Date:         Fri, 26 Sep 1997 10:23:36 -0600
Reply-To:     Eric Small <Eric_Small@AMRCORP.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         Eric Small <Eric_Small@AMRCORP.COM>
Subject:      Re: Loss of power/fuel problem?
Content-Type: text/plain

>Mark Schrope wrote:

>Now with the 89 I have had similar problems about 3 times.  The engine
>will be running perfectly and then all the sudden I'll have a huge loss
>of power followed by surges and it all feels like the van is starved for
>fuel (or perhaps not running on all 4 cylinders?) .  The first two times
>it cleared up within a couple of minutes and the third it lasted
>longer.

Mark,
I have experienced the same symptom on two separate occasions in the past
which turned out to be a failed cat converters. The cats had broken up inside.
A piece of the stuff actually would intermittently block the output end of the
cat resulting in a loss of power. The van wouldn't get over about 45MPH. When
I would stop to looking things over and RPMs dropped to idle the chunk of stuff
would drop back into the cat making everything seem fine.  It was a hard one to
diagnose as it ran fine at idle when I was checking things out.  There are lots
of things which can cause your described problem but this might be worth a look.

Eric Small
Dallas, TX
'86 GL
'93 Audi 100