For the cold running miss or skipping you need to look for ignition miss,
(bad wires or plugs), Bad injector spray patterns, Excessive deposits on the
intake valves, worn valve guides, or a compression problem.

The fuel leak means removing the tank and replacing the vent kit and hoses
on top. Include the gravity vent valves on top of the expansion tanks in the
wheel wells.

Keep in mind that all used vehicles have one thing in common. Their past
owners no longer want them. The trick is to find out why. They had to know
about the fuel leak. What else did they not tell you?

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Dave Lindemann
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 4:47 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: cold start skipping

I am the proud new owner of a 1990 Vanagon.  The van is great but it takes a
few minutes to warm up.  It starts right up, but there is an engine skip
when it first starts up.  If I let it run for 3 or 4 minutes, the skip goes
away and off I go.  If I try to drive with the skip, it is very difficult
not to stall and the van bucks with extremes of stopping and going.  It
looks like there is a new distributor and spark plugs and the van seems to
have been very well maintained by the previous owner.  The other noticable
problem which may or may not be related is a gas leak.  When I fill the gas
tank completely, there is gas leaking on the ground under the tank.  If I
only fill the tank to about 3/4, there is no gas smell or gas leak.
The skip almost seems like it could be some type of choke control.  My other
thought is that the fuel compression is compromised by the leak in the tank.
Please let me know if anyone has any ideas about this problem.
Thanks,
Dave