Date:         Tue, 29 Jul 2003 21:08:53 -0600
Reply-To:     John Connolly <john@AIRCOOLED.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Connolly <john@AIRCOOLED.NET>
Subject:      Rough Running; 87' Syncro
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

List,

Now I have a problem with my 87, bone stock. It's running REALLY rich. It
starts up OK, and after a minute or so, it starts to belch smoke and
misfire. If I'm driving, it slowly loses power. If I turn the key off
quickly and go back on, it runs great for another minute or so. But after a
couple minutes the smoke (fuel) gets thicker and thicker, and it eventually
cuts out as the idle drops to 0. Tailpipe is coated with black from the
exhaust too. The low end on this van has always been "not right"; at 2000 it
woke up. I haven't had the time to mess with it, it ran good enough to not
worry about, but now it's a problem.

I'm not very familiar with the Digifant systems, but can do the basic
troubleshooting. any ideas? I checked all grounds, and did voltage tests and
everything seems OK. I suspect the problem is the coolant temp sensor. any
idea how often these go bad?

The Airflow meter seems to be working fine (according to Bentley) too. The
throttle switch is functioning properly, at idle and WOT. The O2 sensor is
getting 12V for the heater, and the ground is good too, though the signal
OUT seems to be weird (what should it read?).

Thanks to all that help, in advance.

John