Wednesday, June 06, 2007

 

My hero John Hamlin

My car started having loss of power problems and throwing tons of black smoke. I thought I was done for. My mechanic Dan didn’t know how to fix it and I dreaded going to the dealership. But then the universe blessed me with a diesel genius at Diesel Performance Shops. I dropped the car off and a day later he knew exactly the problem. Here’s what he found.

The vacuum pump nipple was bad.
Apparently these things are not designed well and they will crack and start spinning around and around making the vacuum pump loose pressure. This caused my turbo to only have 2psi.

My N75 switch/value thing was broken.
These things go out but usually not at 40k. Over time, having low vacuum pressure, maybe it could cause them to go bad early.

My EGR and Intake
John said it was “the worst carbon build up” he'd ever seen. "Carbon build up that you only see with 150k plus miles on them." More interestingly, the carbon build up he saw was of a SUBSTANCE he had NEVER SEEN. He called it “gummy carbon” Normally, carbon is super hard. But this stuff was like “sticky liquid paste.” John cleaned all of it. Most definitely from the veggi oil.

Number 4 Glow plug and why I’m burning oil.
John said that my #4 glow plug was bad. So I asked him to replace it. When he pulled it out the tip didn’t come out. It was fused to a bunch of carbon. John thinks some of the one inch tip broke off inside the cylinder and bounced around scrapping up the cylinder so the guides don’t seal right and oil now leaks in. I asked him why he doesn’t drill or tap it out. He said he’s never seen anyone successfully do it without getting stuff into the cylinder which causes damage and blow by. Well guess what? Dan replaced another glow plug a while back and had to tap and vacuum it out. And that’s probably about the same time I started really noticing the burning oil problem. But I didn’t get the connection at the time.

So now the car is running better then when I got it.

Comments:
You want to be a hero? Read your owners manual and run what it suggests for fuel, ultra low sulfur diesel.

Where did you ever get the idea to substitute waste vegetabble oil for diesel fuel? You should sue the proffessionals that sold and installed the system in your car for fraud and misrepresentation, it's not a suitable system for your car, despite what they claimed as they took your money.
 
I'm having trouble finding a mechanic for my TDI (2006 jetta) and I'd like to hook up with you to pick your brain.
 
This is an amazingly thorough blog, great work!
 
Thanks for your boldness and entheusiasm in undertaking this project.
 
Where is Diesel Performance Shops? I like to take my car there for service.
 
John Hamlin
Diesel Performance Shops
17184 Tulsa Street
Granada Hills, CA 91344-4843
Phone: (818) 832-1001
Fax: (818) 832-8591
 
John didn't extract the rest of the glow plug and now the car is running as well as ever. Did John pull the head?
 
I'm in the process of coverting my 2005 jetta to run wvo. would you recommend the coversion? I'm using the greasecar kit.
 
What a load of crap, "running better than it did when new" Impossible, D2 has 10% more BTU's per gallon than WVO. If you were getting 38 to 40 mpg on a regular basis per tank, that would be average performance. Get back to us when you are regularly getting over 40 mpg per tank over a 10 tank averge. Then and only then will you be running better than ever.

You can bet if all that crap was in your intake manifold after so few miles running WVO, it's in and on your Catalytic Convertor, because all that crap comes from exhaust gas recirculation, (your EGR valve) ging into your intake manifold.

Truly, you are factless and clueless.

17814 Tulsa Ave is a residence in Granada Hills, not a shop, do a Google Map search.
 
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