Club 80-90 Forums

Hi there. Managed to get the pipes on leak free. I started the engine with the cover off and made sure that everything was tightened up and leak free. However, worryingly every so often it got quite noisy, sort of a knocking sound and a puff of black smoke came out of the exhaust. I thought I would give it a run round the block but there seems to be quite a lot of grey smoke . Any ideas?

Obvious answer is air in the pipe/s - have you cracked the lines at the injector whilst running to bleed them?

Oldiebut goodie wrote:Obvious answer is air in the pipe/s - have you cracked the lines at the injector whilst running to bleed them?

Oldie,
I took all of the high pressure pipes off to replace with new ones. One was of for more than 24 hours because I buggered the first one up and had to order a new one.

Oh, I think I know what you mean now, should I release the collars on each injector to let fuel through?

Have the engine running at tickover, then crack open the pipe a little at each injector to allow air/fuel pump out (catch with rag) and re-tighten. Might need to do it a couple of times. Do it on each one. Don't hold the cracked union with the hand as there is a slight chance of forcing diesel into the bloodstream - not as high a chance as holding the hand in front of a non-attached injector though.
Try doing it on a bouncing boat at sea, although I did manage to replace a valve spring once on a very rough day knee deep in fish. Covered in thick black oil and fish slime.... luvverly!

Oldiebut goodie wrote:Have the engine running at tickover, then crack open the pipe a little at each injector to allow air/fuel pump out (catch with rag) and re-tighten. Might need to do it a couple of times. Do it on each one. Don't hold the cracked union with the hand as there is a slight chance of forcing diesel into the bloodstream - not as high a chance as holding the hand in front of a non-attached injector though.
Try doing it on a bouncing boat at sea, although I did manage to replace a valve spring once on a very rough day knee deep in fish. Covered in thick black oil and fish slime.... luvverly!

Thanks for the advice Oldie. Much appreciated. Will let you know how I get on

All is good in the hood! Spent some time this morning bleeding out the injector lines. One didn't seem to want to stop "foaming" so I locked it off and went to the garage half a mile down the road to top up as it seemed to have been a bit low for some reason . Anyways, I looked in my rear view mirror and it still seemed to be pretty smokey. Got to the garage and the revs were up and down with various degrees of smoke emitting at different times. Put £20 quid in and excited the forecourt and it still seemed a bit dodgy. Long story short i did a two mile excursion and it seems to have cleared and it's back to its former self . Thanks for the advice Oldie.

Its the same method after changing a fuel filter, sometimes it can take several bouts of cranking, slackening off of unions one by one until finally all cylinders come back on song.
Trick is to fill the new filter to the brim with clean diesel fuel and only crank for short periods with a rest in between so as not to overheat the starter. In most instances the engine will run after a short crank, albeit on 2 or 3 and then on all four after bleeding.

Martin

Have you had the tappet shim clearances checked yet Andy? ... not many garages have the facility to adjust them nowadays so they don't bother and as they are so important to the engines reliability and performance they really do need doing if you are unsure of the vans service history (closed clearances can burn out the valves).

Martin

Martin, as always very good advice from yourself, and to the diesel novice extremely helpful . Since I have used the van a lot more than I intended over the winter period I have kind of gotten very attached to it. Also, on a similar note I have become very attached to the old JX lump, and have already made steps to making sure everything is checked by a reputable garage. Won't be cheap no doubt, but I just want to know I enter the camping season with the piece of mind I have done everything to make the van as reliable as possible

Andy

Diesel or petrol, most of the VW/Audi engines 1600cc and above from the 80's, used this shim method as a means of adjusting the clearance between the camshaft and follower. Checking and adjusting those clearances was a standard part of a main (10/12K) service.
However, it required a special follower push down tool and shim pliers, as well as a whole load of shims to carry out this adjust..ALL of which I have.

Like I say...not many of the garages have them so be sure to ask when your 'Specialist' says he's carrying out a FULL service, that he actually is.
Like I say...tappet adjustment IS part of the service, NOT AN ADDITION.
VW's engines circa 70-80's suffered from burning out valves, usually brought about by lack of valve clearance adjustment (clearance being allowed to close up).

Martin