stalling when engine is cold and almost always in reverse

[Simpdog5]

Vanagon squad:

When having sat for more than 2-3 hours my 87' Vanagon starts strong but unless I let it sit and rev the engine for 1 maybe 2 minutes it will sputter and sometimes stall when I put it into drive. Almost have to put in drive and hit the gas fairly hard to get her up and running but once forward momentum is made it's golden. Idles fine, stop signs, lights, reverse, everything works fine. If I stop, say, at the store and spend 30 minutes shopping I can come out and it will fire straight up and drive well. But if I let it sit for a few hours it will go through the same process again.

And if I leave its overnight in a spot where I have to reverse it out? Guarantee more than a few stalls even after running the engine for a few minutes. Again, this only happens when engine is cold. Once it's been running its a champ.

Any ideas as to what issue I'm dealing with here?

[danfromsyr]

temp-II failing to recognize the HOT temp at restart vs COLD temp at overnight initial start.. check the T-II sensor range at the ECM plug.

mine still behaves similarly and I haven't yet gone thru this diagnosis.
well mine won't cold idle ever, neither on restart or initial start up.
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[Wildthings]

Could be your injectors leaking down, that will flood the intake manifold and cause rough running until the excess fuel is cleared up.

[blackglasspirate]

I had something like that which would only happen when at altitude (maybe 8k and higher?) when the engine was cold. The only thing that ended up fixing it was swapping the idle control valve. My guess it one was sticking. Maybe not the same problem as you, but just figured I'd give more input. At the time all of the electrical diagnostics checked out.

It has started doing it again the past week or so now that I'm at over 12.5k so if cleaning the ICV again doesn't help then I'm back at the drawing board.

The Digifant protraining manual has a lot of useful tests you can do, including the temp II sensor.
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'87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
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[Simpdog5]

Thanks everyone for the insights!

[youngman]

hey, I know this thread is dead but I'm wondering if you managed to resolve this issue