Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:44:53 -0700
Reply-To: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Thanks! (Was Re: Higher elevation -- anything to watch out for?)
In-Reply-To: <ca2.11d9c76a.33ab3abd@aol.com>
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Thanks, all.
With Mellow Yellow's auto transmission I routinely shift to 2nd or 1st
as needed whenever the revs get below 2800rpm. I figure that 4000 to
4400rpm is the happier place to be for these little engines. Same for my
71 loaf, though it has a somewhat lower red line than the 1.9l.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
Oxroad@aol.com typed:
> In a message dated 6/20/2007 4:13:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM writes:
>
> >Next month the Mrs and I will be driving through/over the Sierra
> Nevada
> >mountains. Maybe up to 10,000 ft (3000m) elevation. How well does the
> >1.9l's ECU handle that thinner air?
>
>
> I have had a few trouble spots with my 1.9 at elevation in Denver--so
> what's that a mile high (?)-- actually only a couple of times. This
> after many trips there and to higher elevations.
>
> Both times it was as I had just arrived. I shut down the bus to go into
> a store lets say for 10 minutes and it wouldn't start again. Kind of a
> flooded situation in that I had to pull the plugs, let it all dry out
> for a while, and then it fired up.
>
> I was told that at elevation the gasoline is configured differently than
> lower elevation gasoline. I was also told that the condition I suffered
> those few times was due to not stopping as I gained elevation and fill
> (top off for lack of a better term) the tank with the "properly"
> configured gasoline as I got higher.
>
> I was told that at every 1000 feet of gain or so you should fill what
> space you have in the tank with the elevation configured gasoline. This
> because as you go higher it's a difference configuration for the
> ascending elevation.
>
> I can't swear any of this is fact, but filling up with the "new" gas as
> I gain elevation has kept me from having this problem. And I have been
> up higher than that 5000 feet up over the continental divide and up in
> the Wyoming and Montana Rockies without incident.
>
> And to reiterate--because it was already three paragraphs ago--both
> times she acted up it was as I had just arrived after having driven from
> lower elevation up to Denver area and tried to restart the bus while it
> was still hot after 5 or ten minutes of down time.
>
> The other advice I have I got from a guy with a 66 bus who had to climb
> from the Minden, Nevada area up to Lake Tahoe pretty regularly. He had
> gotten the advice from an old German fellow who claimed experience in
> the Alps with old school VW busses. "Americans always want to get into a
> higher gear," the old fellow had said. "So when they climb a hill they
> push up the revs slowly, slowly, slowly, as best they can, then shift up
> to 4th gear. Then the revs start to drop and they downshift to third and
> start over again slowly, slowly letting the revs get up."
>
> I have to admit. That was my trick.
>
> So the old fellow says, "Keep it in 3rd gear at about 3200 RPMs and just
> relax. You'll get there."
>
> Best,
> Jeff
> 83.5 Westy
> LA, CA
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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