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Date:         Sat, 19 Oct 2013 09:21:58 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Intermittent smoke after stop signal wait...
Comments: To: "Vanagons and VW Buses (Bays) with VW inline gas engines"
          <vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines@googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I sometimes see a nasty grey cloud of smoke from the exhaust of my 84. Digifant EMS on an inline VW motor. I am guessing it may be a faulty throttle switch that sometimes goes to 'full rich' for whatever reason. By intermittent I mean....When I go to town, perhaps 1 trip of four, this smoke shows up. It doesn't smoke at every signal....It may do so for two in a row, then no smoke at all the rest of the driving around. It sometimes even smokes breifly on start up, but very seldom...

Here are the specifics of how this occurs and when: It normally happens in the city when I am stop and go driving or hitting traffic lights. Everything might be normal without any problem then I will roll up to a signal and idle there while the light cycles then as I leave, the van puffs out an embarrassing cloud of grayish exhaust smoke, lasting perhaps two seconds before the exhaust clears back up and is again invisible. I have also noticed that on start up, then coasting down a longer hill the exhaust will backfire....I do have an air leak in my exhaust system which probably allows air in to make the loud bang more likely...

I see no smoke on long hill descents. Nothing when I redline the motor to 6000rpm. I don't burn much oil for a VW inline, but I do have a slight leak at my homemade filler when I park with the nose up on a steep incline...a quarter sized puddle below maybe.

I think my throttle switch is NLA...I think it is the longish leaf springy looking type...It seems to click correctly with linkage movement and it clicks off when the throttle is closed...when I do it in the engine by hand...consistently and correctly..

Anybody have any other ideas about this stinky cloud of smoke I sometime see? I hate puffing that into our air, though it's probably nothing compared to, say, a coal fired power plant...a minor 2-second visible exhaust puff a few times a week...


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