SHOOT! Gas In Motor Oil, Coil Melts!! WHAT?!

[UtahGOgear]

The past few days I've spent painting our '78 FI bay window. Everything seems pretty good, but man, the thing fills up with gas IN THE ENGINE OIL! What's up with that? I immediately thought it was the FPR, but the vacuum tube was bone dry. I'm going to replace the spark plugs and just try to check things out during that to make sure we're not having a miss fire or anything... but also I noticed the coil is like melting! LITERALLY like molten lava or tar you see on street cracks. It's dripping down the fan housing and I'm like, what the crud is up with this thing? The coil gets way hot... I'm replacing that as well with a known good used one.

So here are some questions... or just one question really... what the heck do you think is causing gas to flood into the engine block? It over-filled out of the dip stick hole- THAT'S how much there is in there. I've tried starting it several times, and I've only filled it up with like 3 gallons of gas with a bottle of FI cleaner (yeah that probably needs to be deluded in more like 20 gallons of gas) and a bit of sea foam (bout 1/3 bottle) in hopes of clearing things out.

Another question- sorry for all the nube questions (don't hold your breath though- I picked up a Vanagon form a guy who began a 1.8t swap and have no clue where to even start- stay tuned for a lot of dumb questions and confusion) but I'm wondering if the anti-backfire thing needs to be grounded? I think that's what it is- it looks like a mini brake booster kind of and is right by the distributor near the back end of the bus. I installed it late and it's upside down, but I just want to make sure I'm not making a horrible mistake not bolding it down and just running the vacuum hoses to it. I really want to get this thing rolling and safe within the next day or two so I can move on to some other projects (78 Westy and that 1.8t Vanagon). Any input is greatly appreciated!!!

[Xevin]

Noodle around in here for awhile


https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?searc...=titleonly
_________________
Keep on Busin'

[WhirledTraveller]

If the engine isn't running you shouldn't leave the ignition on, can burn up the coil and points. Or just unplug the coil if you need to leave the key on for troubleshooting. Now that the coil has burned up already check the points and condenser and replace if necessary.

Gas in the oil means almost certainly leaking fuel injector or cold start valve. You can unbolt them and pull them a little ways out without disconnecting from the fuel rail and you should see the leak.
_________________
1977 Westy, Automatic. Big Valve heads, CS Cam.

[airschooled]

Good thing you caught it before you started the engine! Removing the spark plugs will help the cylinders dry out before restarting it. Nice; leave them out for now, and read the plug tips to see if any are much blacker/sootier than others. This could indicate a rich condition caused by a leaky injector.

To avoid permanently damaging anything, immediately drain the offending oil into a safe container for proper disposal. New filter installed, too.

At this point, remove the four fuel injectors and cold start valve. Place their pintle ends over paper rags so you can see which is leaking. You may need to turn the key on and activate the fuel pump by sticking a chopstick or pencil into the AFM (air filter removed) for a half a minute to rebuild fuel pressure, since it's probably leaked out by now. Check the rags for wetness. Once the problem has been remedied, fill with new oil and drive on. I would probably do another oil change after three or four miles, just to be safe.

Xevin's link has lots of good threads on the topic, but this problem is FAR more common in carbureted cars, so I figured I could summarize some of the FI threads.

Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[Xevin]

See Robbie’s a good guy he wasn’t even going to make you work for it. Lead you right to it my links were just a lazy search. Anyhoo. How about that leaking coil. Sounds like you have an oil filled coil. The better more expensive coils are epoxy filled. BUT. Need to find out why the current one is leaking. Is it as simple as a crack? Or excessive voltage? Or....? Looking at your gallery pictures you have some jive wire connections.
_________________
Keep on Busin'

[airschooled]

[Tram]

[Xevin]

[Tram]

[UtahGOgear]

Thanks Robbie! Sure enough it's leaking. Replaced oil and filter and with a new coil... well a black one that has bosch and 1 and 15 instead of neg. and pos. so not sure if that's oem or what... but it works!

[airschooled]

[airschooled]

Also, uhhhh, WHAT is leaking??

Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[UtahGOgear]

Unfortunately it's just leaking! It's running MAD RICH. Checked the sensors and grounds and I seriously can't figure this out. It's pouring gas like crazy and I'm not sure what's up... but here are some issues-

The only thing I can think of is that it's this fuel pump I put in from a carbureted bus that was totally weird. It was a "universal" fuel pump and easy enough to install but seems cheap. I'm thinking it might be that... because not only is gas getting into the oil, but it's actually leaking LIKE CRAZY out of the exhaust! Excess fuel coming through the pump and just shooting it's way into everything??

I was going to adjust the AFM to temporarily get it running a bit leaner to see how that was but then after disconnecting the plug to the AFM it started and ran fine! I plug it in, it dies. Unplug it, runs perfect. Crazy, right? I'm thinking it was just burning off the extra fuel in the lines because obviously the fuel pump wasn't on when it was un-plugged, but maybe this points back to the fuel pump it's self...? So maybe the fuel pump is to blame? Perhaps it's just running rich for some other reason? I'm at a loss on ideas at the moment. It's blowing white smoke and a lot of it.

Any remedies for temporarily running it way leaner? I might turn the dial on the AFM *(the large gear inside of it) about 5 notches clockwise to try and lean it out. Some of you are probably going to want to shoot me for tampering with the AFM, but I'm out of ideas... except that fuel pump. Better note too that the fuel reg. isn't what's letting in tons of fuel- the vacuum tube is dry.

[TomWesty]

Dude, try doing what Robbie said to determine which injector or valve is leaking and fix or replace it. You are flirting with disaster.
_________________
If you haven't bled on them, you haven't worked on them.
Visit: www.tomcoryell.com and check out my music!

[Tram]

[airschooled]

The tests I suggested are free. Run them or piss away money, I’m not picky

Robbie
_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[Wildthings]

There have been several threads in the past about engines that would not run once you plugged the harness into the AFM, but would idle just fine with the harness removed. I don't remember with the diagnosis ended up being. Try a search. Sounds like for some reason you have a continuous ground signal to the injectors. Do pull the plug from the Cold Start Valve and see what happens.

The engine should be fuel starved with a fuel pump for a carburetor installed instead of one for a FI system.

[Abscate]

Op, you need to stop, put the tools down, and start learning how to diagnose and repair, not just throw parts.

Start with the resources in the FAQ link above,

Right now, your oil and fuel laden engine is a fused bomb waiting to go off.
_________________
.ssS!

[Mispeld]

[UtahGOgear]

Fair enough! I'll run the tests and make sure everything checks out before replacing anything. The wiring on this is sketch at best so the injectors electronically being kept open is a real possibility.