Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all in vdub land,
I have a lovely Syncro. I have owned her for 7 years and have a new problem with the engine, a 2.1 It will not tick-over and runs all or nothing, then from time to time blows lots of white smoke for a few seconds then runs clean. I think the idle control valve may be u/s but this will not account for the white smoke. i have been told it may be the temp sender in the ecu
Has anyone any idea? Perhaps a head gasket but she uses no oil or water but when cold steams from silencer? I do have a 19PD engine to fit ut like the petrol so wish to put it right.

Thanks
Adam

just had a running problem with my MV 2.1 which turned out to be a bugger to find. tencentlife from the samba steered me in the right direction and now its sorted. white smoke does suggest it burning water but its odd that it comes and goes. ect sensor is common but my first port of call would be to get it on a gas machine like they have in mot stations. you can tell a lot about whats going on with just a gas test.

can you get the engine to run smoothly at all anywhere in the rev range?

is the cooling system pressurising ?

is it too bad to drive ?

is it a DJ or a MV with cat ?

Hi i have had a look on wiki bloody brill ! lot to look at in the morning my engine is a non cat dj i think the cooling system is runing under pressure so i will have to get a gas test i know these engines are prone to blowing head seals gaskets i did have some intermitent surges last year but then ran well untill last week so fingers crosed

headgasket commonly fail between water and atmosphere and leaks occur under the head, not so common as compression to water failure.

you can buy an adaptor to screw in the plug hole in the head and then put an air line from the compressor in to in on the compression stroke, this normally shows a breached headgasket by causing bubbles to form in the water jacket.

not really an ideal thing to do but you can also drain the coolant out of the system and run the engine " briefly for diagnosis only " this will stop the steaming of the exhaust and prove that it is water that is causing the steam / smoke. bare in mind that even if you try this last test, if the exhaust is full of water when it gets hot it will exit as steem untill it clears.

dont jump in. be sure you are 100% its headgasket before you strip it down.

lee.