Hi everyone,

Well I was having idle problems on my 87 westfalia (auto) where my rpms
would drop while driving and the engine would 'chug' along, seem to work
something through it's system and be fine again for a few minutes.  At one
point it chugged and chugged and chugged and then BANG!  A massive backfire
and a giant hole in my muffler.  I decided it was time to take my now very,
very loud van to my mechanic.
I took it to my mechanic who
-replaced the air filter
-replaced the fuel filter
-replaced throttle switch
-replaced the rotor
-replaced the distributor cap
-replaced the muffler

On my (now quiet) drive home, driving up a hill about 10 minutes from the
mechanics the van suddenly lost power and regained it again.  It happened
twice more on that trip.  I took it back to the mechanic who took 1.5hrs and
couldn't determine the cause as it was very intermitent, but cleaned up some
connections in hopes that it would fix it.  He suggested that I run a few
tanks of high octane gas though it.  Later that day I drove the van to work
and this problem happened some more.  On my way home (once warmed up) it
happened much, much more and would cut out every few seconds.  For every 3
seconds of gas I would get 1 second of power, so I'm getting whiplash as I
drive.  During my stop times the rpms idle at 1000 and suddenly jump up to
1300 or so like a nervous twitch and then back.  This is most certainly a
problem that I did not have before I took it to my mechanic (or it was
hidden by the initial problem).  Now while I appreciate him taking 1.5 hours
for free to recheck their work I'm not terribly happy about having a car in
worse condition than when I brought it in.

Any thoughts on what it might be and should I take it back to this person or
get a second opinion elsewhere?

Cheers,

Dave