perfect compression?

Hi all

as you probably know my engine's shot - large amount of smoke coming out the exhaust under acceleration all the time, used 1 Litre of oil in 6 days!
I believe it to be the piston rings and to check im going to get a compression test done on her…

So what should it be reading and what are the acceptabe limits in p.s.i

anybody know?

also another quickie: is the DX engine out of an 1800 scirocco gti the same as the mk1 DX 1800 gti?

Cheers
Steve

You have checked and cleaned out the breather filters havn't you?  You might also want to try changing the oil filter as there have been a few faulty ones about…

You are looking for a reasonable amount of compression (between probably about 140 and 180 PSI at a guess but I'm not sure for the GTI's).  You need the compression to be reasonably close across all the cylinders - if you get a 50PSI off one of them you've found your culpret.

If compression is low - drop a table spoon of fresh engine oil down each spark plug hole and try again - if the compression temporarily improves, the rings/bottom end wants attention, if things don't improve its the head/gas seal on the valves.

You also want to make sure that the cam timing is set correctly before you commence the test…

checked timing set everything up properly (by a mechanic)
the compression test went 150psi, 130psi, 160psi ???psi
all seemed fine
took the rocker cover off and the filter looks pretty blocked up but i cant get it out to clean it. it is sealed in there isnt it.
this may have something to do with it as there is oil all over the air filter.
the oil filter was a new vag one and it was smoking before i changed it.
Any other suggestions?

Cheers
Steve

Yup - that filter in the rocer cover is your culprit - I think you have to drill out some rivvets or just wash loads of thinners through it to clean it up...

Had to chisel off spot welds from inside rocker cover on mine, remove metal gauze, drill out its spot weld and clean up all the bits and reassemble. As it?s all thick metal and won?t be seen even bird dropping welding like mine is OK!