Matthew,

I agree completely!

Our 90 Westy has quite low compression in a couple of cylinders and is
still capable of going up almost all highway hills at 55 or above.    Our
87 will go much faster, even with 160,000 on the motor.  When it's steep
enough to have to downshift to 3rd, then the top speed in the Westy might
be 50 (limited mostly by not wanting to over-rev).   I think 25 mph top
speed on hills is very unusual and indicative of some significant problem.

Although there are many possibilities, I would first check compression, and
make sure that the Oxy sensor is good.  (You will usually notice bad
mileage with a bad one, though.

Another thought about a quick and cheap fix - We had a similar problem at
one point with our Westy on a long trip and it turned out to be a fried
distributor rotor, so you might check the resistance of the rotor ifyou
can't see obvious burning of the resistive element (and I strongly advise
only replacing with a genuine Bosch rotor, since aftermarket ones seem to
fail often, from what I've heard and experienced).    Also might check
resistance of the ignition harness and condition of the distributor cap.
A weak spark can easily cause low power while allowing ok operation under
light load and at idle, since when the engine is under load, the compressed
gas-air mixture in the cylinder is denser and therefore harder to punch a
spark through.

Dave
87 Wolfsburg
90 Westfalia

At 08:11 AM 3/9/99 -0500, G. Matthew Bulley wrote:
>Wow--
>
>Our 1982 Westy is no speed demon, but we generally can hang with 45-50 mph
>(third gear, wound up) on long grades, even with four folks in the van.
>I've not seen a climb that takes it below 35 (second gear, wound tight).
>Are we fortunate, or is the Westy Sinkhole ur, I mean Syncro, that much
>heavier/slower?
>
>15mph is bicycle speed...of course, I can't pedal that fast when carrying
>four people.
>
>G. Matthew Bulley
>Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
>Cary, NC     USA
>www.bulley-hewlett.com
>(888) 468-4880 toll free
>
>
>-----Original Message-----<<<SNIP>>>
>With my 90 Westy Syncro fully loaded (not including the water tank) I am
>reduced to about 25 mph up sustained hills. With a full water tank, propane
>tank, and food supply I have been reduced to 15 mph up significant grades.
>With it empty I can get to Tahoe without dropping below about 45 mph. The
><<<SNIP>>>
>