Wes,

As a former owner of an 84 1.9L, which I had put 180k miles on... (now I
have a 2.1L)... I would suggest doing a quick leak-down test, to check
compression.  My guess is the #3 cly, that would be the Driver's side, rear,
has gone bad.  Most common one to fail first.  This white smoke was the
exact problem I had with my prior 1.9L, and it was a failed head at that
location.

Let us know what you find.

Good luck!

Jack R.
84 Westy Wolfie, owned for 20 years, running and restored... again!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77623993@N00/1084859663/

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Wesley Pegden
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 1:36 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: White smoke?

My '84 1.9l started blowing white smoke a few weeks ago.  I made it home
mostly coasting (under a mile) and checked it out, the vacuum hoses were
all shot (cracked, falling off, etc), I figured that was the problem.
(It also was idling really erratically).  Haven't driven it since then
until today: I fixed the hoses finally, started it up, idles fine, drive
it around the block, starts blowing smoke again halfway around.  When I
get back to where I was parked before (2 minutes later) it's idling badly.

Ideas?  Did I mess something up?

Thanks very much!
Wes