safely reduce cylinders on purpose

if my 4 cylinder passat has oil blow-by on 1 of the cylinders can you put that cylinder out of commission and keep running w/o damage to the engine. Im losing 2qts of oil every 800 miles. remanufactured engine is the real solution but at a huge price. just reaching for a bandaid solution to avoid the cost.

Just deactivating the injector on that cylinder won't stop it from using oil. If it is consuming a lot of oil it may well decide to just run on its oil - the engine isn't particularly picky about its fuel.

Even if you could fix your oil loss that way the engine would run HORRIBLY.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: if you wanted to weld the piston in place and disconnect the connecting rod, it would stop consuming oil, if only one cylinder is the problem. It will also run like crap and you'll probably never get it out of limp mode.

jts2004 said:

if my 4 cylinder passat has oil blow-by on 1 of the cylinders can you put that cylinder out of commission and keep running w/o damage to the engine. Im losing 2qts of oil every 800 miles. remanufactured engine is the real solution but at a huge price. just reaching for a bandaid solution to avoid the cost.

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How have you determined that it is one cylinder that is the cause of your oil loss?

If you're passing that much oil through the motor you're tempting fate with a runaway.

Here might be a solution:

http://www.copart.com/c2/homeSearch...e2s1&lotId=25199414&returnPage=SEARCH_RESULTS

thundershorts said:

Here might be a solution:

http://www.copart.com/c2/homeSearch...e2s1&lotId=25199414&returnPage=SEARCH_RESULTS

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Remove radiator cap, insert new car, replace cap...

fnjimmy! said:

How have you determined that it is one cylinder that is the cause of your oil loss?
If you're passing that much oil through the motor you're tempting fate with a runaway.

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whats that mean "runaway" are you implying a safety issue?

thundershorts said:

Here might be a solution:

http://www.copart.com/c2/homeSearch...e2s1&lotId=25199414&returnPage=SEARCH_RESULTS

Click to expand...

how much do you think it would be to swap engines?

A brand new engine for a 2003 Jetta is about $5,000 from one vendor. 2 days labor. Get a used engine and save $4,000.

Google search diesel runaway or youtube search diesel runaway.

Was this a Greasecar or WVO conversion?

Bill

40X40 said:

Was this a Greasecar or WVO conversion?

Bill

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no, my 2004 passat was not a wvo.

Use as thick of an oil as you can and that might reduce the oil consumption but only if the oil is passing through the rings. If you are pushing oil into the intake because of blowby, intalling a catch can would help alot. Either way, your engine is telling you that it is on it's last leggs.

You're sure that it's the engine burning oil by way of blowby and not a bad turbocharger, right?

The suggestion that I posted about copart was basically abctdi's comment. Buy and drive the copart car, use present car for parts.

jts2004 said:

whats that mean "runaway" are you implying a safety issue?

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When a Diesel engine gets to the point where enough oil is leaking into the cylinders, if it has enough compression to run, it can, and will, run on it's own crankcase oil, bypassing the fuel system, engine management, ignition switch etc. Shutting the key off does no good because your key does not control how much oil a worn engine pumps into the cylinders, and said oil does not need your key's permission to burn in your engine. So what happens is the motor runs on its own oil until there's none left, which incidentally destroys the motor before it's over. And yes, it's a safety issue because the car can suddenly charge forward without warning.

Anyway, a gulp of oil is enough to bend rods. Use enough oil and it will runaway. So I'll ask again, how did you determine that all of the oil that is disappearing from your crankcase is doing so via one cylinder? As VeeDubTDI mentioned, if the oil seal in your turbo is leaking that much, you're at risk of a runaway and bent rods, if it hasn't happened already.

These 2L TDIs don't have shudder valve to stop a runaway if the ignition switch is turned off?

If an engine is running fast enough the anti-shudder valve is not going to close and choke down the engine.

Where is the engine getting the air if the shudder valve is shut?

The question is, "Does the anti-shudder valve have enough closing force to overcome the vacuum of an engine running away at 5,000+ rpms?" Try applying 20" of vacuum to your anti-shudder valve and report back how much effort it requires to open it. Better yet have one person hold the throttle of your running diesel engine to the floor while you apply vacuum to your anti-shudder valve to see if it will close. I suspect it will not.

Trying to grasp for more explanations. Some vehicles have jake brakes. Expensive systems that would not be used if a cheap air restricting valve could be used.

Go do a search on youtube for runaway diesel engines. You will see big and small diesel engines running away. If it was as simple as turning of the ignition to activate the anti-shudder then you would not see these exciting runaway diesel engine videos.

Of course I could be all wet. It would certainly be more fun to drive a diesel VW in the mountains if it had the same engine braking as a gas VW.

I think its like the butterfly on a carb with one side slightly larger than the other.
The vacuum will hold it closed!

There are lots of owners that run shudder valve delete or the systemmisn't workng. I was next to a car when the turbo seal blew but since the shudder valve was bypassed and it was an automatic, sirring in P. There wasn't a fadt way to shut the engine off in time. So no need to tell me to look it up on Youtube, I've seen it with my own eyes.

If you are claming the shudder valve can't close when the emgine is at 5K, you need to back that up with some hard evedence. I'm not going to test it for you. This is your claim, so back it up.

Here is a post that does not support my theory. I said Not. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=278071