Driving along normally going up a hill and all of a sudden this little thing revs ways high and starts blowing a huge cloud of white smoke, I turn the key off and its stays revving high and smoking. I pull over and it finally dies a few seconds after. I pop the hood, everything's normal, look under the car-everythings normal... wait for a minute then try a restart, it starts fine, revs high but starts fine and still smokes so I shut it down again and try to take a closer look at the engine and underneath..nothing again...I almost get done dialing the parents to come and get me, then I try to start it again and it runs fine, very little smoke. Ok, we'll I'll try to drive it home. It runs fine but it left quite a smoke screen at times, only did it under load so everytime I was going down a hill I would just put it in neutral and let it coast. The smoke didn't smell like antifreeze and not really like oil, trans fluid or clutch. It could have been a mixture of everything but it didn't seem like one distinct smell.

BTW the car is a '85 VW Jetta 1.6L Diesel N/A, 5spd manual. I NEED this beater to get me around and would like this fixed ASAP. Thanks.

 

It sounds like it's running away on its own oil. When those engines get tired, they push oil through the crankcase ventilation system into intake when you run 'em hard.

 

I would suggest trying fred's tdiclub, as they have extensive knowledge of VW's and their quirks.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/
mishkaya

 

so can I just vent it elsewhere until I get some other sort of blow-by setup? Also, does that mean it time for a rebuild on this little thing or what. It still starts good on cold mornings without too much smoke, so compression must still be reasonable. Thanks for the help wannadiesel.

 

Yeah, you could do a road draft tube like the Cummins has.

 

what he said.

the hose is a simple design. just block off the intake portion with a piece of rubber and run the crank case vent somewhere else. maybe put a little bottle attached to the crank vent to prevent making a big mess of your engine bay or drive way.