Another suspect is bad gasoline.   It happens in Mexico.

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 10:00 AM, John C... <yacoltyahoo@gmail.com> wrote:

> O2 was first on my list, but how about the cat?
> Sounds like it really plugged up.
> I've got a buddy in Guaymas that could possibly help;
> pmail for his info.
>  Good luck guys!
> JC...
>
> On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Sounds like an O2 sensor or wiring issue.
> >
> > Dennis
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
> Of
> > Mister Tom
> > Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 6:43 PM
> > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > Subject: Help in Mexico?
> >
> > Just a shot, but have friends in Mexico having problems with their '87
> wbx.
> >
> > They are in hermosillo, sonora. I said I would ask about any mechanic
> help
> > that might be near.
> >
> > Here's a bit of the email she sent me. She is trying to join the list.
> > She's
> > "Jes".
> >
> >
> >     the main symptom is that while driving and stepping on the gas, we
> > aren't accelerating.  there were a couple of things from back when we
> were
> > in portland that i assume are connected.  we noticed that there would be
> > this hiccup thing that would happen, like a lurch when accelerating, and
> > this happened usually right after filling up the gas tank and usually in
> > 4th
> > gear.  then it would go away.  additionally, there was an idle issue
> where
> > occasionally we would be sitting in neutral and the idle would just go up
> > and down, past 3 rpms and just run real high for a while.  and then the
> > next
> > time we started the motor it would have stopped.  i don't know if that is
> > connected but definitely something i've noticed.
> >     back to our most recent driving issues with the non-acceleration; we
> > were also burning a lot of gas, as in black smoke and a tank lasting us
> 1/2
> > as long as it usually does.  we took it to a mechanic where they surmised
> > the compression was really low (about 25 when it should be about 45, i
> > believe?) and we had to drive it to a big enough town that had mechanics
> > with more ideas and possibly parts.  there was that hiccup i mentioned
> > before that would happen before the black smoke would burst out of the
> > muffler.  also, after driving for a while, even in low gear it would
> hiccup
> > and barely have enough power to get going.  i had to really balance out
> the
> > gas and clutch to get enough gas where it needed to go, it seems like to
> > me.
> > we had the air mass flow sensor cleaned out, the fuel injectors cleaned
> out
> > and the coolant and all that checked, as eventually the temperature light
> > was flashing (i imagine from burning all that gas).  then it was still
> > doing
> > the same thing so we replaced the air mass flow sensor.  now it is still
> > doing the same thing and when we opened it up again today, there was oil
> in
> > the air sensor.  the oil for the motor was not low but it was still going
> > where it's not wanted.  we got that cleaned out and the current diagnosis
> > is
> > that the respiration of the motor is not working properly.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I'll forward any inputs I receive to her.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Tom Salicos
> > '87 Syncro Westy EG-33
> >
>