The Air-cooled Vanagon and You: Fuel Injection

[mightyart]

Sounds like one of them bad school filmstrips doesn't it.
"The Air-cooled Vanagon And You"
I’ve noticed several people have purchased Air-cooled Vanagons lately.
When I purchased mine it had various problems and the PO had given up. Compared to new cars the Fuel injection system on an air-cooled Vanagon is a piece of cake.
Once you get to know all the parts and how they work it is very simple.
One thing you must always take into account is the age of your components, you can never rule anything out as a cause of problems. A 25-year-old FI wiring harness has seen some abuse in it’s life, twisting, pulling, heated and cooled. You could have a bad wire to an injector and no matter what part you change it still won’t work. Most people throw their hands up in frustration blame it on the FI, and get a cheap carburetor kit. Don’t Do this! Fix it right and spend a little money on good quality parts. Once the Fuel injection is working right, and sealed with new hoses. You should not have to mess with it for sometime. Then you can concentrate on fixing other things.
My suggestion would be to disassemble everything down to the block, clean and test all components per The Bentley Manual, replace all hoses, and clamps, replace all gaskets and o rings, replace temp sender II, If you have the money replace all the injectors, with 4 new matched ones. Now if you have it all disassembled now would be a good time to check the tin and your engine seal, I wish I would have when I had the fuel injection off.
Another good thing to do is arm yourself with is a good bit of knowledge of how the system works, this will help greatly when troubleshooting.
Here are some good references:
The basics
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-injection.htm
Vanagon, from Bartnic:
http://www.type2.com/bartnik/tech1.htm#fi
L-jetronic manuals
http://www.conservatory.com/vw/manuals_nyx/L-Jetronic.html
http://persweb.direct.ca/aschwenk/TroubleshootingtheLJetronicSystem.htm
Here are a few Pictures of the locations of your FI Components
This is an 81, Westy, stock 2.0L engine.

1. Temp sender II
2. Double Relay
3. Fuel injectors, drivers side
4. Series Resistors

5. Air Flow Meter
6. Throttle Body
7. Under the intake is the thermotime switch
8. Cold Start Valve
9. Auxiliary air regulator
10. Full throttle enrichment switch
11. You can see parts of the wiring harness as it snakes around the back of the engine
12. You can barely see the ground wires leaving the wiring harness, they attach to connectors on the engine block under the intake manifold.
Take the weekend and get to know your FI system!
_________________
My Art:
http://www.instagram.com/flynn8552/

[Randy in Maine]

Hey art, where is the idle stabilizer that the vanagons have we we lowly baywindows don't? Also you need to show where the fuel pressure test port is.

Nice clean engine compartment. Looks good. Like to see that. Carry on.

[mightyart]

My Westy is a Federal model and doesn't have an idle stablizer, but if it did(was a California model) it would be on the firewall on the drivers side where the coil is or the Black box is (aftermarket electronic ignition) in the top picture.
The port for testing the fuel pressure is on the fuel rail by the two injectors on the passenger side, it is covered by the air filter box in the second photo.
Thanks for the compliment on the clean engine compartment, it makes work less of a greasy mess, among other things. I've been slacking lately and this weekend is for cleaning her up a bit.
_________________
My Art:
http://www.instagram.com/flynn8552/

[Vespagetti]

As I said in my other post, I've been a Vanagon forum lurker for about a year now and I must say, I'm always impressed with MightyArt's in depth answers. It makes me regret for not buying an air-cooled Vanagon instead of my '88 GL I actually found an air cooled Westy (exact same color as yours) with zero rust and almost perfect paint, all appliances working like new but it was leaking oil like crazy (the owner wanted $1000 for it, it's still for sale). Apparently he changed the gasket (he said he put a *double* gasket!?) and since he did that it leaked even more. I couldn't get a mechanic to have a look at it (I'm new to Vanagons as you may tell). Shortly after I found a clean GL with 70k and went for it......still kinda wondering if I should have bought it, I mean, how bad could it been? A complete rebuild?

