Denial is running strong. You just aren’t that sensitive to notice a 2% change in power and if you can't get to 70-75 on level road you have a problem. It is possible to have something wrong that is not internal to the engine. Do or get some diagnostics done and figure it out. One possibility is the catalyst failed and is plugging up the exhaust. Compression and leak down test will confirm engine condition. Could even be power loss due to a sensor or injector issue such as a bad O2 sensor system. Dennis
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Michael Hart Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 4:32 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Power & MPG Summer/Winter Over the past ~3 weeks I've noticed a slight drop in power & mpg for my Westy (what power you may ask?). Specifically it feels like i'm fighting a headwind on the freeway at 50 - 60 mph. Searching for answers and hoping it is not a real engine problem (this 2WD Westy has 195k on the original engine), I followed a hunch on gasoline formulations & found the following; - the winter gasoline formulation for California has an average of 1.7% lower energy content (vs. summer) - due to added butane - the changeover date is Oct 31st (most stations switch over a little earlier) - other factors that affect fuel economy include air temperature (the daytime temperatures have dropped significantly over the past two weeks here) http://www.afdc.energy.gov/pdfs/2876.pdf Having read all this I am less worried that the engine is on it's last legs (I still have no really good excuse to spend large $$ on a new engine...) -- Mike Hart Palo Alto, CA (SF Bay Area) 1987 2WD White Westfalia GL 'T3Westy' |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.