something you are well versed in no doubt !
lol.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jake de Villiers 
  To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans 
  Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 10:54 PM
  Subject: Re: Just Gotta Be A Vacuum Leak!!

  Wine or single malt corks work very well....

  On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 8:27 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

    if you think any vaccuum leaks in the brake booster system, or the vaccum
    lines leading to that are causing engine runing issues.........
    simply apply the diagnostic strategy of 'Substitue and Bypass'.....
    which in this case would be to remove the vaccum line from where it joins on
    to that can in the middle of the intake runners. ..........that can with the
    throttle body on it.....
    and plug that hole carfully, like with a hose with big bolt in it - a smooth
    shanked bolt ......or even wooden plug - it's just a short term test.
    this way the entire vaccum system in the whole body of the van is out of the
    picture.
    then see what it does.
    and yes, you'll have greatly reduced braking performace, so be super careful
    there.
    anytime you can get various parts out of the picture ...........the better.
    That's one way of isolating where the problem is or isn't.
    Don't give up !
    scott

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Max Wellhouse" <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>

    To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>

    Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 6:36 PM
    Subject: Just Gotta Be A Vacuum Leak!!

      Troops:  In my saga of poor performing () GL 2.1 motor syndrome, I
      went through the Haynes British manual I got from Bus Depot and went
      through their troubleshooting guide.  With all my performance issues,
      the one thing that keeps showing up in their analysis is Vacuum
      Leak.  Sure, low compression and fuel injection issue come in 2nd and
      3rd, but I don't have hot and cold start issues which both state that
      low compression could be the cause of that.

      I do also have a lot of travel in my brake pedal despite repeated
      adjustments to the rear shoes and the front disc pads have plenty of
      meat left on them.  Under their listing of "excessive brake pedal
      travel", they list sevo vacuum leak, and shot brake servo.  I don't
      know if this makes the scales tip one way or the other, but if I were
      to pump the brake pedal repeatedly9 or 10 times(when the engine does
      try to idle every once in a while), the engine idle increases
      substantially.  Is this further evidence of something wrong?  Crack
      in one of the plastic pipe joints going back from the servo to the
      engine?  Gasket at a joint bad?  The one way valve failing? The o
      ring at the master cylinder?  How would I check the servo visually to
      see if it's toast?  I do have the servo here from the 91 shell I just
      parted out, but how would I tell if it was any better than the one I have?

      If I were to try and isolate this problem, could I simply plug the
      booster outlet and drive the van for a short while without the  servo
      sucking vacuum?  Probably have a harder time stopping the van.  This
      engine pretty much doesn't want to idle period.  I've gone back and
      checked the valve clearances again and I'm happy with that part.  I
      am tapping vacuum from the FPR port to run both my vacuum gauge on
      the dash and the MAP sensor for the Haltech ECU as well as the FPR,
      but I've been doing that for years with no problems.  Again, the
      ether spray showed no engine rise or fall in rpm when spraying all
      the likely leak spots, so I'm pretty much in another fork in the road.

      Thanks

      DM&FS

  -- 
  Jake 
  1984 Vanagon GL
  1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
  Crescent Beach, BC
  www.crescentbeachguitar.com
  http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27