Help figuring out a way forward: Smoke/Compression/Glow Plugs

Hi all,
After replacing my cluster, T14 connector, then oil cooler, then IP Head seal, then Coolant temp sensor, I am thinking of what's next to get my favorite car rock solid for years to come. Although my 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI MT it is currently running very smoothly after all these small jobs, and currently getting about 45mpg highway, I do have a significant smoke issue. I know that these cars tend to smoke a bit here and there, but this is a house sized cloud of white maybe a bit tinged with blue upon start up in the morning. I actually think it might be a sticky injector(from reading lots of great stuff here) and I am itching to buy a new calibrated set of nozzle/rebuilds from KermaTDI. But first I want to know that deeper down the engine is healthy.
So, I would like to do a compression test.
But...
But...
But...
I don't have access to all four GP holes. I seriously buggered one beyond repair this past summer. Frank06 says he can repair just about every buggered one, and I believe him, but I really feel like this one is toast. I drilled down at the wrong angle. Currently it is tapped and plugged with a bolt that is threaded and glued in place. After initially using a sawed off glow plug that failed, it has been holding well since using the bolt.
Although it starts right up on pretty cold (15F) mornings, I really don’t like starting on just 3 glow plugs, and with no way to access the fourth glow plug hole, the compression test is obviously useless.

Anybody have any thoughts on how to work this through?
One idea is to pick up a used head at a junk yard. There are several that appear in searches nearby with about 125-175k miles on them for about $200-$300.(My car has 245K) I could just put on the used head that has 4 good glow plug holes and then do a compression test from there. Maybe even just be good to go from there? Or maybe send the used head directly to Frank06 for a rebuild, to then be put on my car knowing that I will at least have a perfect top end from which to work with. I do worry that a used head comes with some possible hard to observe beforehand issues? I also worry to spend money on a rebuild before knowing the bottom end is good.
As always, thanks in advance.

I got what was by visual inspection a very good head at a local pick-a-part yard for $70. 260,000 miles on it, if the head was original to the car. You can probably do better on price for a salvage head. But, I'm in a more populous area (San Diego). May be more difficult to find something in Maine.

I pondered the same thing recently. I had a lifter failure which would require a major repair to my head. If I went with the repair route, it would have meant a complete valve job on the head for several hundred dollars. Other options were brand new head or salvage head. I really didn't think it made sense to put a new head or completely reconditioned one on a bottom end with 350,000 miles. I ended up throwing the salvage head on it as is except with a new cam and set of lifters. Just 1000 miles in so far. I'm essentially gambling this will last until the time comes when the bottom end will need to be done, and I'll rebuild the whole thing top to bottom (if I haven't moved on from this vehicle by that time). But, I pulled the head off the car in the salvage yard myself, and it looked like it had never been off the engine. If the salvage heads you're looking at have been sitting on a shelf or outside exposed to the elements for a while, they will probably need to be reconditioned.

A full top end job is probably $4-600. If you go with used parts, it's always a gamble. You might win, you might not.

If you do go with used or keep your own head, at least get a set of fresh lifters and a new cam in it for top end longevity. You're at a mileage point where it's advisable. Don't wait for a lifter to fail.

Brett

How much colder temps do you see than your current 15f? I ask as I know Maine about as well as I know Venus.

If the engine is firing up very well and this is your "basement" winter temp....relax, dude.

You forgot to mention what you have for overall oil consumption with this car. That would be a rather important factor in the equation.

Missing the one glower, that cylinder will experience a less-efficient burn on cold start-up. Probably where your initial smoke is coming from. If the smoke resolves itself pretty quickly with engine heat, well....there you go. I sincerely do not think you will be "washing" the cylinder from the lack of the plug.

There is a very good chance a used head with no additional work could work well for you. Esp. if you have access to lower mileage stuff.

If you decide to take on a head rebuild on that replacement head.....you will still have a good head later as well.....no one can "take" that away.

ALH heads do start to get some valve guide wear on the exhaust guides around 200,000 miles. But, one of the main contributors here sez to leave them alone. If your engine is running smooth and not consuming much oil take some time and determine what money you want to spend WHERE and WHEN.

I do believe Brett has it straight on replacing the lifters a bit early PRIOR to the problems which have surfaced in some of the latest threads around here.

15 degrees F is not cold!! If three good glow plugs provide reliable starting , unless you are expecting seriously cold temperatures, drive more worry less.

