One of my personal performance tests for my Vanagon, is smooth running
above 4000 rpm.  When engine has trouble getting to 4000 rpm, the first
thing I check are the connections between the plug wires and #1 and #3
plugs.  These can get corroded very quickly.  If you put a little bit of
Permatex dielectric tune-up grease on the top of each plug, the problem
goes away.  Thank you to Ken Wilford for this suggestion.  I had a set
of plug wires go bad after about six months because I hadn't used this
grease.  He replaced the wires at his cost.

John

On Sat, 2010-11-20 at 08:01 -0600, Dave Mcneely wrote:

> ---- John Lauterbach <jhlauterbach@BELLSOUTH.NET> wrote:
> > My '84 Vanagon made it the 347 miles to my FL home w/o anything bad
> > happening on Tuesday evening; and I drove it back home this afternoon
> > again w/o problems.  Fuel economy was dismal but engine seemed to want
> > to run to the high side of the green color at 4400 rpm.  I was checking
> > speed with my GPS and 4600 rpm put speed near 80 mph.   I have about
> > 25,000 miles on Boston Bob long block I put in 7 years ago.  Automatic
> > transmission was rebuilt this past April.
> >
> > John
>
> Engine "seemed to want .......... 4400 rpm,"  "80 mph."
>
> I guess a waterboxer.  Mine (newer 2.1) runs smoothly and nicely at about 3000 rpm, 60 mph on the highway.  I can push it up toward 3800 rpm and  70 mph when the wind is not blowing, but it gets loud in the van, and just doesn't "seem right."
>
> When I "drive right" (60 mph) without much wind, it gets over 20 mpg on the highway.  Of course, mine is a 4 speed manual.  Automatics might be a tad worse on fuel use, but any time these things are driven like you drove on this trip, fuel usage is going to be horrible.  They are not built for that speed is my take on it.
>
> --
> David McNeely