Date:         Thu, 1 Mar 2001 15:15:01 -0800
Reply-To:     John Clemens <jbclem@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Clemens <jbclem@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Passing through creek, engine misses badly
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

I drive through a creek everyday and with my 1983 watercooled Westphalia it doesn't take very much water splashing up to make the engine almost shut off and/or miss badly.  Often I will make it across on inertia alone and sit half in/half out of the water on the far side letting the engine idle and dry up the
wet/missfiring area.  Sometimes it takes five minutes and then the engine will slowly pick up power as seemingly one cylinder after another starts firing.

I'd like to ask for some suggestions: I'm sure there is one component, probably fuel injection, that is getting wet and then drying off.  I want to locate it and then try to waterproof it.  I'm guessing it's on the left side of the engine, but I haven't figured out what it is.

The engine usually doesn't shut off in the creek, but if it does, it will usually start up fairly quickly, but then have very little power until the wet part dries off.  It's hard to tell if it is shutting off a few cylinders or just an overall grounding of a component.

Any ideas...any creek dwellers out there?

John

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