What could have caused this ?

[Aidan]

One of my colleagues here in the UK with a 1.6 Turbo Diesel VW camper (Vanagon in the US) has recently installed a preloved engine in his vehicle, fresh 15W/40 mineral oil, still in the garage working on other vehicle issues to get it back on the road, but has been running the engine and getting oil warning light. He ran it up to temp and the oil filter was cold so he figured oil pump had failed, but when he tried to drain the oil to remove the sump to get at the pump no oil came out, so he dropped the sump and found this, solid gelatinized gunk, black in colour

here's the residue hanging from the pump pick up

the old oil that was drained prior to the installation and the filling with the fresh oil that's gone bad appeared to be fine

 

[Colt45ws]

The fresh oil tried to clean up the mess left by the old oil.

Preloved indeed. Rebuild time.

 

[Zaedock]

Looks like it was filled with STP oil treatment.

 

[river_rat]

+1
Was the PO a non-detergent oil freak?

 

[ZZman]

1. coolant in oil
2. Neglected oil changes
3. Poor design


Looks like a pretty common issue with that motor.

I would run something like Rotella T-6 in it. (Syn Oil only)

 

[ZZman]

He might try something like Mobil 1 0w-40.

 

[CourierDriver]

I think I would try a new ride, IMHO

 

[CourierDriver]

I think I would try a new ride, IMHO. Heres another vw,,the vw crowd can solve this one,,,,go for it gang,,its 507 time,lol

 

[webfors]

More like 'pre-hated'. Awful.

 

[hate2work]

Wow, that's pretty bad. It looks like someone forgot to change the oil on a regular basis.

Send a sample to B S for analysis.

 

[Aidan]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Wow, that's pretty bad. It looks like someone forgot to change the oil on a regular basis.

Send a sample to B S for analysis.


B S ? sorry not familiar with the initials, I am new on here.

What we don't understand is why the oil should change state like this when the old oil was oil-like, dirty and neglected sure but still oil. The engine hasn't been running on veg oil and there's no sign of water loss or cross contamination that you would expect with a head gasket or cracked head/block issue. This engine has only run a few hours since it was installed in this vehicle.

I'm with you guys re. the engine, junk it, but then I like my Syncro with the wbx engine which is great, and you can't replace a Syncro as there isn't any other vehicle that does what it does for the size of package and cost; note in the UK we got diff locks front and rear as standard so you get an incredibly capable off road camper, which is why they are still sooooo popular . I rebuild the gearboxes for them here in the uk and I'm fully booked for the next 4 months which shows yes they are flawed, though mostly it's VW's fault for saying gearbox sealed for life instead of scheduling oil changes like they should have, but also shows the demand to keep these 20+ year old vehicles on the road. Earlier this year we had SYNCRO25 event in Germany and more than 1.5% of all the syncros ever built turned up to it, and some guys from the states attended too, not many marques would get that sort of response short of Porsche etc....we had great event and raised Euro20K for charity too which was pretty [censored] good

Thanks for all your replies

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

B S = Blackstone Labs. (It's a US based company which will do an oil analysis but I fear the poster may not have known you were in the UK).

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
B S = Blackstone Labs. (It's a US based company which will do an oil analysis but I fear the poster may not have known you were in the UK).


Yeah, I missed his location.

That engine must have been pretty gunked up and when you put in the fresh oil it broke it all free and turned to the gel stuff. Finding a lab to analize it for you would be the only way to really tell what it is.

 

[BBDartCA]

Originally Posted By: Aidan
Originally Posted By: hate2work

Wow, that's pretty bad. It looks like someone forgot to change the oil on a regular basis.

Send a sample to B S for analysis.


B S ? sorry not familiar with the initials, I am new on here.

What we don't understand is why the oil should change state like this when the old oil was oil-like, dirty and neglected sure but still oil.


What could have happened is the oil you originally drained was pretty fresh and did not have a chances to mix up with all the heavy sludge. VW diesel oil turns black real quick under normal conditions. The oil you first drained could have been "cover up" oil. VWs diesels are also very sensitive to oil quality.

 

[river_rat]

Originally Posted By: Aidan
I'm with you guys re. the engine, junk it, but then I like my Syncro...

Oh I agree. Keep that rockin' Syncro forever. Just rebuild the engine. I got a '69 Weekender I'll not likely let go and it's just a regular 2WD.
Whatever the cause, got to get it cleaned out and see where you are with worn or damaged parts. You can have it ready for springtime easy if you have the wrench time.

 

[CourierDriver]

someone posted a similar pic in here and they found out the bulk oil at an oil changing business had gotten a bulk drum full of machine oil that was label wrong and it looked just like ur pics.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted By: river_rat
+1
Was the PO a non-detergent oil freak?

This is something I didnt think about, but could be the case. Non-detergent oil wont clean up anything, which could be why it came out "fine" but then the new 15W40 which will have a heavy duty detergent package tried to clean it up. It was successful...at the possible cost of the engine.

 

[rosshimself13]

but would you rather find that so soon, or while your on the road, away from home

 

[river_rat]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
...Non-detergent oil wont clean up anything, which could be why it came out "fine" but then the new 15W40 which will have a heavy duty detergent package tried to clean it up. ...

Owner's of older VWs for various reason seem to have that habit.
I still see a few that previously had an old air-cooled engine model with no filter, and someone told them not to used detergent oil because there was no filter to filter out the crud. So they kept the habit. Bad news.

 

[Aidan]

many thanks for all your replies, I'll have a google for a lab in the uk and see what that will cost, but I think my colleague has just about given up on the van, it's not a syncro mind.