Hi there, it's me again. A month ago I sent a long
ramble about the fun I was having with a 1.9L Westy
with 160K miles on it. Several folks gave me tips and
I thought I'd let you know how it all turned out. I
had several things going on at once - herky-jerkyness
while driving, occasional gradual power loss, lots of
blue smoke in the exhaust, poor starting, and a
near-constant rich-running condtion continually
fouling the spark plugs. My mistake was looking for a
single explanation. Over an extremely not-fun three
week period (my busiest time of year at work, working
with very perishable bare-root tree seedlings) I think
I solved all the problems.

The random occasional hiccup I think was due to a fuel
pump relay that had a loose part inside. I could test
it all I wanted while not moving, but the problem only
occurred at speed. Finally I pulled the relay and
shook it, and put in another one. For only $5 each, I
would suggest scoring one or two on your next parts
order.

The sickening slow loss of all power I think was the
dieing throes of my fuel pump, though I'm not 100% on
that. (see other post).

The blue smoke in the exhaust still occurs but only
under one condition - when re-starting the van within
a few minutes of stopping while very hot, I still see
a large cloud of smoke on occasion. Otherwise the
exhaust is back to normal. I still have a slight
compression loss issue on one cylinder that might
relate to this via bad rings, I'll report on that next
week. Replacing the Oxygen sensor and one of the
exhaust gaskets at the cylinder head, ahead of the
sensor, cleared up the richness it seems.

The rough starts were due in part to all of the above,
but I wasn't suspecting that a newly-rebuilt starter
had only had the solenoid replaced with no other work
done. (again see other post).

so, learn how everything works, and don't discount the
possibility of even "new" parts failing.

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