Hi Frank,

That doesn't sound too good. First off, since there's a single weber  
on there it's obvious that the engine has been messed with. Is all the  
cooling tin in place?

Secondly, I'd recommend you adjust the valves and check the  
compression. Even hydraulic valves should get annual adjustment. If  
compression on any cylinder is below 90PSI you need to service that  
cylinder head.

In the future I'd recommend adding a cylinder head temp gauge to help  
keep track of the heat levels affecting the most sensitive part of  
that engine.

Good luck with it,

Greg Potts,
Toronto, Ontario Canada
1987 Wolfsburg weekender
1973 westfakia weekender
www.pottsfamily.ca

On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 6:29 PM, Frank Schultz <frankschultz@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hello all.  I am a new Vanagon owner and have been enjoying the list for
>> the
>> past couple of weeks.  I have a '82 Westy (manual, webber convertion) and
>> took it out for a weekend in the woods.
>>
>> The van performed very well on the way up, but had some troubles on the way
>> back (1.5 hr each way).  It was missing terribly on the start of the way
>> back, sounded like a stuck lifter, plus something - it was
>> backfiring/mis-firing (not kaboom but very strange noise) on acceleration
>> up
>> hills.
>> So I drove it for a while to see if it fixed itself - which I have been
>> reading in some of the forums that it does (stuck lifter anyway).
>>
>> Did not fix itself, pulled over, gave her a drink of oil and Marvel mystery
>> oil - she was a little low on oil, not much.  Restarted and ran the same
>> way
>> it did on the way up.
>>
>> After returning home, it would not restart, but I had good batter power.
>> Almost like the starter could not turn the engine over.  I have had slow
>> starts (motor turning over very slow) after a long run, but it had never
>> refused to start.  Waited 10 min. and she started up again (slow turn over,
>> but started).
>>
>> Any suggestions on the slow starting after 45 min to an hour on the road
>> and/or the misfiring.
>>
>> I have gotten the Bentley, Haynes and Idot's guide manuals and have just
>> started to get into them.
>>
>> We had a blast in the camper and I am looking forward to many years of fun
>> and a bit of wrenching in my future.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  This list is very informative.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Frank
>>
>
>
>
> --
> roger w
> There are two kinds of jobs in the world:
> Picking up garbage and telling people things.
> Successful people do both, with the same good attitude. (riw)
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