Lifter or rod?

[aw84]

HI all,
I purchased an '84 vanagon (adventure wagon) a few weeks ago and was pretty well convinced that it was in great shape. (Shows what I know...) Anyways, it has been running fine on short drives (10 - 30 miles) for the past 2 weeks. A week ago I drove it on a warm day and when I parked it I noticed radiator fluid dripping from right behind the license plate. I opened up the plate to look and sure enough the overflow was overflowing with some gurgling (boiling) noises. The tank drained from max level to min level. The needle on the temp guage read just past the red led and was never higher than that at any time. A little later I drove it back to work and there was no coolant overflow or high temp on the guage. There has been no temp issues since. I had the van parked over the weekend at work and this morning (monday) when I went to start it to move it there was immediately a rather loud knocking. I moved it a short distance and parked the van. I noticed that white smoke was coming from the tailpipe with some water that looked to be condensation. The water had no color or oder that I could notice. I turned off the engine after only a few minutes of running. Later around noon I tried to start it again and the same knocking occured with water still coming from the tail pipe. The knocking would get louder and faster as I stepped on the gas. It did not seem to subside at all after about 5 minutes so I shut it down again.

I have been reading thru the posts here for about 3 hours and am still at a loss. From what I can gather it is a lifter that bled down or a rod problem. The thing that I am not sure about is the water coming from the tailpipe..

How can I know if it is a lifter problem or something worse??
Any guidance from you all would be greatly appreciated..
Thanks!

[Wildthings]

How cold it is where you are parking your rig? You can get condensation for several minutes after start up on cool humid days, especially during prolong idling as the engine doesn't warm fast while idling. Rod knocks don't usually start all at once, whereas lifters will start making noise pretty much at random.

Hard to know why you may have blown some coolant. Maybe start be trying a new pressure cap.

[Phishman068]

i've always been the one to say "it's just a lifter" and i've been right many times.

I was wrong once.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482402&highlight=sunroof
Page two.

In my case I had very very little notice and it just went BANG.
However, 1.9 engines are far less plagued with broken rods than 2.1's. To the point where i've only personally seen a single 1.9 that blew one, and it had been rebuilt....
I've personally seen over 25 2.1's that have blown.
Based on that alone, I'd say it's probably a lifter. You may have blown an internal head gasket from the over heating and that would account for your smoke, but then again if you are down a cylinder.... that would also account for it.

I'd start with a compression check and evaluate the plug conditions.
Next i'd do the whole "replace some oil with marvel mystery" trick if the first check tests okay. Pop your valve covers off, is there a push rod loose or missing? Missing= connecting rod. Loose= lifter.
If all seems good, i'd run it with the marvel mystery and see if that shuts it up.

[aw84]

Thanks for the quick replys.
It did rain overnight the night before I parked it for the weekend.
So we did have a few days of cold and wet weather (for california anyways..) I did not smell or see coolant from the tailpipe...just seemed to be water although it kept coming for the whole 5 minutes I let it run.

I am no mechanic and this bus will be my education so if you could give me any clues as to how I should diagnose the knocking issue without causing any further damage I would appreciate it.

Is there a specific check/sound/feel... that would rule out the rod vs. the lifter?? Something that would help to ease my anxiety??

Again, thanks for your help!

[Wildthings]

[aw84]

Thanks for the pointers. I've had some mechanic friends take a listen and they pretty much agree it is most likely a lifter. I did make a short video if anyone wants to take a listen and offer up your opinions.. May be helpful to others if they need to diagnose a knock as well..

http://youtu.be/R7m3k1oJSMg

BTW, really loving this website and really appreciate the helpful people on here!

[funagon]

You need to replace the cap on the pressurized coolant tank. Your overflowing overflow tank and those gurgling noises are what happens when the coolant cap doesn't hold pressure.
_________________
1990 GL 7-passenger
2.2 liter WBX

[aw84]

Update...
Marvel Mystery Oil did the trick. Once around the block and the engine never sounded quieter.

funagon - I will definitely replace the cap but is this possibly a sign of other issues in the cooling system??

Thanks all!

[Wildthings]