Plastic Smell from Engine smoke from Heater Vents

I don't think that the two are related but since the day my car was delivered it has had a burning plastic smell when driving it. The place that I bought the car from said that they replaced the "rings" before I took delivery so I thought the smell was coming from the new rings. The smell is still there after 2 months and 150-200 miles. Finally, this morning smoke came from my heater vents after around 8 miles on the highway. This was the first morning that I had the heater vents open and top up with the dark, but needless to say that smoke filling the cabin at 6:30 gets the blood pumping. I'm taking the car to a good mechanic this weekend, but was hoping for some advice heading into that. Thanks in advance.

have it put on drive on lift and loook at the exhaust. bill

Possible the heater tubes they put in were not meant to be near heat? Are they the proper bend'able aluminium ones?

http://www.cip1.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C13-3496

The tubes look to be aluminum. As I said, I don't know if the smell and the smoke are necessarily related.

Seems near all air cooled engines leak oil from somewhere - it could be leaked oil burning off the heat exchangers. It could also be a bad gasket where the heat exchangers meet the heads. Are the heat exchangers old? Could it be oil burning off? Just 200 miles probably would not burn off all the oil, silicon sealer or cleaning solvent on the heads. Rings take awhile to seat too so you could be getting some blow by fumes pumped into the cooling fan. Do you see any oil leaks? Did they repaint the cooling tin when they did the rings? I'd worry too about wiring insulation possibly shorted and burning as that would give a plastic smell. Does your engine have heat sheilding and rubber gasket around it to keep hot fumes from being circulated by the cooling fan?

I once ingested a plastic bag in the fan on a 914 - boy, did it smell like burning plastic for a week or more. For sure get a decent size fire extinguisher --- just in case. Flames and fiberglass don't get along at all.

Thanks Wolfgang. I was thinking that the smell was related to the rings seating but when I saw the smoke this morning I got nervous. As I said I am taking it to a good mechanic on Monday who will hopefully sort out any real issues that I have. In the mean time I will get a good fire extinguisher.

Make sure that fire extinguisher you carry is Halon gas.

Just had a mechanic check out my Speedster. He said that the engine is strong and running well. The only issue is that my right valve cover is leaking oil. Probably explains the smoke in the defrost and maybe some of the plastic smell. I'm going to wait until April to have him change both covers and do a valve adjustment. The car will be driven on a limited basis after Nov 1 so I'll just wait until the big spring tune-up and lump it in.

Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to put colored smoke in the engine compartment and see if it comes out the vents next spring. If so, you'll be able to ID the source.

Get OEM VW valve covers with the cork gaskets and the leak will be solved.