81 vanagon aircooled 2.0 no power on hills

[SkipPreston]

I have an 81 2.0 with dual webers that was just rebuilt, new plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Runs fine on flat roads, but on the highway when there is an incline I lose power and have even had to drop into 2nd gear to barely make it. I live in Costa Rica so hills are a reality. It does fine on smaller mountain roads with shorter hill inclines, curvy roads and slower speeds. The problem is on the highways with longer inclines and higher speeds. Help!

[Macwesty]

I know it is not likely but does your vanagon have a catalytic converter? My van had similar symptoms and I found a large piece of the converter media had broken off inside the converter and was blocking the exhaust like a ball valve. Idle and low speed was fine but whenever applying more throttle the broken piece would roll forward and block the exhaust robbing power.
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'82 Vanagon Westfalia
Subaru SVX power!

[wcdennis]

Check ignition timing and distributor advance.

[bluebus86]

aircooled vanagon, no power in the hills, this is a joke, right??????
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[a2d2]

[TheMonk]

I had a very similar problem with my '82 aircooled kombi, just as you described, no power up hills, etc. It ended up being the electric fuel pump.

[SkipPreston]

I'll check out fuel pump and exhaust for problems. As far as timing goes I will need equipment to check that out properly, correct? When I took it back to the mechanic who rebuilt it he adjusted the timing with the distributor by ear but it didnt seem to help. He also suggested I change the dual carbs for a single with a conversion kit saying it would be more economical and fewer adjustment problems. Not sure that will help power problem, seems like it could make it worse.

[a2d2]

[Wildthings]

[vanagonjr]

I'm not clear - did you own this van before the rebuild - meaning there was a , power loss after the rebuild, or is this van a new purchase and you have not driven an air-cooled Vanagon before?
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[SkipPreston]

I bought the Vanagon in February and am new to the Vanagon world. I was told it had been rebuilt. After about three weeks the engine seized. I took it to a VW mechanic here in Costa Rica. He took it apart and it had been rebuilt but not put together properly. He replaced the bearings, cam shaft and new packings. It runs fine on flat roads and around town, but I drop to like 10 mph on the highways that have an incline. I don't mean a steep incline, just a steady straight incline. It had more power before the rebuild. He has made adjustments to the carbs and timing, but all by ear. He's an old hippy mechanic who has been working on VW's his whole life, but I'm not sure he has all the right equipment.

[Wildthings]

There is a dang good chance you will burn up an air cooled engine running it when not timed with a light. If you have a point style ignition you could time it to 7.5* BTDC statically. That will get you closer than someone making wild guesses by trying to time it by ear. I wonder how many engines the old fool of a mechanic has ruined by not investing in a timing light.

Muir has good instructions on timing and engine statically IIRC. If you can't find such we can talk you through it.

[SkipPreston]

The mechanic here is saying it is a carb problem. I called another mechanic to get a second opinion and he says 1981 Vanagons did not have carbs so it is an older motor. Is that true?

[ryecatcher]

Stock is fuel injected. Yours was probably converted to carbs at some point because someone didn't want to deal with F.I. I'd get it back to stock, but that's just me...
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1982 Westfalia Camper, Air Cooled
"Wendeline"

[Wildthings]

All air cooled Vanagons destined for the US market were fuel injectied, but I doubt if this was true for Vanagons built for other markets. If yours was originally carbed then most likely it would have had dual Solex carbs.

Your valves need to be right, your timing needs to be right, and your carbs need to be setup right for you engine to put out good power.

[danfromsyr]

vanagons never came with dual carbs.
even the 1600cc aircooled vans came with a single carb.

carbs need to be tuned for sea level and high elevation.
I suspect in Costa Rica you'll experience both in some drives.

it could be going slow because some internal damage has already been done by the carbs and the PO sold the headache.. but it could be just needing several things adjusted.

I don't have any easy answer for you, but a

VW mechanic should be able to recognize and tune carbs.. keeping them in tune will be a challenge.
the distributor timing and advance curves are quite likely mis-matched to your aftermarket carbs as well.
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[Wildthings]

[paramike]

The 2 liter aircooled came with dual carbs here in Europe.

Cheers,

Michiel
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'89 Vanagon California highroof mTDI, "Kobus"
'11 Mazda 2 Bi-Fuel GT-M line

Traveling in a fried-out combi
On a hippie trail head full of zombie

[danfromsyr]

ahh I don't know why I thought it came with a single center mount..
musta been the Carb'd WBX.

sorry. i'll go back to the back of class now.
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[MarkWard]

I would ask for a compression test of the rebuilt engine. You say it ran fine before the rebuild. If the engine does not have good compression, it will not make good power.

Once you have verified the compression is to the high end of the spec, you can troubleshoot from there.
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