A few years ago my daughters 2003 golf would not start at the end of her work day, where she had no ability to plug in the vehicle. It was minus 26 degrees C that day ,
... something like minus 15F. I had no desire to somehow make it go , or tow it . or even investigate it in that weather. A couple of days later, much warmer ( but still cool). I got it running and into the garage. Troubleshooting showed two defective glow plugs!! Dont know how long she'd been running with only three and then only two plugs, but if everything else like timing , clean fuel etc is OK. I wouldnt worry about only three plugs.

I'm currently working on a 2003 NB that had the same exact issue yours is, along with oil consumption of 1qt every 500 miles. Turns out he had FOD wreck his compressor wheel and leave vertical scratches in the honing marks. I assume you drilled the GP hole with the head on, hopefully you didn't get any shavings in the cylinder and fubar it.

These are great thoughts so far. Sorry for my slow response. Wasn’t subscribed for some reason.

No where near the basement for temps it definitely gets way colder than this. Last year we had a stretch of two weeks with highs in the negative single digits to single digits. And this is on the coast. Inland gets way colder.

Plenty of salvage yard choices not too far. Boston is only a few hours south.

The three plugs out of four is not the main dilemma here. That I can’t do a compression test to better assess the health of the bottom end is the main problem. I want to throw some money at some big ticket items like injectors and a new stock turbo, but without the compression test it feels iffy to do that.

Car was using about a quart per 10,000, but also using coolant, but I have replaced the oil cooler so hopefully both of those issues will get at least a wee bit better.

No shavings in the cylinder.

1 quart in 10k indicates the motor ain't in too bad a shape, most will use 2 in that many miles. How much coolant? Normal is 0 coolant loss, annoying but you want to track that down.
GP hole- Might it be possible to remove the bolt, oversize the original hole and use a helicoil or timesert to bring it back to the right thread? Consult with Frank. You'd likely need to fill any void left by the crooked hole.
Short of that it might be possible to plumb up to the bad hole just for purposes of a compression test.
Just spit balling, Stabbing in the interweb darkness...............

If you're pulling the injectors, I think Harbor Freight's diesel compression test comes with a fitting for checking in the injector hole vs the gp hole... I'll have to check my kit. IMO if you aren't burning oil, you could check your IQ balance in VCDS. If everything's within .5 +/- of each other I wouldn't think there's a bottom end issue.


Edit: The big kit does look like it comes with the nozzle test fitting. The kit I have is the small one.

BobnOH said:

How much coolant? Normal is 0 coolant loss, annoying but you want to track that down.
GP hole- Might it be possible to remove the bolt, oversize the original hole and use a helicoil or timesert to bring it back to the right thread? Consult with Frank. You'd likely need to fill any void left by the crooked hole.
Short of that it might be possible to plumb up to the bad hole just for purposes of a compression test.
Just spit balling, Stabbing in the interweb darkness...............

Click to expand...

Since replacing the oil Cooler and associated seals as well as the Coolant Temp Sensor, my coolant loss seems to have gone down to zero. Hopefully those two items have taken car of it.

I have spoken with Frank several times about my disaster. That I did this to my own cylinder head drives me insane, but I do not think that I can do anything at all with my buggered glow plug hole. Maybe the hole could be completely cleared of JB Weld/bolt, and then brazed(or something along those lines) full and then properly drilled again at the correct angle, but then that seems like a lot of work on a 250K mile head, when I could just replace with a used head, or buy one of the AMC heads.

I like the sound of measuring compression through the injector hole. I will look into that. Maybe even take it to a skilled shop and have them do that with something up the quality scale from HF.

Will look at IQ balance today.

And just to note, this morning it is 3 degrees F.

300D said:

And just to note, this morning it is 3 degrees F.

Click to expand...

Got any snow yet? Send some this way!

Nero Morg said:

Got any snow yet? Send some this way!

Click to expand...

We had a bit a few weeks ago. Currently about an inch on the ground. Not a whole lot to spare.

Group 013:
IQ Cylinder 1: 0.09 mg/str
IQ Cylinder 2: -0.19 mg/str
IQ Cylinder 3: 0.33 mg/str
IQ Cylinder 4: -0.24 mg/str

This is goot, right?

Looks good to me. Someone once told me if they're all within .5 of each other there's no reason to suspect cylinder/valve issues. What's your IQ at under... Group 6? I don't remember off hand. Have you done the hammer mod to try and lean it out a little?

Nero Morg said:

Looks good to me. Someone once told me if they're all within .5 of each other there's no reason to suspect cylinder/valve issues. What's your IQ at under... Group 6? I don't remember off hand. Have you done the hammer mod to try and lean it out a little?

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Will look at the IQ. What would 'leaning it out a little' help with?

