Club 80-90 Forums

ok the first time this happened, i was turning left and a big puff of smoke came out of the exhaust.I switched the engine off and rolled to outside my parents house, where it stayed for a month. I had to move it due to tax, so i drove it 3 miles back to my house, after a few hundred metres there was no smoke.changing up gear stopping starting etc etc running perfectly, stopping at lights and pulling off etc etc.Got to my street and turned left and a big puff of smoke again!! ive talked to 2 mechanics and 1 has ruled out a ring problem because its not smoking all the time and the other thinks it might be a breather problem!! ANY IDEAS? PLEASE HELP!! the correct amount of oil is in it too!!

petrol ? diesel ? whats your van?

on a petrol I have had that once or twice maybe a soidified lump in your crankcase breather disolved under the heat and pressure build up forcing a load of oil through the carb.

Could be your air filter box with a tad of oil in it!
Check air filter etc. just to be sure. Oil can get pushed along the breather pipe and into there sometimes. Usually if theres too much oil in sump.

So it sounds like the question is ..

Have you cleaned all the breathers and changed the oil and filter regularly?

I have also had this, very worrying, especially on the motorway at cruising speed. I have never been able to work out what it is. I always keep the oil on the top mark, maybe sometimes the pressure builds up and whomph... through it goes. I am gonna try running the oil level just under the top mark. The vent pipes are rather flimsy rubber, maybe they collapse under certain circumstances.
Another flat 4 mystery.
simon.

wbx are happiest with oil halfwayish bewteen the max and min markers, mine uses oil from top mark down to somewhere in the middle where it stays until next oil change.

As Skell says, the oil level only needs to be kept between the marks and not maintained at the upper mark. The upper mark is the max level, not the optimum level.

Yep.. mid way is where my velle like to use it to... the syncro does use some so I am always topping up to max... and on a really long downhill (11 km foot off the throttle and still going 100kmh +) it was blowing it out.. valve giudes..

Yours sounds like an over full situation and poss there is a dollop of oil on the top of the carb (DG) that gets tipped in when turning..

Thanks guys, and yes it is a 1.9 petrol engine. Ive had a few people say that there could be too much oil in it today. Is this build up of pressure and release of smoke going to cause any damage to the engine until it rights itself do you think? ive checked the dipstick and the oil mark is mid way between the two markers and when the service was done, i know the full 4.5 litres wasnt used!

my 2l aircoold started doing this after i topped it up to the top mark. best around islands when nice and hot.
i think it probs just chucks all the oil to one side of the engine and gets into the cylinders. never did it before i topped it up so i'll just let it go down a bit.