forum etiquette for him to say that, but as a satisfied customer, I can Mind you not saying he will have a look and not sure how far he is from you either, but he/they know their stuff

No, there definitely wasn't diesel in it - we filled up before leaving on Friday but I absolutely didn't put diesel in. The breakdown occurred Sunday.

I've just remembered now, there was still oil in it - I think the RAC guy looked on the motorway and there was still oil, about as much as there had been. I haven't checked again since Sunday. But there was a tube next to the oil dipstick that just ended that he said should have carried on somewhere.

Where is the van now? Someone on here will be able to take a look / point you to a trusted garage.

Yes rule no. 1 with Aircooled VWs

Take it someone who knows about Aircooled VW buses

Ros,

the 2lt engine has a breather hose....this may be the tube that "should go somewhere". It may well be the one that goes to the open....allowing the engine to breathe. I had one on mine, anyway, and no-one ever told me it should go anywhere other than where it was going...ie to the atmosohere.

Em
x

Ok, only ever seen white smoke from the exhaust on an air cooled when cold, and then its just condense from the exhaust.
Even a really bad air cooled will try to run if its not seized, hence why i said about the possibility of deisel in the fuel.
As has been said you need to determine what engine it actually is, and get it to a good garage for comp test.
When i used to work on these in the 80s and 90s I used to see a lot of absolutely buggerd ones but provided they still had a spark, fuel, and air, they would still try to run even if only badly.
Fuel problems are common on the t25, rusty fuel tanks, poss water in fuel, all things that should be checked if there is no obvious external damage to the engine, like a con rod poking through the crank case, however i suspect having been in a t25 that chucked a rod you would have definately known about it.
Also if it had got that hot these things tend to let oil out of every possible gasket and deposit it all over the back of the van and engine bay, so all might not be lost.

Sounds like diesel to me.maybe disconnect the pipe at the fuel filter and drain some into a bottle and see if it's diesel.if it is drain the tank and fill to the gills with petrol and change the plugs and she should run albeit a bit smokey for a while but should be fine.

Hi there

I had a baptism of fire as a newbie with my 1981 air cooled t25 - I hadn't discovered the forum at this point and learnt lots the hard and expensive way! Anyway eventually I was pointed in the direction of a air cooled specialist engine builder in Eyemouth. Long way from you but think he takes of engines from far afield. If I had discovered him earlier I would have saved myself an awful lot of money! If you'd like any more info pm me.

Good luck and hope you get it sorted.

Julia

Timeline =

chrisbeck wrote:does this sound like its had Diesel put in instead of petrol, anybody?

Ros wrote:No, there definitely wasn't diesel in it - we filled up before leaving on Friday but I absolutely didn't put diesel in.

988mick wrote:Sounds like diesel to me.

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H Julia wrote:I was pointed in the direction of an air cooled specialist engine builder in Eyemouth..... If you'd like any more info pm me

Hey there Julia, don't keep it private - If you recommend them please post their name address, phone number and what they do and I will also add them to our "wiki" list of T25 recommended garages,

H Julia wrote:Long way from you but think he takes of engines from far afield.

Tis a bit = 330 miles

That'll almost certainly be Laurie Pettit. He's from up Berwick way.
Very highly regarded in the Aircooled world. I have found getting hold of him can sometimes be a challenge!

ajsimmo wrote:That'll almost certainly be Laurie Pettit. He's from up Berwick way.

Is he thumps up or thumbs down these days (answer by pm ) talking of which, check your works emails

Thank you for the replies. When I started the van on Friday there was some white smoke that my stepson commented on. We then went and filled up about half a tank, using the green pump. We drove from Oxford to Brighton - just over 100 miles. About 2/3 of the way on a big hill the van lost power significantly, felt sluggish, but recovered as soon as we hit the top and was fine after that, no issues, no white smoke, nothing - it seemd normal, even on some smaller hills, apart from the fact that the timing has always been very high - it idles like it's revving. I was a bit worried about it losing power like that - it seemed wrong, but I don't know enough to diagnose, but checked the oil on Sunday just in case it needed some. Two days in Brighton driving around, no issues. Then we put in about £30 petrol (tank was just under a half) (green pump again) and went to go home. on the same hill on the way back on the M25, that's when the big smoke and all happened. If I had actually put diesel in, how long would it have taken to manifest? There is a tiny dab of oil in the vehicle now, and the engine rolls over with a wheeze, but oil and battery lights come on, so I quit that quickly. I will try and check what's in the fuel tank, but I've never touched a diesel pump and am always careful to check I've got the right one. Don't they have bigger nozzles anyway?

I know the big hill on the M25 you are talking about - around Junction 8. My air cooled hated that! My water cooled don't appreciate it either.

have you tried topping up the oil to halfway between min and max? The fact that it tries indicates the engine isn't siezed.

should be idling at 900 revs or thereabouts I think.

(that's watercooled. I think my Aircooled was about the same)

Em
xx

Diesel in petrol would have shown up almost instantly, at least it did when I did it! Older vehicles have a large diameter filler so diesel nozzle will fit. When there was leaded and unleaded petrol, cars with catalytic converters had small diameter fillers so you could only put in unleaded, as the lead poisoned the catalytic converter. Leaded petrol and diesel used the same size nozzles.

marlinowner wrote:Diesel in petrol would have shown up almost instantly,

Agreed so forget about that one now. One less thing to worry about ! Fear not, I am sure you will get this sorted without breaking the bank. Repairing an air cooled VW engine is not rocket science to someone with experience of them