Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2011 20:37:54 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Starting issue - low idle and wants to stall
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reply-type=original
hi Robert,
sounds like the Air Valve and / or Control unit for it behind the right tail
light are not working.
it 'should' ..
when all is well, it should start easily, and go right into a steady idle..
and electronically controlled one..
via that control unit and the that silver can going-crows-wise air valve.
the first test is turn on the key ( don't start engine ) and feel the valve
to see if it's humming.
it usually is.
meaning the control unit and valve would like to cooperate, but perhaps
can't .
my 87 Wolfsburg was horrible about cold idle I first got it.
I ended up putting in a better engine ..
making sure there were no air leaks anywhere..
and swapping in and out about 4 different valves and 3 different control
units for.
Now it works fine..and I never give it a though.
as I have said many times...idle switch making contact at idle is
important..
and timing shouldn't be too advanced.
it's like this..
when *everything* is perfect on your model van..
it's completely strong starting, strong idling, won't stumble..
actually....you couldn't stall it if you tried..
I once drove the very first electronic fuel injection mass production
car..with EFI for emissions reasons..
that was a 68 or so SquareBack with auto trans.
it was new..
you could not get it to act up ....no matter what you did clumsily with the
controls, it would not stall, or hesitate to move out smartly.
that's new .
that's when *everything* is working perfectly.
so obviously ..
yours is not now..
and someone needs to find whatever is glitchy in there.
and there is .
or at there was , maybe people are getting smarter about this lately ...
there has been the notion often that it's 'one thing.'
I bet you.......there are 10 things not perfect about the running of your
engine ..
whether in air leaks, temp sensors, tired air flow meter..
whatever....all these parts are 24 yrs old now or so ..
that's a long time for things to be doing their little job ..
air leaks..
can't have any. Any.
the ecu largely reads air to decide how long to keep the injectors open.
it reads coolant temp and rpm of course..
but a lot of the 'intelligence' of waterboxer EFI is based on what's going
on with the air enteriing the engine and the ecu taken inputs to know about
it.
any small air leak there..
I had one that you'd open the throttle ..
and you could hear the 'moan' sound of the airflow increasing ..
like a big V-8 at WOT and low rpm ...
there was that air sound with throttle well opened..
but it wasn't reving out ..
it seemed exactly like the fuel was not being added by the ECU.
and..
from the thottle plate to the intake ports, I found about 10 tiny air leaks.
There were even air leaks at the screws that hold the fuel press regulator
to the plenum.
fixing those fixed it of course
just extend the hoses and bypass the old fuel filter if you have to.
as for the screw ...
get up in there with a dremmel tool.
I have a mikita long thing dremmel like tool ..like a giant dremmel.
there are pointy cone shaped bits that go on them .
they spin up to 14K rpm
I can get in the tinest spaces and remove metal with that thing.
it would eat right threw that screw in a minute or two max.
good luck ..
it really helps to have known-good parts to substitue..
very low tech, but can be effective.
hope you make good progress,
scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Stewart" <robertmstewart@MAC.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2011 10:39 AM
Subject: Starting issue - low idle and wants to stall
> RE: 88 auto wolfsburg edition, Engine rebuilt with 5,000 miles on it.
>
> So my van has had this issue for while now and I am not sure how to
> resolve it.
>
> When I start the van I have to apply a little gas to the pedal otherwise
> it will stall on startup.
>
> Once warm it idles nicely at around 850-900rpms.
>
> What kind of adjustment needs to be made to prevent these startup stalls?
>
> Also I noticed that sometimes when I press the gas at a stop light it
> might hesitate for a second before accelerating. What is that issue? I
> have not changed the fuel filter in about 2 years. I tried but the
> releasing bolt seems to not want to open past a certain point so
> replacement is on hold till I resolve this issue.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
> Bloomingburg NY
