I can see that. The Digifant I California description here speaks to
smog related stuff:

http://www.a2resource.com/electrical/management/digifant1.html

I recall older shop manuals, e.g. Honda Civic with a carb engine,
speaking of setting idle with all the accessories turned on. e.g.
defrost fan set to highest setting. I'd think that was standard
practice for carb engines.

Frankly I think using the 1.9 aux air valve etc and throttle switches
might be preferable to the Digifant parts but then all those parts are
so old now. But, I'm sure there's lots of Vanagons with perfectly
functioning ICU's, ICV's. And AFAIK, the ICU can be rebuilt. ICV,
likely not.

Neil.

On 5/17/20, stuartmacm@gmail.com <stuartmacm@gmail.com> wrote:

> Just guessing, but in my experience back in the day these ever more
> complicated systems were added to meet the increasingly strict  US emissions
> requirements of the period. Emissions at cold idle were targeted by all
> sorts of strategies like higher idle, faster engine warm up  strategies
> etc..  And the multitude of tougher standards are what eventually did in the
> Vanagon WBX by 1991.
>
> Stuart
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> On Behalf Of Neil N
> Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2020 8:11 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Idle issues

> My first thought was that maybe VW didn't anticipate a Vanagon as eventually
> having power steering and offering the option of AC. So, maybe the "add on"
> idle control systems were indeed an afterthought?

-- 
Neil n

VE7TBN

1988 Westy 50º ABA swap: https://tinyurl.com/yap5hpwt

1981 Westy 15º ABA swap: https://tinyurl.com/y9n4xob8

VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>