Date:         Sun, 1 Jul 2001 21:57:52 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Re: Tough driving(thin air)
Comments: To: FOTAR2@AOL.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

If the old WBX is in good shape and well tuned, the only thing negative
that one would experience with going to altitude is simply some
reduction of hore power purely and simply due the change in air
density.  The higher you go, the less dense the air, the richer the fuel
air mixture will become. But the Digijet and Digifant injection systems
operating as they do, they will compensate for the changing air density,
by reducing the amount of fuel bringing the fuel/air mix ack into
balance for the best burn. Of course with less oxygen in the less dense
air, not as much power will be developed. But probably the power loss is
not significant enough to cause one to have to pull off the road.

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Bob Nugent wrote:
>
>     Actually, I don't think there is anything wrong with the way my WBX
> vanagon is running, merely that by the time you figure in the weight of the
> Syncro and camping gear, I am hauling a lot more weight up those hills. And
> while the Digifant is a fiendishly clever system which, I'm sure, does adjust
> the mixture properly for altitude, it can't make up for the change in air
> density and the resultant power loss. The fringe benefit of higher altitude
> is the reduction in air resistance at speed, but hills are still hills. The
> only substitute for cubic inches that I know of is some kind of a blower --
> unless it is to switch to a lighter version of the vanagon -- which I'm
> considering.
>
> Bob