Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 09:43:41 -0500
Reply-To: wvveedub@NETSCAPE.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Brian Atkins <wvveedub@NETSCAPE.NET>
Subject: Aircooled Westy - fuel problems?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
OK, to the best of my knowledge / recollection, here is the story:
My neighbor was trying to 'clean up' some of the lifter noise on his '81 Westy this weekend (many thanks to those of you that responded to the post on Friday). Having previously used the gunk / atf clean out method, he decided to move on the the adjustment part. I loaned him my Bentley manual and printed out the article on lifters from the Boston Engine site for him to use.
According to the Bentley manual, it states the valve adjustment should be 2 turns down past touching when the piston is at TDC. After doing so, he couldn't get the engine to fire. He then backed them out to 1 turn and finally 1/2 turn before the engine came back to life.
Once it was running, he took it for a test drive to see if the lifter noise was still present. About a mile or so down the road, the van stalled (according to him, it started bogging down when he was accellerating). He was able to restart it by relieving pressure from the 'bleed screw' on the line to the #3 & #4 injectors. However, it stalled again before he could make it home.
I towed him back to his place and we started checking things out. Several times we used the 'bleed, start, stall, bleed, ...' method to try to diagnose the problem. Again, using the Bentley manual, we determined that he had a bad fuel pressure regulator. Luckily, a FLAPS in Winchester had one.
About 1 1/2 hours later, the van is firing up again and idleing, but lokks like it is running very, very rich (black smoke out of the exhaust & fuel smell). Touching the pedal when it is cold produces strong revs, but after it warms up a bit (2 - 3 minutes), idle becomes errattic and touching the pedal causes the engine to bog down. Turning off the engine and letting it cool for a couple minutes and the engine starts and runs fine (except the mixture) until it warms up again.
Now, although I have assisted him from time to time, I am not all that familiar with what he has done to it. I do know that the previous owner ripped most of the emmissions off (no egr, o2 or cat converter) and that he has the timing set at 5 degrees ATDC. To boot, he has the bottom cooling tins removed (I already scolded him on that one).
I suspect a vacuum leak combined with overheating, but I have very limited experience with EFI and can't explain the rich mixture. The stalling / bogging I suspect is a result of the plugs fouling or possibly pre-detonation, but it started smowing heavy just as we were getting into that and we wussed out.
Brian
'85 7-passenger GL
'73 Beetle
(does my neighbor's van count?)
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