Club 80-90 Forums

When mine did this ( oil cooler turned into a mixer) I drained it, flushed it with a hose for a couple of hours ( no water meter in the flatlands ) then plugged all the outlets and tipped half a bottle of mild green fairy liquid in it sealed it up and span it over with the plugs out ( was still in the van ) for a bit , then flushed it out with the hose on the hot tap until it ran clear , gave it a half a gallon of paraffin , tipped some cheap crap super market oil in span it over some more , dropped the mess out , gave it some more paraffin , and the rest of the crap oil put the plugs back in and started it and let it run for a couple of mins , drained it put fresh oil in and went to bed .
Got up went to work in it and home again ( gently ) did another oil and filter change and let it be for a couple of hundred miles ..... then another oil and filter change and it was all good .....

itchyfeet wrote:

kevtherev wrote:

itchyfeet wrote: but I'm wondering if there is a method for flushing with oil pump ,heads, pistons and barrels off?

I removed the oil filter and plugged a bung into the outlet through which I pumped engine degreaser

Good idea, I guess it worked, what sort of pump did you use?

tappets would need aking appart to clean out.

how did you clean oil pickup pipe? I'm guessing not with a breadstick

Garden sprayer pumped up a lot!. with a suitable attachment
Cleaned it out a treat

Garden sprayer, great idea Kev.

itchyfeet wrote:Garden sprayer, great idea Kev.

Thanks
With the engine apart like you describe you can force the paraffin/jizer/gunk in the flow direction and reverse it from the oil pump inlet.

ezebleed kit + 12v tyre compressor

itchyfeet wrote:

ezebleed kit + 12v tyre compressor

I have some mayo in the sump Not as bad as that and it seems to appear when the engine is standing in winter. As soon as ambient temp drops it appears. Last year the oil cooler was changed but this winter the same has happened. I thought it might be the lower seals when things start contracting? This was a vw recon from about 8 years ago and has only done about 25k since. I intend to change the oil and filter and check again the oil cooler Any other routes for this to happen? In the warmer part of the year and when used regularly it doesn't happen.

Short journeys are the biggest cause of mayo - engine simply not getting hot enough to evaporate condensation in the engine. Beetles were plagued with this too. If its bad, a flush is the only way. If its moderate, it just needs a damned good run and an oil change afterwards.

cheers for your reply, I'm hoping its just that , I intend to drive it regularly in future

Just need to make sure it gets up to temperature and sustained at that. They really hate short journeys which is why I sorned mine this year and use a Smart for work.

Get you lot with your sachet of mayo, I have several litres, looks like mustard mayo that you get in France.


Dunno why I never thought of this before, easy to get two of the three water pump pulley bolts out but the last is a problem, stick a long bolt in and lock it.

P1060568 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

more mayo

P1060572 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1060574 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

Hello silicone on lower barrel seals

P1060569 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

all the ancillaries stripped off ready for heads off..

After a couple of days I'm not seeing any rust forming which is good

P1060573 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

Gonna sound like a right muppet when I ask this, but I am sure many who don't comment will be wondering the same...

So, am I reading this right?
The oil has turned a kind of white goo substance due to mixing with coolant?

yep, coolant has leaked into oil, 90% sure from lower barrel seal failure, this is the seal between the water jacket and the sump.

So just like mayo you eat which is oil and stuff in an emulsion the sump oil turns to emulsion (mayo) similar to emulsion paint

Oil cooler failure can do this too because oil and water are brought together in the cooler, if it rusts it can leak and the two mix but I don't think this is my problem.

I see...

So is this like `sudden` lower seal failure and oil turns to mayo in a few miles, or does this happen over time?

Also curious what symptom you would have of this - other than white oil, or course..!!

To be honest I don't know sniffo, I was assuming lower seals becuse oil cooler pressure tested OK but there is another fault conditon that hadn't occured to me until I found it tonight.

Pulling all this silicone off the head nuts ready to blow torch them before removing

P1060590 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

and as I pulled the silicone off this fell off

P1060594 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

so that will be where the coolant was leaking from, if it had been one of the upper bolts it would have been easy to spot and would have leaked outside the oil system.

You have to wonder how a head stud that looks pretty perfect just snaps?

this is the second engine I have found like this, the last was an upper bolt and also covered in silicone, I wondered if this was snapped last time it was removed and just stuck in, I somehow doubt it would have lasted 10 years like that with coolant pressure on it.

Receipt says VEGE but that's a garage receipt, no official receipt from VEGE so could have been anybody who did it (10 years ago)

P1060596 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1060601 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1060602 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr