1.6 IDI-- blowin' black-- head gasket or???

[ajrn]

Okie doke..

Here's how I spent yesterdat morning..

Driving home from work-- just nabbed 15 gallons of WVO to make biodiesel. I noticed the fuel gauge didn't "spring to life.." Damn, something else to dink with.. (oh well, right??)

Rockin' down the highway, noticed a loss of power.. Downshifted, brought up the rpms, and was going again.. I realized at that moment-- I had no "temp" gauge.. Hmm.. Guess it's not just the fuel gauge that isn't working-- probably another damn ground wire that needs fixed.. GRRRRRR..

Looked in the rearview mirror WHOOOOOA BLACK SMOKE CLOUD BEHIND ME , Impressive amounts, let me assure you.. It was still running, but I backed way the hell off of it, and all but coasted off the expressway offramp.

Smoking like it was, I shut down at the top of the ramp, and coasted a "safe" distance from the intersection (PLACE TO GET HIT AND KILLED)..

What was readily apparent, was that I was just blowing black smoke, looking like a terrorist attempt.. With the 15 gallon drum anchored in my bed, and a couple of empty fuel cans, I chose NOT to roll down the hill.. There was a Dennys there, that had been hit by a drunk two weeks before, and a busy BP gas station.. I didn't want the fire department called-- I used to do EMS, and know what a pain in the butt it is, to get toned out for NOTHING.

Law enforcement arrives, and wonders if I can move the vehicle.. I explained why I'd stopped where I did, and at this point, it was still blowing a fair amount of steam.. He told me he'd call it in, and I rolled down the hill to the gas station..

The engine was hotter than ****, so I ate breakfast, and had a look..

Whoops.. Not sure if the tubing had melted between the injectors CAUSING this smokey mess-- or if it got hot and melted it-- but I had some more tubing and replaced that, when the engine was cooled.. I carry spares!

Cranked, and cranked and cranked-- trying to get it primed.. Offered her a whiff of gasoline on a rag.. Cranked and cranked.. NOTHING..

Cracked the injectors while I cranked-- already was pretty certain there was a bigger problem..

Uh-- I hate being right..

I noticed bubbling at the junction of the head and block, between the #1 and 2 cylinders.. Well-- there won't be any driving home today, now will there??

Okay-- so at MINIMUM, I'm looking at a blown headgasket.. Right??

Any good tips on how to yank the head??

I assume I find TDC, like for a timing belt change, lock out the IP, cam and crank-- and unbolt it-- right??

THEN WHAT!

I'm going to myself to the mercy of the group.. I'm willing to post photos of "progress" or lack of progress..

I start a 10 day stretch off, that was "going to be" my vacation.. I think you've gathered I'll be vacationing in my garage.. !

Thanks in advance..

AJ RN

[Mr_Diesel]

Some questions first...

Were you running on "bio diesel" at the time of the problem??? How do you treat your WVO?

It might not necessarilly be the head gasket... Black / dark grey smoke in a diesel is essentially... unburnt fuel. A few things could have happened... the only plausible common way you are going to blow your head gasket in the 1.6 is by overheating the engine.... or sometimes older high mileage engines the head gasket will just go for no reason... You must understand A) your engine block is made of cast iron. B) Your head is made of cast aluminum. Both metals expand and contract at different speeds and rates and at different temperatures. The only thing seperating these two metals is a thin head gasket. Eventually after heating and cooling, heating and cooling, heating and cooling, your head gasket is eventually going to take a crap on you. Now, unless you overheated the engine (the head gasket will fail almost instantly... either that or the head will crack... whichever comes first). But if it's just a normal high mileage engine, it's probably the head gasket... and that happens over time... not all of the sudden.

Since the issue with your car happened all of the sudden, and you are running on fuel that is not diesel fuel, I'd be willing to put my money on that your pump is bad. The pump is a very precise piece of equipment with LOTS of moving bits inside. If you put dirty fuel (even once) through this pump it will permenently effect if not inhibit the flow of fuel.

I will wait to see what you tell me about your WVO filtering and conditioning process. But I will tell you right now... WVO must be passed through several filters. Lye and ethanol must be added to the oil to break down fat and lower the viscosity of the oil. If you do not add lye and ethanol, its not biodiesel... Allthough commercially availible bio diesel is made from fresh clean oil, they still add certain chemicals to it to prevent injector pump damage.

On the discovery channel, (dirty jobs, I think?) they did a segment on this man that did this for a living... he takes you through the entire bio diesel making process. The fuel he makes has been successfully powering his tdi passat wagon for years without problems... I suggest you buy that DVD and watch it carefully.... I learned a lot from it.

