This one has me stumped - can anyone help this person out?  I was thinking
blocked cat until the last part...

Please rely to him at Rettigj@650mi.shape.army.mil but copy me, as I am
interested in what people have to say.

Thanks!

Brent Christensen
'89 GL Syncro Westy
Santa Barbara, CA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rettig, Jeff WO1" <Rettigj@650mi.shape.army.mil>

> Help -
>
> I live in Belgium with a second-hand, American spec, 1984 vanagon 1.9 L
that
> wants me to send it to the crusher.  I'd prefer to repair its problem,
> unfortunately, even the Belgian mechanics are scratching their chins
trying
> to identify why it won't run.  Here's the history:  On an almost empty
tank,
> the engine began to sputter, then made a nice big white cloud of smoke.  I
> pulled over, stopped the engine, and looked to see if I cracked a block or
> lost a head gasket.  Not being that smart, all I could do was look for
> coolant leakage on the ground or under the heads (none), check for coolant
> in the oil (none), and inspect the level in the radiator reservoir (good).
> I decided   sludge from the bottom of the gas tank must have gone through
> the engine causing both the sputter and the Indian smoke signal.  I
> restarted the engine, and continued on my way in search of gasoline.  The
> engine sputtered about two miles to the gas station, but never came close
to
> providing normal power.  After refilling the tank, I drove three miles
home
> with the sputtering engine, which at least acted like it wanted to quit
> sputtering (it gave more power the further I went).  At home, I turned off
> the engine and went to the back to see if I could figure out the problem.
> Immediately I noticed two things - I'm no mechanic, and the joint between
> the catalytic converter and the muffler was glowing bright red.  I thought
> maybe a blockage of the converter could have caused all of my problems, so
I
> let the van cool down in order to start it again to move it into the
garage
> where I could replace the catalytic converter with an open bypass pipe.
> Unfortunately, when I tried to restart the engine after about an hour, it
> wouldn't even cough.  I dropped the catalytic, and tried again, but no
luck
> -- all I noticed was a LOT of gasoline dripping out a hole in another
> section of the exhaust (which I also later replaced, since I was bored and
> could not drive anywhere).  I then pulled out the spark plugs, dried them
> off, and let the cylinders dry out.  A neighbor checked the plugs when I
> turned over the engine, and saw all four spark.  Placing them back in the
> engine made no difference - I could not start it.  So I had it towed to
the
> garage, hoping the Belgian automotive geniuses could figure it out.  That
> was over one week ago, and they still have no #%*!@ idea what went wrong,
or
> what to do.
>
> So, after all of that, does any of this sound familiar, or do you
otherwise
> have a theory about what is wrong with my Vanagon and how I can fix it?  I
> have fuel and spark going to the cylinders, but it won't start.  Could it
be
> a problem with air (is the air-flow meter bad)?  Is there a problem with
the
> ECM?  Thanks for at least reading this far, and thanks even more for
> whatever advice you can give me.
>
> Jeff in the land where they hate American model anything.
>