Richard Jones asks: What temp do you mean when "cold?"

By cold, I mean that the engine is not warmed up.  I experience hard starts
regardless of the outside temperature.

And:  What do you mean by "rich?"  That is, how do you
know?

I mean that I can smell gas in the air and see big white plumes of exhaust.
I haven't had a leak down test done.  The heads on the last motor in this
van kept coming loose and the motor would make a high pitched "peeping"
sound as air bypassed the head gasket during the compression stroke.  I
haven't heard that on this motor.

Thanks,
Jake

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard A Jones [mailto:jones@colorado.edu]
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 11:35 AM
To: jbeaulie@nd.edu
Cc: Vanagon Mailing List
Subject: re: 82 AC Westy running troubles (longish)

> It starts hard when cold and runs
> rich
> until it warms up, then it runs great.

Jake:

What temp do you mean when "cold?"  The cold-start
valve/thermo-time switch isn't used below 68 F.
That is, above 68 F, the thermo-time switch will
not let the cold-start valve open.

If it is much colder than 68 F, it is possible that
multiple starts are getting the thermo-time switch
warm enough that the cold-start injector isn't
opened and the van finally starts.

What do you mean by "rich?"  That is, how do you
know?  Tail-pipe test?  Or just observing the exhaust?
I ask because I have a similar "rich" situation when
cold.  Leak-down test when cold shows high leakage; it
is fine when warm.  Probably the heads were not correctly
torqued or have become slightly loose.  When warm it
runs great and easily passes emissions tests.   I keep
the idle set high because it will die about 1-2 minutes
after a cold start--after the sensors say it is warming
up but before the leak-down disappears, I think.  I
do not, however, have any hard-cold-start problems.

This is an '81 non-California with about 15,000 miles on
a BB engine (November 2000.)

                        Richard A Jones
                        Boulder, Colorado