The point I am trying to make is you cant just run the oil through filters and stick it in your gas tank.... It WILL ruin your pump very quickly.

Also, when you get WVO you need to make sure you are getting it from the right place. Most fast food joints mix all their grease fat and oil in the same container. When you cook a burger animal fat is released in grease format. This grease is VERY VERY BAD for your injector pump. You need to find a restaurant that only puts their deep fryer oil into the collection vats. I know carls jr. only puts their fryer oil into their waste collection vats because I worked there for a while. This oil is a lot cleaner and more suitable for burning in diesels.

If you collect your oil from places that "char-broil" their burgers over open flame, vs. places that cook their meat on a standard stove you should be good to collect the oil from those restaurants.

Places that flame broil their burgers:

Burger King
Carls Jr.

Places that cook on a stove (waste grease is not burnt off and must be disposed of in collection vat:

Wendys
McDonalds
Sonic
Artic Circle
Most Sit-Down Restaurants
Most small operation Cafe's

If you collect your oil from burger king or carls jr. you should be good to go... You wont have to add lye and ethanol to that oil to burn it in your diesel... Just make sure you start your engine on diesel fuel and a few mins before you shut down your engine run it on diesel to flush the WVO out of the pump.

http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com/

Is a great resource for information and supplies to convert your VW and filter your oil.

[ajrn]

It's got 160K on it..

Again-- even just cranking (cold) it's blowing bubbles between the head and block-- between #1&2 cylinder.. I think it's a safe assumption that gasket is toast..

I make my bio from canola, that I obtain from my hospital..


"Dirty Jobs" actually left out steps, probably in the interest of television viewership, from what I've heard in the biodiesel forums I belong to..s..

There was a horribly small percentage of bio in my tank.. 1-2% max.. I've been busy, and hadn't been brewing, but buying..

I think the gasket blew, and I lost compression-- so the fuel wasn't burning... I did enough firefighting (was an EMT/FF) to know black smoke is incomplete combustion!

I'd been having problems with cold starting-- it just didn't occur to me that I'd had something else brewing.... :roll:

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my act together and yank the head..

Maybe tonight I should light candles on the hood, and pray the heads aren't warped/cracked-- or worse.. :roll:

AJ RN

[ajrn]

http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/

Good "instructional" site for biodiesel production..

Purchase "Girl Mark's" Book... It's a goldmine of information on production and processor building..

also..

check out "Biodiesel Basics" (yahoo group)

AJ RN

[ajrn]

Well.. 8D

I got it apart yesterday.. Looks like the old head gasket was A) poorly made B) poorly installed or C) some combination of both..

Bright side.. Block, Pistons, Head and Valves look good.. Had my "VW buddy look 'em over today-- he agreed.. Going to replace my timing belt/tensioner, exhaust manifold to downpipe gasket and glow plugs "while it's apart..."

Taking it apart took me-- I'm thinking about an hour.. Maybe an hour and a half-- and no, I haven't done it before.. Felt that was good time for a "Rookie.."

Parts are ordered, and are either on the way-- or will be tomorrow.. Has anyone done the "cut the heads off the old bolts" to use them as "guide pins" to replace the heads??

Seems like it may not be a bad idea..

Any thing else you think would be a good idea, while I've got it "this far apart??" I'd toyed with the idea of high temp paint for the heads-- but decided that wasn't time I wanted to waste, right now.. :roll:

Let you know how it's running-- hopefully this weekend.. We'll see if the parts get here before then, or not.. 8O

AJ RN

[ajrn]

Well..

Installed the new glowplugs, new tensioner and timing set, exhaust manifold "gasket" and heads.. Found that my front engine mount was realistically shot, and the rear wasn't much better-- so replaced them, as well.. Took me around 3 1/2 hours.. Felt a LOT longer..

Didn't have my battery where I was working on it, since I'd rode my motorcycle out there with tools strapped to the back.. So I'll have to report getting it running later..

Was also pretty upset to find my floorboard has rusted along the outside seam-- and will need some sort of repair or replacement..

...when it rains, you know??

Between this, and the Cabriolet, it seems I'm wrenchin' on one of them daily..

....and people made fun of my FORD addiction!

AJ RN

[burn_your_money]

Wow you work fast. My headgasket on my diesel just crapped out too but I did an engine swap instead. I worked 12 hours non-stop today and I'm still nto done. I'd recommend new injectors while you're at it. You seem to have everything else covered.
Oh, you don't need special tools to do the timing, just the gauge. And when you are doing the timing if you find it's not working right, you're probably one tooth off on something.