Timing

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
So update, car is running and I notice it has a little sputter while idling, and it looks like there’s some smoke coming from the injector lines, I tightened the nuts on the injector lines because they were a little loose and it still seems to be smoking somewhere by there, could I have messed something up with the timing?
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
Took the oil cap off after about 30 minutes of not driving it and I noticed some smoke came out of there
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
DO NOT overtorque the bolts that hold down the injectors or for that matter a glow plug. the ONLY way to fix it is to NOT tighten it, but to remove it completely, sand the mating surface where the copper washer goes, sand down the copper washer or replace the washer. a leak will only get worse, smoke or fuel. you can easily destroy the threads/ hold downs/ or the injector body or the pivot arm if you even think about putting a bit more than what's called for with a torque wrench. DO NOT MANUALLY TIGHTEN IT. or your probably going to crack or strip out the threads or damage the head.

My suggestion is to remove the leaking whatevers, clean things up and fix the leak and check for cracks. follow the write ups for it.
BUy a used old K cable, the new ones have limited VIN #s and are $$$$. either way a used is by far cheaper. You can hack the ebay fake cables for basic tools like timing and IQ and a few things but its spotty at best.
the oil will always have a lot of blowby though. If things are not working properly, a leak down test and a compression test will diagnose any internal issues.
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
the stutter can easily be a QA (quantity adjustment) issue. now that you have proper timing physically you need to "hammer mod" and adjust the timing. You can do the hammer mod easily with some common tools, but the timing graph is VCDS specific. I suspect your timing is very retarded (under graph) and your QA or IQ (injection quantity) is very low or extremely high.
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
DO NOT overtorque the bolts that hold down the injectors or for that matter a glow plug. the ONLY way to fix it is to NOT tighten it, but to remove it completely, sand the mating surface where the copper washer goes, sand down the copper washer or replace the washer. a leak will only get worse, smoke or fuel. you can easily destroy the threads/ hold downs/ or the injector body or the pivot arm if you even think about putting a bit more than what's called for with a torque wrench. DO NOT MANUALLY TIGHTEN IT. or your probably going to crack or strip out the threads or damage the head.

My suggestion is to remove the leaking whatevers, clean things up and fix the leak and check for cracks. follow the write ups for it.
BUy a used old K cable, the new ones have limited VIN #s and are $$$$. either way a used is by far cheaper. You can hack the ebay fake cables for basic tools like timing and IQ and a few things but its spotty at best.
the oil will always have a lot of blowby though. If things are not working properly, a leak down test and a compression test will diagnose any internal issues.
As for that the smoke is coming out of the coolant reservoir and where the oil cap is, also still by the injectors, runs fine when you first start it but after you rev it or start driving, then it sputters and blows white smoke out of the tailpipe. Heard it could be the head gasket or the head has a crack?
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
the stutter can easily be a QA (quantity adjustment) issue. now that you have proper timing physically you need to "hammer mod" and adjust the timing. You can do the hammer mod easily with some common tools, but the timing graph is VCDS specific. I suspect your timing is very retarded (under graph) and your QA or IQ (injection quantity) is very low or extremely high.
How would I go about doing that? And would I be able to use a obd2 scanner? I don’t have a laptop for a vcds plug in.
 

turbodieseldyke

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Location
Free Mustache Rides
TDI
98 jetta
You'll need vagcom to measure IQ. Plain OBD won't work.

However, no changes to IQ will fix the "smoke out the coolant reservoir" problem. It is smoke coming out of there, right? Not coolant steam? Any bubbles?
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
bypass the EGR cooler coolant pipes for now. the cooler tends to leak over time. I have one if you need one. usually a head gasket will just displace coolant. High pressure vs the low pressure of the exhaust soot in the EGR post turbo.
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
I b
You'll need vagcom to measure IQ. Plain OBD won't work.

However, no changes to IQ will fix the "smoke out the coolant reservoir" problem. It is smoke coming out of there, right? Not coolant steam? Any bubbles?
I believe it was just coolant steam, that’s my bad. But it still smoke around the injectors
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
bypass the EGR cooler coolant pipes for now. the cooler tends to leak over time. I have one if you need one. usually a head gasket will just displace coolant. High pressure vs the low pressure of the exhaust soot in the EGR post turbo.
How would I go about that? And I believe it’s just normal coolant steam. Still smoking somewhere around the injectors
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
How would I go about that? And I believe it’s just normal coolant steam. Still smoking somewhere around the injectors
Coolant hoses. Take them.off the cooler and connect them togeather. It's just a loop. Inspect the plastic block that the big hose goes into at the head as well. .

Leak down test if you cant figure it out. Pressurize the coolant system to 20psi with compressed air. Find out where it's going. Hope it's not a cracked head.!
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
Coolant hoses. Take them.off the cooler and connect them togeather. It's just a loop. Inspect the plastic block that the big hose goes into at the head as well. .

Leak down test if you cant figure it out. Pressurize the coolant system to 20psi with compressed air. Find out where it's going. Hope it's not a cracked head.!
My buddy has one of those, I can ask him to use it so I can do a leak down test, I’ll give it a try in the morning, thanks for the help and worst case scenario my dad has a rebuilt head in his rusted out 98 Jetta tdi so I can change it but I hope I don’t have too!
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
My friend has a code reader I have been using but I’m going to buy a vag-com cable so I don’t have to keep asking to use it and yes I plan on doing all the work myself
It's a great idea and sometimes used Vag-Com cables come up for sale for $150 or so. They tend to hold their value. The adjustments you make and readings you can see with it over the Lite version or some Chinese cable are well worth the cost.

I've repaired I don't know how many TDI's that mechanics and dealerships messed up due to cutting corners. In every case I was able to easily fix the problems because they didn't know the procedures. I started doing mechanic work myself when I kept having to pay for water pumps to be replaced, even though they were under warranty. I got tired of it and learned myself and am glad I did. These cars are easy to repair and work on and it's saved me tens of thousands over the years, and I've met some great people in the process.

I have two rules of thumb: 1) never buy junk, whether tools or parts, and 2) always do the job correctly and don't take shortcuts.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
It sounds like you're suffering from a fuel supply problem and the other things you mention aren't really connected to that, just observations at the same time. I would check for solid fuel flow from the filter to the IP via the clear tube and make sure that starvation isn't causing the hickups you're experiencing.

Granted since I'm not there I can't really diagnose this but steam is not uncommon from the reservoir when the coolant is hot. And I'd think, like TDD, that the 'smoke' from the reservoir might actually be steam. Is the reservoir blackened inside, as in very dark to the eye when trying to look through it? That would be a sign of head gasket failure and exhaust getting into the coolant.

As for smoke around injectors do you have any fuel leakage from return lines that might be burning off the hot engine / injectors?

If you can do a reasonable phone video and post on utube that would probably at least give us something to look at.

Steve
 

burn_your_money

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Location
Missouri
TDI
99 Beetle, 96 B4V, 05 Passat wagon
Bring it to a car wash and wash the whole engine off really well. After you've driven it enough for all the water to evaporate, you'll know what is a fresh leak, and what was just old stuff burning off from previous work.

It's very common for those soft hoses between the injectors to weep.
 

louis11018

Active member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Location
Arcade ny
TDI
98 Jetta tdi ahu
Turns out it was coolant steam and as for the smoke by the injectors, the car was burning off all the excess oil on and around the engine, and the car spitters while idling I’m not sure what could cause that but in one of my other forums before I timed the car I mentioned when I was driving I would let off the gas for a second and then get back on it and the car will jump, blow black smoke out and pop, could this be the ip timing?
 
Top