The problem is gone. Apparently I had a lot more oil in the muffler than I
thought.  I ran it another half hour around the neighborhood and it cleared
up, and quieted down.

Thanks all who read and or responded.

Apologies for cluttering the list.

Dang, I guess I just did it again. Sue me.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Vermillion" <markvermillion@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 6:12 PM
Subject: Smoking 2.1 troubleshoot--> Help!

I have a 87 2.1 Vanagon GL that is driving me nuts... It developed a nasty
smokescreen a few weeks ago, which I attributed to the busted exhaust valve
which in turn washed out cylinder #2.

Replaced Cylinder #2, exhaust valve, and all attendant gaskets, O rings,
etc.

Fast forward to today.

I put the engine back in and hooked everything up. Fired right up and
settled into a nice idle, albeit a bit clackety (?) which I figure was just
drained lifters. I'm feeling good, excited to get my van rolling again. This
excitement changed to (near tears) disgust when the smoke came puff, puff,
puffing on back. I thought it might just be residual oil in the muffler, but
after about 15 minutes of idling and a few trips around the block (to the
delight of the neighborhood kids) it's still smoking like mad.

What I _do_ know:

It's oil smoke. White, stinky and slick. The exhaust pipe is slimed with it.
It takes a couple of minutes for it to show up.
It increases as engine speed does.
It sucks.

It's doing EXACTLY what it was doing before I "fixed" it.

Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks, Folks
Mark