another idle problem

[yardbug]

Maybe you guys can help.. I have an '85 westy that was sitting for a decade and I picked up for a good deal. The PO took the water pump out to replace it because it was leaking I guess and he never put it back together. So I had the job of reinstalling it and after getting it to run, the heads were leaking pretty good. The engine ran rather well for sitting that long. So I took the engine out, and stripped it down.

I wasn't in the neighborhood to buy this vanagon in the first place but my wife and I were wanting one because everyone else in the family has campers from splitty's to bay windows so we wanted to camp in a van and not in a tent. however i was able to pay for getting the heads done and buying the gasket kits and sealing everything up, I did not have the funds to replace the nasty rusted exhaust.

1 & 3 header pipe had been patched once at the collector and it looked like swiss cheese and the J pipe was cracked around the 02 sensor bung. well I got it all together and it ran and idled well.

we took it on a camping trip and on the way back it started loosing some power.. I figured it was the fuel filter because the tank is nasty inside. I replaced the filter and we got all the power back. we drove 2 more hours home and parked it and a couple nights later we drove it around for about 30 minutes.

On the way home it had a hard time idling and almost wanting to stall.

I figured I'd park it until I got new exhaust and then figure out what's going on. Well I picked up an S&S header and after installation it still won't stay running. I have to have the timing backed off to maybe about 5-10BTDC for it to stay running and it still surges. It also smells very rich.

This is what I have done.

-Compression test 1-130 2-148 3-129 4-148
-dropped tank and cleaned out as much flakes as possible
-new fuel filter
-fuel pressure test at 29psi and 36 with vac. line off
-fuel spray pattern test... all spray well but one drips a drop about every second
-new 02 sensor
-new tempII
-new intake runner boots
-new vacuum lines

-All pins checked out fine at the multipin connector.
-02 sensor coax does not short out with the shielding.
-CO adjustment doesn't help anything
-I tested my AFM as tencent has shown and it doesn't have any voltage drops

Like I said, it smells really rich which i believe is why it is idling terribly, would that one injector that drips cause it to run this bad.. and to have the timing backed off that much? Would me driving it on a 300 mile trip with almost no exhaust back pressure have messed something up? Anyway.. Thanks to all who may be able to help.

[stormforge]

Sounds like the fuel system checks out good. If you haven't already, check the spark side of things. Coil, distributor, wires, plugs, etc?

I wouldn't think the dripping injector would cause this and I don't think driving without the exhaust did anything. It could smell really rich because the plugs are only firing once in a while so there's lots of unburned gas.

Just for the hell of it, it might pay off to renovate your ground straps too. This has fixed lots of mysterious problems for lots of people.

Cheers,
-Bill
'89 Syncro

[yardbug]

The van has new plugs but the wires/cap/rotor/coil are a little old. I'm getting a good hot blue spark at the coil wire and unplugging a wire from the cap will make a good miss.

When I had the engine out out I cleaned up all the ground straps cause they were green and all.. cleaned them up and even added a thicker gauge wire to the ground area to the body.

I guess I could go get a new cap and rotor.. i don't think that could cause the timing to be retarded so much though.
_________________
'69 Tintop T2 - '86 Syncro - '87 Westy - '02 337 GTI - '99 4Runner - '13 4Runner

[morymob]

Try startup/run with oxy sensor unplugged and check for a change,if none do same with temp-2 sensor. is yours a 1.9 engine if so unplug idle stabilizer and plug the plugs together/test now.