Mk1 GTI burning oil!

Hey guys, picked my mk1 gti up last week and when I start it white smoke comes out, it's burning quite alot of oil too, getting worried that it's going to be a big bill, can anyone let me know what it could be!! Thanks! 

Yip it's broken

How much back pressure it got if not a lot.
Prob just valve stem oil seals or broke oil ring on piston

Yeah I've heard it is the piston rings 😕 not sure on back pressure mate 

Would think valve seals
I would do it first as not big strip down

Normal for white smoke on start up due to condensation, these cars seem to produce a lot of white smoke  when cold, wait till the winter morning when I get loads.

Burning oil is  blue smoke from the exhaust, white smoke is water so are you losing any coolant?
Valve steam seals are usual problem but it's really a head off job to replace them.
To check valve steam seal, drive the car so it's nice an warm (oil at 90) then stay in 2nd gear and drive up the red line then let off the throttle completely and let the car slow and revs drop to about 3500 rpm then floor it and watch out rear view mirror, if a big load of blue smoke comes out the seals are worn.

Agree white is water vapour (steam) from burning an hydrocarbon in oxygen, i.e. normal running or if it is really bad and continues well after start up might be an internal coolant leak from a blown head gasket. Are you loosing any water?

If blue tinged smoke it's oil. One thing to check is the breather system, the rubber hose that comes from the right hand side of the cam cover.

Inside the hump on the cam cover is some gauze that get blocked up causing back pressure inside the engine that forces oil down the valve stems and up the bores giving a good impression of a total fkd engine.

It could also be that someone's used a modern very thin oil. Best stick with 15/40 semi synth or even 20/50 on an older high mileage engine.

What's the mileage of the engine?

If its burning a lot of oil in normal use then it'll be more than just valve stem seals. Replacing just the stem seals could be a waste of money from your description.
Can you get someone to follow you while your driving it. Worn rings and bores usually give a tell tale of a big puff of blue smoke when changing gear under - more prevalent under hard acceleration.

If it is don't be lulled into thinking just changing the rings will cure it. - It never works. The worn bores will be oval and the new rings round and the piston ring grooves in the piston will be worn as well causing the new rings to jump up and down in the groove every time the piston changing direction causing the oil in the groove to hydraulic up the piston until it reaches the chamber.

If it is the valve stem seals it's not a head-off job. There's a VW tool that allows them to be replaced without taking the head off. However, that's either a vw main dealer job, or you would need to find a specialist vw garage that has the tool.

One question we have all forgot to ask is how many miles has the car/engine done and has it had regular oil changes?

compression test?

mark1gls said

One question we have all forgot to ask is how many miles has the car/engine done and has it had regular oil changes?

Yomp said

What's the mileage of the engine?

 

It's not blue smoke that's coming out its white but can smell oil burning on start up, engine done 200k I believe but the engine was rebuilt a few thousand ago, got the pictures, a mk1 specialist is going to have a look for me, only way of checking is head off right?

Before pulling the head off, have you done a compression test? What are the plugs like? Do you have high oil consumption,? Do you have overheating/coolant loss? Have you removed the spark plugs to see what they are like? Does the engine breath heavily (fumes/smoke and quite a bit of pressure from the breathers) and to you have contaminated oil or water? I wouldn't just remove the head without checking these other items first! 

Sorry I completely forgot about this tread, I'm getting it sorted this week hopefully, I lost compression in third and fourth cylinder, plugs are in a bad state tbh, thanks everyone for your replies

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