Date:         Thu, 16 Nov 1995 23:24:58 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Hoge <steveh@emu.com>
Subject:      Techron Saved My Tush (Was:Bus Bummed By Bad Gas)

Anybody out there run Techron regularly through their Digifant or Digijet FI?
It saved my butt this weekend.

Da Dust Bucket (my month-old '89 Syncro) had been running great all weekend in
Panamint and Death Valley, up and down knarly jeep roads, over 7000' passes
and across 30-mile stretches of washboard.  *Then* I got a 3/4 fillup from the
concessionaire's gas pumps at Death Valley Ranch (aka Scotty's Castle).

Within a half mile the engine began to miss intermittently, and with a
violent, oscillating lurch each time (the famous Vanagon bucking-bronco
effect.)  I immediately suspected contaminated gas, and cursed the fact that
the tank was now topped off and I had no room to dilute it.  In between
misses, however, I had great, full power.  It seemed like the missing was not
so bad at full throttle, but got worse when I backed off a little and
dramatically bad when the engine was decellerating under load.

The missing continued, getting intermittently worse, until we got to Beatty
NV, where the best thing I could think to do was add a container of STP gas
treatment and top it off with premium from the least-scuzzy-looking gas
station in town (actually, a respectable looking Arco mini-mart.)

No difference in performance.  It did seem that the effect was lessened when
the engine was cold, but came back within a few minutes of driving. (Did I
mention that, just to add to the hair-pull factor, the coolant blinker was
lighting up intermittently for no good reason at all during this episode?) I
had to cross two 6000'+ passes to get to Bishop, where I repeated the STP
treatment, this time with half a tank of Arco again. Again, no difference.  In
fact, it seemed even worse, and when the missing got so consistent it seemed
like I was losing power I pulled over off of 395 to listen more carefully to
the idle.  At that point the engine died, and wouldn't start again.  ARGHH!!
9 o'clock at night by the side of the road in East Bumf*ck, and the Sierras
between me and home.  I kept thinking: "Hey, I could have had this same fun
time with my '77 and saved the nine thousand bucks!" I'm *sure* you know the
feeling :-P.  

Finally, on the umpteenth try, the engine started and held an idle after I
goosed it for a minute or two at 2000 rpm.  We lurched over Tioga Pass, and
down to the Merced River, where I bivvied for the night.  In the morning I
pulled into the town of Merced and with the tank 3/4 down again, the first
station I saw was a Chevron.  

The only gas treatment they had on the shelf was Techron, at $11 for the large
bottle (the Syncro tank is 18 gal.) I told the attendant my sob story, and he
said "Yup, that's the stuff you want, and no, it won't explode when it mixes
with the remains of the STP", (sorry Bradley!) so I poured it in, filled the
rest of the tank with Regular, and headed down the highway with my fingers
crossed.

The difference was instantaneous and dramatic.  Whereas before I couldn't inch
down the street in 2nd gear without the missing and violent lurching, the van
now cruised smoothly.  I had a few minor misses in the next few miles, and
from then on it ran like a top the rest of the way back into Santa Cruz.

Wow - I'm really sold. I never thought I'd feel actual *gratitude* towards an
oil company, but man, if they could bottle that stuff...oh yeah, they already
do, at eleven bucks a pop.  Well, I feel only slightly less grateful; it was
$11 well spent.  Anybody else use this stuff?

Steve Hoge
'77 Loaf      (Da Rust Bucket)
'89 Syncro GL (Da Dust Bucket)