Changing the IQ can help reduce smoking. A smaller number = more fuel and smoke. Higher number = less fuel less smoke. Everybody's IQ is unique, you may need to adjust it a few times to get it just right for you. Mines set at 3.6mg/s but smokes a fair bit. If I dialed it down to 5mg/s it stops smoking, but didn't feel as zippy.

Check out the Hammer mod.

Nero Morg said:

Changing the IQ can help reduce smoking. A smaller number = more fuel and smoke. Higher number = less fuel less smoke. Everybody's IQ is unique, you may need to adjust it a few times to get it just right for you. Mines set at 3.6mg/s but smokes a fair bit. If I dialed it down to 5mg/s it stops smoking, but didn't feel as zippy.

Check out the Hammer mod.

Click to expand...

Will check this out. Currently waiting on a new VNT for my turbo as I am having spiky over-boost issues and after going through the full troubleshoot I found a gigantic rust hole in the actuator. Hopefully I can get the turbo to behave properly and then I will look into the IQ and see if it can dial things in in that area. I don't have much smoke at all while driving, but I like the idea of tuning this.

300D said:

Will check this out. Currently waiting on a new VNT for my turbo as I am having spiky over-boost issues and after going through the full troubleshoot I found a gigantic rust hole in the actuator. Hopefully I can get the turbo to behave properly and then I will look into the IQ and see if it can dial things in in that area. I don't have much smoke at all while driving, but I like the idea of tuning this.

Click to expand...

Good find, you know how to adjust the actuator? I found out the fun way what happens when you don't. Overboost and limp home mode every time you hit the accelerator lol

Pull your egr hose see if your manifold needs cleaned first.

https://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/...l-cleaning-of-carbon-build-up-mk4-tdi-engine/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmx3GHk0hXg

(oops did not see this{ I found a gigantic rust hole in the actuator.}, Problem solved.

Nero Morg said:

Good find, you know how to adjust the actuator? I found out the fun way what happens when you don't. Overboost and limp home mode every time you hit the accelerator lol

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Yep. 2-5psi to start. 18 psi at the stop.

Nero Morg said:

Pull your egr hose see if your manifold needs cleaned first.
https://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/i...k4-tdi-engine/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmx3GHk0hXg

(oops did not see this{ I found a gigantic rust hole in the actuator.}, Problem solved.

Click to expand...

Yep. Cleaned my manifold and replaced the MAF sensor a few months back. Plus changed all the vacuum hoses a few months back too. Used a handy dandy image found on here to make sure all my lines were routed correctly. Recently tested the N75 and it seems to working as intended.

When I set VCDS to cycle the boost, I even videoed the actuator doing its thing mostly properly. Cycle seemed rather short, but it was doing it. Then upon closer inspection found the giant rust hole. So big that I had a moment before seeing it and just feeling it of 'maybe it's supposed to be there?'. Thinking the actuator needs replacing and going to perform the Easy Off cleaning to start with.

Nero Morg said:

Changing the IQ can help reduce smoking. A smaller number = more fuel and smoke. Higher number = less fuel less smoke. Everybody's IQ is unique, you may need to adjust it a few times to get it just right for you. Mines set at 3.6mg/s but smokes a fair bit. If I dialed it down to 5mg/s it stops smoking, but didn't feel as zippy.

Check out the Hammer mod.

Click to expand...

Checked my IQ at idle. 1.6mg/s. Hmm. Seems pretty low. Put it up to it's software adjusted max of 3.8. Will be interesting to see what/how much stuff changes.

Oh boy yeah for a 5 speed that's high. Lowering the fuel should help with smoke overall. If you still have smoke at startup it could be bleeding down nozzles. Could be time for some DLC520's

Little update. Definitely a lot less smoke at startup with the higher IQ. Little less grunt down low though. Never had any issues with smoke while running except for maybe a little at full throttle on the highway. Will have to check it out next time on the highway. Rear window is seriously dirty right now and my washer fluid currently squirts straight back, so....
Pulled the rusted actuator and found a very limited movement in the lever. Did the oven clean technique on the exhaust side of the turbo with pretty good success. Now has full movement. Still has an intermittent stickiness, but 1000% better than before. Thinking all my lever flipping has loosened some crunch inside. Hoping that driving a bit will free it up further? Put on a new actuator and adjusted to to specs of 4psi starts the lever and 19psi hits the stop. Car driving ok, but doesn't feel night and day. Logged a graph and still getting wonky graphs. Posted to a new thread titled Boost Issues as it felt pretty off topic from the original post...