Date:         Fri, 6 Jan 1995 09:01:37 -0700 (MST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         john keith hopp <jhopp@unm.edu>
Subject:      Re: HELP! FI Fuel Supply(?) Problems with 75 Westy in Phoenix


My Oxy-fuel .02:  My '70 Kombi actually gets 2-3mpg. better with the 
oxy-gas than, say, in the summer with plain old petrol.  Natch, it has no 
FI.  

On Thu, 5 Jan 1995 jds@media.mit.edu wrote:

> 
>   I'm pretty much stranded in Phoenix due to this little
> problem.  The current situation is that when I cruise down
> the highway all is fine, but when I put a bit of a load on
> the motor it begins to crap out.  I have to ease back on
> the peddle to keep the engine running.  Generally at the
> top of a hill i'm doing between 25-35.  This I can almost
> deal with.  The problem arises when I exit the highway.
> When I get to the stop, the engine dies.  If I wait from
> 10 minutes to 2 hours I can start it again.  This is not
> good.  I can crank all I like but  it doesn't help.
> 
>   The problems started a few weeks ago when I first fueled
> up in Phoenix.  They use that nice oxygenated gas with great
> amounts of either alcohol or ethers in it.  The next day I
> had some serious loss of power sometimes and others it would
> be not soo bad.  I replaced the fuel filter and it acted
> better but within 5 miles the fuel pump seized up.  Fortunately
> I was in the middle of nowhere...  Things seemed ok, but not
> great.  Still the lack of power problem.
> 
>   I drove up north to Flagstaff this weekend (around 7 or 8000
> foot gain in elevation) and the drive up was miserable with the
> car stalled every time I got off the highway, even on the way
> back down.  As long as I kept driving it would keep going.
> Only if I let the engine rev too low would it die.
> 
>   I took the beast to a local shop and they determined it
> was bad points.  It was plausible, so all fixed I headed
> out to continue my journey (hiking in Sedona or ??).  I got
> about 5 or so miles down the highway and the same thing
> happened, loss of power and it stalled when I pulled off 
> the highway.  I'm not scoring any brownie points with other
> drivers trying to get through the intersection at this
> point.  10 minutes later I was able to get it started and
> stuck to the side streets where it runs fine.
> 
>   The shop says it has good pressure and all seems well.
> They don't know what to try next.  Neither do I.  The 
> new fuel pump makes a good bit of whizzing noise but
> so did the old one..
> 
>   Any ideas?  Please respond to me directly; I receive
> the mailing list digested.  I really like Phoenix, but
> I've been here tooo long.
> 
>  thanks,
> 
>  -- John
> 
>