Club 80-90 Forums

My daughters van broke down at the weekend. I think it has a Golf engine in it. When it reaches a level on revs the power dips and white smoke comes out of exhaust. Any ideas with that poor level of info?

Very little to go on, but white smoke from the exhaust would hint to me, a blown head gasket.
Or at least a breach of the cooling system into the induction / exhaust system.

Is it only revs related?
That would be very odd to my simple fault diagnostic knowledge.
Is it not more like when the engine reaches a certain temperature? which would be more indicative and easier to fathom out

Robsey wrote: ↑13 Sep 2022, 07:17 Very little to go on, but white smoke from the exhaust would hint to me, a blown head gasket.
Or at least a breach of the cooling system into the induction / exhaust system.

Is it only revs related?
That would be very odd to my simple fault diagnostic knowledge.
Is it not more like when the engine reaches a certain temperature? which would be more indicative and easier to fathom out

Yes, I thought it was a long shot.  It's a T25 with a Golf engine, is what she was told when she bought it. I went to pick her up when it broke down.  They pulled up because the engine suddenly had a dip in compression when reaching higher revs.  I started the engine and it was ok but when I rev'ed it, it dipped and blew smoke out of the exhaust.  I'm guessing it would have cooled by the time I'd got to them.  My immediate thought when she phoned was gasket but I was perplexed when the engine actually started and ticked over.

Could be that the head gasket is capable of containing a certain pressure. When revved the combustion chamber pressure rises greatly, passing that limit and leaking. When revs drop, pressures drop and normal combustion resumes. Rare, but possible.

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