Date:         Mon, 6 Jul 1998 15:47:24 -0600
Reply-To:     Fred Porter <fporter@EYRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Fred Porter <fporter@EYRING.COM>
Organization: EYRING, Corp.
Subject:      no power: running lean (i think)
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Within the past week, my 87 syncro has suffered a dramatic loss in
power.  With the following symptoms, does my diagnosis of running lean
sound correct?
-no clouds of black or blue smoke coming out of the tail pipe (not
running rich or burning oil--burning oil would indicate a loss of
compression through the rings)
-it still idles and revs smoothly, just no power.
-the temp needle is running unusually high.
-fairly good gas mileage.
-It seems to run ok when i first start it cold in the morning, but as it
warms up and the temp needle goes past the LED power degrades. BTW, the
blinking LED has NOT come on.

if it is running lean, my first suspect is the AFM--slow response or
limited travel of the vane.  What would be other sources of the problem?
I would question clogged fuel injectors since it is still running
smoothly--all 4 injectors would have to be clogged equally.

recent maintenance:  new cap and rotor, 15w50 oil and filter, new air
filter, new ignition switch
less recent maintenance: new OXS, new plugs

when i drop it at the dealer tomorrow, i'm going to have the following
checked:
ignition system, fuel injectors, compression leakdown, EFI diagnostic

if it is loosing compression via the valves, what are those symptoms?

thanks,
fred
87 syncro 180+kmi