Date:         Sat, 6 Oct 2012 22:01:52 -0400
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Darn idle, stalling, running rich...
In-Reply-To:  <50709A4E.1000508@turbovans.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Scott,

You're absolutely right; the driving conditions are horrible for any car;
it never gets warmed up properly. Not sure what to do about that though. I
used to live 15 miles from town and the van ran pretty well then, but my
marriage didn't. So, now I live in town, happily.

My modus transportati is this: I seldom drive the van as my new wife and I
commute together. I have a new son, as of three weeks ago. My wife stays
home for now and I'm driving the van every day again, but less than 10
miles a day. My other use for the van is driving it to festivals, 1.5 - 5
hours away, but that is infrequent and only during the summer.

My wife would probably not like this used as justification for getting
another old BMW, but that's a possibility . . .

I don't understand your comment about tapping in a new coax near the ECU .
. . Could you elaborate on that?

Zero valve lash cold was Bob Donalds' spec for his big valve engine. I
don't know enough about the inner workings of the engine to be able to tell
you why.

Regarding the work done in Staunton, Keith set the valves and said to bring
it back in 500 miles to have them rechecked. I did. That was about 1,000
miles ago. Having had that done, the van runs great on the highway, or did
for a while, but it seems to be getting worse the more I drive it the short
distances. Maybe I will consider a longer route to work . . . Still, the
biggest problem I'm having is at the end of the day and the van has to run
long enough to get to a higher speed route to go home. That's getting
harder to do.

That Zetec engine is starting to look pretty good these days . . .
Marc

On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

>  Just want to comment , that only 3 miles to work is a very undisearable
> mode to operate a vanagon in.
>
> Will try to keep this story short. College student woman calls me ...87 or
> vanagon smoking badly.
> I go check it out ....was concerned about possibly leaking injector/s fuel
> in the cylinders so had it towed to me.
>  I got it all running right without much more than inspecting, cleaning,
> some adjusting ..
> maybe an oil change .. This was wintertime too.
>   When I called her to talk about what was going on with the van I said ..
> " I bet you drive this van 7 blocks to the Food Co-op, shop, then drive
> that same short distance back.'
>
> she said ..yep ..that's right.
> I said, you can't do that successfully with a vanagon, particulairly in
> the winter.  Or if it does tolearte that type of sue ...it sure shortens
> the life of the engine.
> Might be better to take a longer route to work.
> Operating an engine so it never gets fully warmed up, or rarely gets fully
> warmed up is really rough on it.
>
> re your symptoms ..
> have not seen it myself but I read about shorted oxygen sensor signal
> wires, and have seen a new coax tapped in near the ECU once or twice. Might
> consider that.
>
> re the 'zero valve lash'  ..
> that is backing the rocker arm screw out until the hydraulically lifter
> 'cushion'part isn't doing anything ?
>  In any case..
> if it runs right after someone does that adjustment ...I would think
> pretty hard abut why that is.  Might be a clue there.
>
> fwiw..I have seen waterboxer 2.1's run fairly well with the Idle Valve
> and oxygen sensor disconnected .  Like not be all that bad .   I much
> prefer to have those working though.
> Have you tried it with oxygen sensor disconnected  ?
>
> It's not clear how you had it working fine once ...after Stauntun...
> and then how long before it starting acting not right again ?
>
> good luck !
> scott
>
>
>  On 10/5/2012 3:44 PM, Marc Perdue wrote:
>
> I think I'm with everybody on the list in terms of having been chasing idle
> issues from day one with my van. I just found the excellent post on BTDT
> and am going to go through that process on my van this weekend.
>
> Here's what's up: I've an '87 Westy, auto, that I originally replaced the
> tranny in due to PO putting gear oil in it. I've had this particular
> problem since I've owned the van (2003 maybe?). I start the van in the
> morning. It usually dies a few times before I can get it moving and then
> once or twice more before it warms up. It's usually running okay by the
> time I get to work, three miles away. In the evening, when I get off work,
> it runs rough as a cob and will only smooth out if I can get the revs up
> above 2500. Above that, it runs fine. Problem is, most of the streets
> nearest work have a 25 mph or lower speed limit, so the revs don't get that
> high. Once I get a mile or so from work, it seems to run better, though
> still lacking in power until I get on the bypass (55 mph speed limit).
>
> Now, here are the things that I've done over the years, and any one of
> these could be a problem yet again I suppose, save for the idle control
> valve:
> Cleaned all grounds, per y'all's recommendations
> Replace Temp II sensor
> Replace O2 sensor, several times
> Replace exhaust, several times
> Replace engine with Boston Bob (I miss him) big valve engine after throwing
> a rod through the crankcase
> Replace idle stabilizer module (NOT new)
> Replace ECU (NOT new)
> Cleaned idle control valve many times and just replaced it with a brand new
> one
> Checked and adjusted throttle switch
> Replaced AFM (NOT new)
> Replaced throttle body boot
> Replaced distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs and wires
> Checked timing somewhere along the way
>
> Incidentally, my van was running its best when I took it to a shop and
> insisted that they adjust the valves to zero lash cold, per Bob Donalds.
> I've since had the same done by Keith (last name escaping me) in Staunton,
> VA, and it's usually run quite well after that, getting up to 18 mpg and
> gobs of power (relatively speaking, of course). But I haven't done the work
> commute after that to test this particular idle problem.
>
> As I said, I'm going to clean all the grounds again per the BTDT post, but
> do you all have any other ideas? This is darn frustrating.
>
> Thanks much! And it's good to "see" many familiar faces are still here.
> Marc Perdue
>
>
>
>