When I had something similar yesterday, we hung a fuel pressure gauge on it.
It was loosing fuel pressure just when it was stalling out under load. 
Sure sounds like vacuum leaks,
Or water in the fuel. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jim Felder
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 1:03 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Heads back on, runs OK and dies

It's a manual transmission. I'm sure the plugs are fine, and it runs fine
for a short time, and when it starts dropping idle I only have five or maybe
ten seconds before it shuts off.
Jim

On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 2:52 PM, Scott Daniel - Shazam <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

> Jim,
> You have to say manual or automatic transmission if you are going to talk
> about how the throttle cable feels.
>
> There's no way to mix up the injector wires. The ECU fires them as one big
> injector, all 4 at once.  They are not sequential, or even timed. The only
> thing the ECU does is keep them open so many milliseconds depending on
> fuel
> requirements.
>
> Just pull one plug wire at a time to look for obviously not firing
> cylinders.
> I'll go over my method on adjusting hydraulic valve lifters if you want.
> Scott
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Jim Felder
> Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 12:39 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Heads back on, runs OK and dies
>
> Got the right head on this morning, hooked everything up and it started
> right up, at least from the sounds of the initial idle.
> It is powerless, though, and it feels as though the throttle is connected
> to
> the accelerator by a long, soft rubber band, meaning that there is a
> strong
> lag behind pressing the accelerator and the rev of the engine.
>
> The engine may (or may not) idle nicely for a while, and then the rpms
> fall
> and the engine quits.
>
> I know the spark plugs are going to the right place. Could I have the
> injectors swapped? Could the new, unprimed lifters be doing it? My
> experience with setting valves on cars tells me that it couldn't be this
> far
> out by making a mistake in the valve timing, or could I be wrong about
> that?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jim
>
>
> --
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> 10:58 AM
>
>
>

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Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.1/1348 - Release Date: 3/28/2008
10:58 AM