Hi list,

My '84 1.6 NA diesel Westy, which has just had a junkyard engine
transplant, and a head gasket renewal, has the following problem:

Cold start - fine. Engine noisy, but that's normal. Accelerate through
the gears - ok. At around 90 km/h (55 mph) in fourth, pedal to the
metal, speed starts dropping down to 70 km/h (45 mph). It will maintain
this speed with difficulty. Lots of smoke from exhaust.

Depress the clutch - engine stalls, but will restart on rough, low idle.
Idle for a few minutes - get going again - accelerate through the gears
- van will reach roughly 100 km/h (10% below normal top speed) before
speed starts dropping again.

Note: this doesn't always happen. Occasionally, I can drive as fast as
105-110 km/h (to test, of course, not permanently) and it will sustain
this. Without smoke.

Called mechanic who installed the engine - he advised to swap the fuel
filter as this could be clogged. Although the old one was relatively
new, I did this. No change.

Before going back to the mechanic, does anyone have ANY idea on how this
can happen? If the engine were worn, or completely out of tune, it
should never reach top speed. Shouldn't it?

Another note: both batteries (this Westy has factory aux battery) are
pretty flat, as the van hasn't been driven for a while. Could the load
on the alternator caused by these two half-charged batteries be so high
that this would hamper performance of this (50hp only) engine to such an
extent?

Hopeless in Holland,
Robin
84 Westy D
90 Vanagon Atlantic TD