Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:12:37 -0600
Reply-To: Paul Chubbuck <paul@TAKINGFLIGHT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Paul Chubbuck <paul@TAKINGFLIGHT.NET>
Subject: FW: Vapor lock? Static electricity? Help!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Points, not electronic. Thanks for the ideas. I will communicate with my
mechanic this morning.
Paulo
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam [mailto:scottdaniel@turbovans.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 11:08 PM
To: paul@takingflight.net
Subject: RE: Vapor lock? Static electricity? Help!
HI Paul,
Another guy posted about CIS and fuel pumps.
So do you have points in your distributor, or is it electronic, or you don't
know ?
The distributor cap is one of those 'hope that might be it' things.
Of the dozens or hundreds of cars and vanagons I work on, I do about one
distributor cap year maybe. If one is really pitted and worn - definitely
replace it.
And there is the very rare case of a cap that looks perfect yet is faulty.
Very rare.
Mostly they work just wonderfully. I only use Bosch caps. If I see a
non-bosch cap, ..well if it's working ok fine it can stay on there a
while....but basically I wouldn't ever run a non-bosch cap on any of my
cars/vans or put a non-Bosch cap on anyone's car, so .......very good to
replace the 'non' ones.
But a 'slightly tired looking Bosch cap' the odds are extremely low that
that by itself is affecting how the car runs.
CIS is normally very reliable. What it actually uses as sort of a
'computer ' to affect how much fuel the injectors spray is a device that
changes what is called the 'control pressure' in the fuel system according
to temperature. That device is often the culprit when CIS doesn't run
right.
Fuel pumps and pressure of course are very important to consider.
Study the system in a book.
It will be interesting to see what your mech says.
Here's what almost all auto tech say when it works fine for them - they say
'it wouldn't do it for us' and they send you home.
Here's what I do ...... I examine everything......check lots of things
looking for things that are off or weak that match the symptom.
Then I offer them a repair or part that 'could' be causing the problem.
I don't promise that is 'it' ....but I do say, if it was my car....and I was
looking for things that need attention, or something that is likely to cause
this symptom, I'd try X part, or X adjustment.
That way, at least there is a chance progress is made.
With 'it didn't do it for us' .....unless it just happens to never happen
again, it's going to happen again. Something is not right in the system and
usually things continue to wear out or get out of adjustment.
With CIS you diagnose by checking fuel pressures mainly.
If it's ignition related, work on that of course.
Does it have an oxygen sensor ? I don't think 85 is CIS-E which is ECU
enhanced CIS. Look for wires going to the side of your fuel distributor
...an electrical connector there.....forget how many wires, a real plug
though. if it has that , it's CIS-E . Early CIS systems were purely
non-electronic. Don't' know what 85 has.
Heck, it could be clogged cat or muffler.
You have to *always* consider the exhaust system on any car with a cat, or
an oxygen sensor and cat.
Later !
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Chubbuck [mailto:paul@takingflight.net]
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 6:18 PM
To: 'Scott Daniel - Shazam '; 'Vanagon Mailing List'
Subject: RE: Vapor lock? Static electricity? Help!
Thanks for the help offered. My system has a distributor and I guess it is
CIS because it has metal braided hoses running to each cylinder. The plugs
were just changed. I check the distributor cap but did not change it
because it didn't look significantly carbonized or damaged.
I have used at least a couple of tanks of gas since winter, so I'm on summer
formulation for sure.
Paul
