My 85 Westy is surging at idle also. Please let me know what you find.

TJ Hemrick wrote:
> I finally finished up my engine swap (took a long time as I only have one
> day off a week).  After a couple twists of the key, she came to life and oh,
> what a relief.  Unfortunately, that quickly turned to misery.  The EXACT
> same symptoms that plagued me on the previous motor were still present!  It
> has a constant surge in the idle.  I replaced the entire motor with ALL the
> components from the donor (ECU included-although I did try both).  I already
> swapped the fuel filter (previously) so that leaves; the coil and associated
> wiring, the harness (which I do have the donor one and it's uncut), and the
> fuel pump.  The AFM has the capacitor upgrade and it has a new idle control
> valve.  I emptied the gas tank and  I only had about a gallon left in the
> tank and it had a bunch of flakes in it.  Looked like paint chips is the
> best description I can give.  Desperate to actually fix something and the
> need to stop the the dreaded overflow while filling up at the gas station
> problem, I dropped the gas tank since I already have the parts on hand.
>  True to form, most of the lines around the tank are junk after 23 years one
> of the crossover plugs was out of the tank, that's why it was leaking on
> fill up.  What a job.  I truly hope the bean counter at VW who saved
> .00000002 DM by instructing the engineering dept to keep the hoses as short
> as possible has severely arthritic hands in his old age by now.  That should
> compensate me for the tortuous job at hand.  No pun intended.  It's a
> horrible task to take care of.  As if I wasn't already in a mood bad enough
> to sell my syncro and the wolfies out of sheer disgust with the idle problem
> and the oil pressure.  Seriously, I'm thinking to myself, "Why am I under
> this POS van on my only day off when I could be at the beach with my kids?"
>  I'm really doubting the whole Vanagon "experience".  It's hasn't been
> expensive, just grueling.
>   To throw salt in the wound, I've got the oil low pressure light on.  Oil
> level checked good even after a new Mahle filter and a few quarts of Mobil
> 1.  Oil pressure gauge reads good but I don't have new sensors in stock so
> how do I turn that damn buzzer off?  I practically ripped the instrument pod
> off the dash getting the cover off.  I blipped the throttle and the second
> the buzzer came on I shut it down and after a few minutes, checked the oil
> level.  It was still good.
>   I left it up on ramps a few days just to step back from it all.  I've been
> hitting the list archives and the net searching for "gas tank removal" for
> tips and insight.  If anyone has any, I'd be welcome to hearing it.  I just
> bought some extra fuel line, clamps, and stocked up on oil.  BTW,
> Discount/Advance Auto has a nice sale on Castrol GTX (all grades).  I think
> it was $11 for a gallon jug.  It's always been a pretty good dino oil so at
> $3 a quart it could be a good deal.  Just FYI.
>
> Later,
>
> TJ
>
>
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