last october i  had a similar problem- similar symptoms - a similar
diagnosis (clogged cat)

and none of it worked

stumbling loss of power severe drop in fuel economy (18-22 mpg down to
10mpg)

oh i  was confused
cleaned a bunch of contacts (that i could find) poured gallons of
various gas treatments
had unburned gas in the exhaust along with backfiring - i was thinking
space aliens or bad distributor or failing computer-y stuff that
baffles me

took  it to seattle area van specialist - he spent lots of time,
cleaning contacts,
fixing odd vacuum leaks etc - intelligent tinkering basically, and
though he cut me a deal (the weekend before my wedding, see) it still
took  many billable hours.

he got it going nicely - mileage restored, power restored, and now that
its been almost six months, wallet restored - sort of

If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore
it to
him though I drown myself. - henry thoreau

On 16 Apr 2007, , at 10:39, Jeff Stewart wrote:

> OK, despite the cold, wind and snow flurries, I went out and pulled the
> cat-oh yeah, it was plugged. Took my 2 foot section of pipe that I use
> as a
> breaker bar and a hammer and whacked the guts out of it and
> reinstalled it.
> Fired up the van, and a fairly large cloud of blueish-white smoke came
> out-I've never seen this engine blow smoke of any color. Took it out
> for a
> test drive and all was OK for 2 blocks, then stumbling, loss of power
> and
> backfiring. Turned around to head for home and it started to run OK
> again.
> So, I kept driving, and now it's intermittent runs fine-looses
> power,runs
> fine again. I'm beginning to believe my original crappy gas theory.
> Question-could crappy gas have caused the meltdown of the cat? Since I
> was
> now below half a tank, I took it into town and filled it up with Amoco
> premium. On the 4 mile trip back home, it seemed OK, stumbled a
> little, but
> was better. I have not swapped out the fuel filter yet, but will do so
> as
> soon as I  can. Dammit, I should have known better than to buy gas in
> Lynchburg on a Sunday-damn Jerry Falwell!
>
> Jeff Stewart
> fonman4277@earthlink.net
> http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/vwcampersmidatlantic/
>