Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK
FWIW, VW diesels used to be prone to that problem. My '80 diesel pickup would decide to run on its own engine oil just for the heck of it from time-to-time. Real wierd. Would be running along at 60-70 mph and suddenly the afterburner would kick in! TONS of black smoke out the exhaust pipe. Speed would just keep climbing. Since it was a stick and I kept good brakes on it, I would just leave it in top gear and stand on the brakes. That would slow the engine down enough that it would return to normal. Seems to me a dirty airfilter helped cause the problem. VW later came out with a plastic cover that went between the cam towers and the valve cover that helped beat the problem. Kept the more liquid sort of oil from the intake side. My understanding for big diesel mechanics is that they keep a board on hand to block the air intake on runaways, much like Diesel Power said. Only problem is that it's likely to cause the engine to draw in all its seals. Shame you can't get a doner engine from a salvage yard. You put enough work into the car, I hate to see it go.
Oh, and BTW, since I'm about to buy an '86 300SDL (with 220k miles), What pray tell caused the rod-thru-block on yours? I'd really like to avoid that.
Thanks.
BobK
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I think this was a common fault with early vw diesels. There was a factory approved modification to stop it happening. It is ancient history to me now so I am not sure of what it was. I never owned one of their diesels of that vintage.
My limted memory in this area is it was other than just adding a shield. Yet this may have been either an earlier or later modification as well. There were hundreds if not thousands of owners that stood beside their cars while they just reved to death.