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Fuel in Oil
BiX - November 12th, 2003 at 01:17 PM

The spare L bug had problems starting for my bro this morning. We found out the sump was full of Fuel. I have drained the oil/petrol, let it stand, filled it, turned it over without plugs leads to get oil pressure back, then ran it for 10 mins, now going to do another oil change.

What ways could the fule get into the engine, i assume 1 of 2 ways.
1- thru the fule pump, the diaphram may have broken
2- The solinoid cut out valve on the carby may have died and let fuel thru. (its a stock carby)

any other wasy it could get in? The car was parked on a reasonable hill last nite (nose up).

thanks.


Bizarre - November 12th, 2003 at 01:27 PM

As far as i know (:() they are the only 2 ways.

rather than the shut off valve it may be the needle and seat??

Barry


Purple Martin - November 12th, 2003 at 01:38 PM

Same thing has happened to my Kombi when parked on a hill nose-up, and I've heard it's fairly common. I now always park level or downhill.

The problem is caused when the needle-and-seat valve sticks, and the fuel in the carby overflows, filling cylinders with fuel. Because fuel is much runnier than oil it easily leaks past the cylinder rings into the sump.

You've done the right thing changing the oil, the other thing you need to do is replace the faulty needle-and-seat valve. Luckily new ones are very cheap and it's a simple matter to unscrew the top half of the carby and replace the valve.


geodon - November 12th, 2003 at 03:11 PM

The diaphragm may be leaking internally ie directly into the crankcase. This can be sneaky coz the pump will below the tank if parked nose up & then you've got gravity working on the problem overnight as well as the fuel pump while the eng is running!


vw54 - November 12th, 2003 at 07:08 PM

I had the same problem a few yearsago.... Its the fuel pump diaphram gone,

Make sure you do a few oil changes over the next few weeks.... Run it for a day or so then dump the oil do this 3 times at least to make sure the fuel has gone.

Oil is cheaper than an Engine rebuild.