White smoke *can* look like grey smoke...but they are vastly different.

White smoke is usually steam created when coolant gets into the combustion
space, which in your case is highly possible. White smoke usually
dissipates quickly. If you put a rag about an inch from the exhaust pipe
and rev the motor, the rag will get slightly dirty, but DAMP.

Grey smoke is oil being burned. As your diesel ages, the gap between
mechanical parts widens, and oil can wiggle into the combustion space. The
result is a blue-ish grey smoke that hangs in the air for quite a while.
The rag test (above) will produce a filthy rag.

Either way, you ain't fixed yet. It sounds like there may be a cracked head
gasket.  Have a smog station sniff (with tailpipe sniffing tool) your
coolant reservoir for emissions. If that is positive, you'll know what to
do!

G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Mount Olive, NC USA
877.658.1278 Tollfree
www.bulley-hewlett.com

My Agenda: Stop Suburban Sprawl.
My Methods: Revitalize older, highly-dense, urban towns. Champion
mass/rapid transit and fast Internet service to these towns. Demand
replacement of archaic, "separationist" zoning laws with neo-traditional
dense/mixed use zoning.
The Result: All Americans obtain superior living opportunities; sprawl is
restrained; and dense, beautiful, interlinked towns become our children's
inheritance.
Find out more at http://www.cnu.org

-----Original Message-----
From:   T G [SMTP:caninewolf@raveworld.net]
Sent:   Thursday, July 27, 2000 3:53 AM
To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:        New Oil cooler...? on Diesel smoke

Hello,

As many of you know I thought my engine was dead due to oil in my coolant
system.  The system seems to have cleaned itself out and put all the sludgy
oil in the overflow tank.  I put a new Oil Cooler on today just incase ours
was broken.  I also put on a new muffer as ours was broken.  Along with
this we added some fuel additive that sussposidly helps diesels stop
smoking.

Well here is the question...were still smoking and smelly yet the smoke is
not black like it was when the muffler was broken.  The smoke is white now.
 What does this mean??  It seems to calm down a little bit after warm up
but hasnt gone away.

Any help or thoughts on how to slow this or stop this is appreciated...I
dont think California is going to like our smoking.  Thank you for all the
help so far and help on this issue.

Tim G
82 Diesel Westy - For sale unless I find an engine 4000 -
(2) 73 Opel GT's..Im looing for another body..do you need parts?  email
me:)
For Sale: 87 Nissan Pulsar, Siezed engine..nice body...take away
EX: 87 Vanagon Syncro
(The VW section) http://www.angelfire.com/vt/psychodelic/VW.html
(Homepage) http://www.angelfire.com/vt/psychodelic

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