My first breakdown!!! White steam coming out the left side vent.

[Wildthings]

You can drive the wheels on one side of your van up on a curb to get working room underneath.

[djkeev]

At first he was sure it was coming out of the oil pressure regulator plug, but I said impossible! Look higher..........

After he found the wet area on the Oil Cooler I told him to let it cool off, he has a bicycle pump, to rig up the tire valve arrangement and pressurize it.

The exact spot of the leak will become soon apparent!

I think he is hoping for a lose hose clamp ....... I told him to read up on replacing a 2.1 water pump.

Hey! It's way easier than the black rubber seal on a cylinder head water jacket!

But, hopefully it is as easy as a few lose hose clamos!

Dave
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[depps74]

[Wildthings]

[danfromsyr]

also fwiw is that a (black) oil cooler/sender adapter you have in the sandwich stack with your oil filter and oil cooler?

not saying that I'm a fan of adding more oil gaskets in that stack to fail on a cold evening.

if your oil light ever comes on.. turn off the motor immediately.

[djkeev]

[depps74]

[djkeev]

[danfromsyr]

ahh I do recall the start of this journey. and a gauge is always a good thing.

just be aware that those are a point of concern about the time you forget they are even installed.
same goes for the OEM seal above the cooler..

I put them on the 5year replacement list.. and like Dave carry one in my spares bundle under the seat.

I've 2 VWs in the yard with lower end engine issues from an oil cooler/filter seal failing.

just make a mental note and now back to our regular programming..
coolant losses.

[?Waldo?]

Here's a decent page on diagnosing the dynamic oil pressure warning system.

https://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=28

Bentley 17.9-17.10 state that with an oil temperature of 176°F, then at 2000 rpms the oil pressure should be above 29 psi. It sounds like your oil pressure warning system is doing its job. However, the Bentley also states that the high pressure switch (which triggers the buzzer) should be a 13.1 psi switch on the WBX rather than the 22.3-29psi switch used on other similar year VW models with the inline-4 gasoline engines. I believe the Bentley manual is probably mistaken about the pressures in that section and has the info erroneously copied and pasted from the dynamic oil pressure warning system of the inline-4 gasoline engines. I believe that Crazyvwvanman commented on this earlier in this thread, or maybe another recent thread. Most likely someone replaced the high pressure oil switch with the higher pressure one from a vw gasser inline-4 and the buzzer is being triggered higher than it should. The buzzer is a nice feature to have when it is working properly and could save you a lot of money if you fix it and heed it rather than learning to ignore it.

[?Waldo?]

I believe this is the correct high pressure switch: https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/068919081A. One electrical connection, unscrew the old one, screw in the new one, and odds are good your buzzer will work properly (and only start buzzing if the pressure drops below 13psi above 2,000 rpms).

[depps74]

UPDATE: Bad news. Christmas Day, I turn on the van and a st juggle to start, churning, gave some gas, and it was fine. Turned her off tried again, fired right up. But then.... poof white smoke out the tailpipe. From all accounts of samba searching, this is bad. Gotta be a blown head gasket. So how much this gonna cost me? No way I can try this on my own. Another $1400 from what I can guesstimate from searches.

Two questions: Could this be because of the water pump going bad? Or oil cooler going bad and not a head gasket?


AND

How much will a gasket cost to repair?

[Wildthings]

Cylinders full of gas can make whitish smoke that typically clears up very quickly (and of course stinks like gas), while white smoke from water takes longer.

[djkeev]

You had moved it for parking space.

Yesterday you had pressurized the system.

It could be coolant in the combustion chamber, then again ?

Pressurize it again, when it starts run back and take a big whiff of the white exhaust, how would you describe its smell?

Gas, exhaust, sweet, ?

Go enjoy Christmas dinner.

Dave
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[Ahwahnee]

Don't Panic.

As noted, could be many things - for older cars some white smoke from the exhaust right after a cold start is common.

[depps74]

Ah dinner was great. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I have nothing else left to do today, kids are in bed so logging in here.....

Yes correct, thanks Dave, I forgot to mention I pressurized it using the bike pump method. First I topped off the coolant tank, then I had to pump it about 5 times at first to locate two hissing hoses on the top hose that circles the engine bay (the hose was not holding pressure at all). After that I pressurized and the pump fell off the nipple, then once more I pressurized carefully placed the pump across the engine bay and closed the hatch. Note I never went over 20 psi. The next am the pressure dropped back to zero and about 1/5 of the coolant was missing. I traced the leak back to the pump (so I think) there was a puddle under the weeping hole (I think) very hard to see. Still amazed at how the heck you guys can see what your doing. Dave recommended a wire camera. Anyhow there was also a massive coolant puddle under the oil cooler screw. There were also a lot of grenen drips along the fins of the engine bottom and the bracket that crosses the van from wheel to wheel. All these were present in my first few pics.

[Timwhy]

This hose to the oil cooler is very hard to see and it may have failed.
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/ATM025121058D

I had one crack open and it would just spit coolant, hard to see and equally hard to replace with limited room to clamp down.
_________________
'15 Audi A3 Quattro
'09 VW Tiguan (dead)
'87 VW Westy
'91 Tin Top
'90 Cabby
What the Westy wants the Westy GETS


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Timwhy&show_results=summary

http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMWHY2?feature=mhee

[djkeev]

[depps74]

[Timwhy]