[mightyart]

Nothing wrong with an 88 I like them all.
$1000.00 is a good deal for an aircooled Westy, If you want a project.
I keep falling back on the fact that I live in an apartment and they will tow away any unregistered vehicals, so I can't have any "projects" sitting around here. It gives does make me focus my time, effort, and money on one thing. I do look forward to buying a house, with a little land.
_________________
My Art:
http://www.instagram.com/flynn8552/

[VWBusrepairman]

I didn't pay much for my vanagon- 1980 and it's now my daily driver with complete stock fuel injection. I will admit this is a nice little van, but I'm still more drawn to my '78 VW Bus. The vanagon seems to get just as many looks, however. I will probably fix all that is wrong with the van and then sell it later.

[11blsd]

Hello, I hust bought a Vanagon !980 Aircooled, most my vw I had where split win for the sixties but this thing is complecated. I been looking for some pics to see where my ait hoses go. All where missing and brokem off. So I hooked up the top one frod dist to top of throtle body and bottom to the bottome and one to the twh units on the left but the busstill sunds like shit most of the time, sometime it's cool other just shit..THamks ... PAUL...

[WestyBob]

Vanagon air-coolers have always intrigued me. I've never owned one but have owned plenty of splitties and bays in the past.

I'm now stocked up on syncros but a lot of air-cooled vanagons have survived on the left coast and tempting. I think it has something to do with getting back to my air-cooled roots and youth and all that stuff.

Sort of a slow down (necessity) and take the roads less traveled thing ... stay off interstates through mountains

I'm just waxing nostalgia here - sorry.

[t'sunamibus]

[t'sunamibus]

[WestyBob]

[t'sunamibus]

[VWinVT]

I have had my 81 Westy for about 8 months now and am really enjoying it. It is my daily driver in warm months (I live in VT). Thanks for the info on the FI system, it helps us newbie's alot!!

[t'sunamibus]

[WestyBob]

[onemat]

I am thrilled that this thread has popped up. The information, pictures and links from Art are very helpful to us newbies. I am going to print Art's post and add it to my repair manual. Thank You!
Matt
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'82 Vanagon GL with 2.0 4-speed. Long term plan is to turn it into a camper.

[Campton Slow]

It's been over a year since the last praise went up for this post. Sorry to dig it up again but I keep coming back to it while on "what the hell is that??" type searches.

Thanks again for this post! You've really helped this new guy out.
_________________
1980 Vanagon, 1976 Standard Bug

[RaraBlacksheep]

A great post indeed, wish I had found it about a year ago. I really kicked myself for getting an air cooled until I wound up doing basically what he said up there - you've just gotta suck it up, strip it down, and do a top-down, left to right cleanup and diagnosis to find out what time and neglect have done to the poor thing. I spent a lot of time trying to chase down individual issues, for what turned out to be a partially toasted ECU and some crispy wiring "throwing their voices" and making other things look at fault (and then throwing me for a loop when problems persisted).

Runs like a champ now, wouldn't trade it for a WBX if it were free..
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'82 Westy - Shark Weak

[smthngclvr]

All, I'm hoping that this is an okay place to post the following question. Newb here just looking to make the right call when it comes to fuel lines and replacement.

Core question: current engine compartment fuel lines in my 81 vanagon appear to be metal, I'd guess stainless. Everything that I've seen has said to replace fuel lines with a modern high-pressure 7mm fuel line (there are a ton of kit options) ASAP. In the photo you'll see that the 7mm line is used like a splint around the corners and to connect to components (cold start valve, regulator etc.) but not as the core fuel line. Were these metal lines original? Are they still a safe option or is full replacement of them with the modern rubber lines better? I just don't see the gas wearing through the stainless anytime soon so thinking that maybe I just replace all the "splints" but given my own instinct for self-preservation and that of my loved ones, I want to do the best/safest thing.

Thanks for any thoughts (and patience) for this safety conscious newb.

-Julien

[jlrftype7]

The curved metal lines are stock, the Air Cooled Buses had them as well. VW used them until they changed things with the Water Cooled Engine/WBX’er.
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'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto