White smoke POURING out of valve covers!! What did I do?!
 

So the next chapter of the great timing belt/valve cover saga... Tester123 what the hell did I do to my car?!

I buttoned almost everything up except the front end (connected all cooling hoses & cables though) and filled the cooling system with water... Which started linking drip by drip almost right away from just right (passenger side) of the center line of the engine, not a huge amount but a steady dripping. Fired up the engine anyway and boy she sounded rough. No check engine light or warnings on the dash though. Either sounded like air or the chain from the passenger side valve cover clattering. Coming from the back of the engine somewhere. It did subside a little bit after about 30 seconds but not completely gone. Checked as much as I could see an vent hose seemed all attached everywhere still and hose for the combi valves was still attached.

The huge issue though was I started getting a little smoke from the passenger side valve cover. I thought it might be coming from under that and was just oil that spilled from doing this job, however it started getting worse and worse and then pouring out from the drivers side valve cover too after about 2 min of the car running. Still no check engine light on the car. Both sides were just dumping white smoke out though and I decided to turn the car off at this point.

Is this normal at all for the gaskets to get seated? Did I screw up big time somewhere? I only let it run for a total of about 3 min. I do have oil in the car, a tiny bit low but still in the middle range on the dipstick. I was as careful as I could that the gasket didn't get twisted or anything when I put the valve cover on, it's sat at least a night after torqued down to speck. I can't figure out where I went wrong.

I mean on he plus side I was hugely happy the car started (almost immediately too!) but then again, holy cow in disappointed that I'm dumping more smoke out now then before I started this job...

I can't seem to see oil leaking out anywhere and don't notice any on the ground under the car, but I did only run it for about three min total.

I can make and post a video of the sound and smoke if you guys need that to help figure out what's going on...

Ok, false alarm on the smoke, It seems that it was a lot of crap that had fallen onto the exhaust pipes that was burning off. It was considerably less this time around and I could see it was billowing up from UNDER the valve cover and actually could see some crap on a pipe under the valve cover on the drivers side that the smoke was coming from. After running the car for about 30 minutes to get the water up to temp for flushing the system and trying to get the oil up to temp the smoke was almost gone. NO leaks spotted on the floor. Coolant leak doesn't seem to be there anymore either, awesome, maybe it was the water pump or T-stat "seating" in.

Now, I do still have the "farting" engine sound. Even when the oil was at full temp. The tach needle doesn't seem to bounce around more then normal (maybe 20 or so rpms? Not even from one line to the next, just a little vibration on it)

I can't tell if this sound has a metallic sound to it (makes me think cam chain) or not (combi valve, misfire, vacuum hose somewhere? Intake manifold not bolted down enough?).

Youtube video here... yes I'm one of those retarded people that didn't flip their iPhone the right when when filming...

It sounds like an exhaust leak or maybe a loose spark plug to me.

So the smoke is totally gone now. I torqued down the intake manifold again/more and it seems to have "calmed" the "farting" sound... Anyone know what the torque specs are for those hex bolts?

I still have a diesel / rattle sound though... Please don't tell me I have to bust open that passenger valve cover again. Or if I do at least I can get away without pulling the timing belt again...

I also have a check engine light now but of course no vag-com. Anyone around 99354 have one and wanna come over and see what the CEL is all about? Lol

I'm hesitant to buy a ~$200 cable especially when I'm a mac guy and that adds an extra layer of pain in the butt. Are there any vag specific all in one scanners that won't break the bank? :-/

Edit: forgot my most recent video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiuQTag2VVw

YouTube video of the current issue...

Ok, so even though I felt totally sure timing was on the mark I'm thinking it's off. At least I'm hoping digging back in an verifying timing will solve the issue. If the passenger side is off slightly, how do I fix that? Lock down crank at TDC, leave drivers side cam shaft caps bolted down & verify it remains lined up with little arrows at little notches and then remove chain on the passenger side and rotate the shafts independently so they both are lined up perfectly at their notch? Then make sure they stay at their notches and seem if I can get the cam lock bar to go on?

I know for sure I verified the chain link count but maybe they rotated a little out of position or something some how.

Is it possible the chain count can be correct on both sides and the cam lock bar can fit on and still be out of time? Is correcting the timing as "easy" as just making sure all the notches and marks line up?

You can buy a beta wifi VCDS (called something else but go to ross-tech) that will work on you mac or iPhone or android.
I think by Feb14….

I think that's like $400 though... :-/

First, congratulations that you made it this far and fired it up. Great!

Smoke as you found out is from oil on exhaust pipes, no big deal.

You never acknowledged to my instructions to check the cam alignment like I described. Did you do that? I kept repeating this like 10 times to save your behind from unnecessary trouble.

So, in your next post, tell me if you did that or not.

If your timing is right, that popping sound is something you can ignore because the oil is trying to make its way into the tensioner and chain won't be completely tensed (well at least not until you run the car for another 15 to 20min) until oil is circulating properly through the channels.

That sound happened to me as well. DON'T raise the rpm or give gas. Let it idle. Use this time to take care of coolant flushing/replenish.

Also, did you change oil & filter? I'd suggest you do that, check and make sure oil levels are right (with car resting on wheels).

Get back after that and we'll see what's going on.

Yes it is. You get what you pay for.