Speaking of that ...
ignition timing advance on a 1.9 ...
I'm afeared that many 1.9 waterboxer vanagon owners might be unaware of the
need to occasionially lubricate the centrifugal advance mechanism in the
distributor, or even how to check that it's working.
 - that felt pad under the rotor - put a few drops of fine oil on that -it's
for lubing the centrifugal adavance.
Vacuum advance, and hoses to it ......check that also of course.

To check that icetnrifugal advance is  working, turn the rotor by hand ...it
should rotate about  5/16's of an inch or so, a a bit more, at the tip, and
spring back.
If it's either stuck and won't rotate, or stays where you rotate it to, like
no spring return - it's not working right.

Checking  the temp sensor the ecu watches is a good suggestion.  Some people
chnage those for almost any reason.  Mostly I find them to be ok. If I
measure 5 different used ones, I get slightly different readings from  each
sometimes.  Higher resistance equals richer, lower resistance equals less
fuel injected per unit of air.

One must always consider clogged cat or muffler on any engine with a cat.  A
semi-clogged cat sure matches the symptoms.

air flow meters ....can be a weak link for sure ....though I'm not saying
'get a new air flow meter' .

throttle cable travel ? ....like is it getting full throttle at the throttle
plate ?

'It's just a blocakge or leakage of fluids or electrons."

scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Dearing" <VWBrain@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 5:21 AM
Subject: Re: 1.9 Digifant with poor milage and low top-end power.

> hey greg  did you check to see what full advance you are getting??  later
> md