Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2015 08:30:08 -0700
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Trip Report: Portland, Or to Algodones, Mx and return..
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Again this winter my 84 vanagon with inline VW power took me south for
the worst months of our Northwest winter weather, again without any
drama. I began tracking my mileage recently, with an app. called Fuelly,
just before I headed south. I logged almost 13,000 miles since September,
with an overall gas mileage figure of 24.4 mpg and an all time high of
27.4. With all my carpenters tools, my toys and dog aboard and half a
tank of gas, I weighed the van at 4700lbs. With the weight, my fuel
consumption was down appx. 2mpg..but unloaded again now, I am back to about
25mpg.
Before departure I did some maintenance, as usual. I installed a new
set of iridium sparkplugs, the old ones had been in the motor since I
swapped to the 2.0 liter ABA block. (~50k miles?) The gap was rather
large and they had some deposits indicating my old motor may be getting a
little tired....but you can not tell the way the motor keeps
performing...Stuck in a new gas filter and changed the oil and filter
(15-40 delo oil, wix filter) I also changed a leaking output shaft seal
(axle) and topped up the transmission, bled the clutch slave and swapped
the brake fluid and upped the tires to carry the added load. Stuck in a
new Temp II sender just for drill and cleaned all the electrical grounds as
well as generally checking everything I could see or reach under the
vehicle...I also replaced the O2 sensor with a cheapo unheated one to run
with my Digifant engine management system...Works fine except it takes a
second or two to get up to temperature...
When I finished this trip the van was again due for some
maintenance...Oil and filter, cut the filter open and checked for
metal....clean inside the filter....Again topped up the transaxle...no
metal bits on the drain plug...Examined the tire wear closely...the right
upper A-arm bushing is still shot....but no weird wear patterns. The
Vanagon drives noticeably lighter without all that stuff aboard....With
that weight I actually used my 3rd gear twice, climbing on Hwy 395, a high
mountain highway in eastern California with some passes above 8000'.....I
normally keep my speed around 60-70mph on my travels and have little
trouble holding that speed except on long steep passes above about 5000' of
elevation when fully loaded.
Again I pretty much paid for this trip by purchasing medications,
eyeglasses, and having some dental work done in Mexico....It seems a bit
strange that in our great country we have to pay ten times over for
medicine or drive to Mexico or Canada if you are poor like me..I noticed,
also, that gas was pretty reasonable for a time, until they found an excuse
to up the price, PER GALLON, one dollar, all at once! I also got stuck in
L.A. traffic once...going over Cajon pass at stop and go pace for almost 15
miles......I don't know how people do that daily...
| 
