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Date:         Tue, 2 Dec 2014 23:28:02 -0500
Reply-To:     Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Fixed: Won't Start in St. Helena, Napa County
Comments: To: Steve Williams <sbw@SBW.ORG>
In-Reply-To:  <547E5092.4090105@sbw.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Distributor cap, rotor, and spark plugs should probably be replaced at 15k mile intervals. At least inspected. The Vanagon eats spark plugs and your 2.3L engine doesn't help things. Consider that with the engine spending its life near 4,000 rpm 15k miles is like 30k miles in a normal car. For the spark plugs I like the Bosch 4 electrode plugs such as the 4477 or the later iridium 4506. Some of the advantages of these plugs are as follows: There is no protruding metal center electrode to glow cherry red and create further pre-ignition or ping. The platinum center electrode does not wear and the 4 outer electrodes spread the wear so the gap stays consistent over a much longer period. On my fox I went over 120k miles on a set of the 4477's. They reach self-cleaning temperature quickly. Important when the engine gets started frequently for short moves. When hot they require less voltage to fire, less miss-fires.

Since you changed the coil did you pay attention to the polarity? I should have mentioned this. It is important.

Dennis

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Steve Williams Sent: Tuesday, December 2, 2014 6:52 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Fixed: Won't Start in St. Helena, Napa County

In the end, the shop installed new Bosch 7998 spark plugs, and it starts and runs fine now. So, yeah, I could have done that myself, but at least I got more comfortable digging around in the ignition. And Now I have a new coil, ignition wires, distributor cap and rotor, too.

The fellow at the shop felt the plugs were quite old, 40-50K miles. According to my records, GoWesty installed NGK spark plugs in May, 2011, at 145,277 miles. The mileage right now is about 168,520. So, only 23-24K miles. I hadn't thought it was that long ago.

One of the things I learned: I need to be more proactive about replacing ignition parts. Just as I learned the hard way a few months ago that the fuel lines in the engine compartment don't last more than a few years!

What else should I be replacing, and how often?

Another interesting item: I haven't bought a lot of stuff from GoWesty recently, but I still get a lot of information from their web site. Here's what GoWesty says about spark plugs: "Bosch has discontinued production of their spark plug for the water-boxer engine; therefore, we are now stocking this NGK product, and have found it be an excellent replacement."

The mechanic here in St. Helena says he doesn't like NGK, and he didn't have any trouble getting Bosch 7998 plugs. Is GoWesty saying Bosch discontinued a plug that was more appropriate for the waterboxer?

Again, thanks, all of you, for your advice.


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