Van has no power and stalls

[drmac]

I over the weekend i fitted a new exhaust to my t25 1.9 DF water cooled engine. However since then the engine has no power and stalls. It starts as usual and sets off in first ok and you can get to second gear then it dies when you put it into third. It then splutter and stalls alot after driving for a few minutes. Any ideas ?

So far I have done the following
Taken off the exhaust and run without the air filter still the same however alot noisier

The van was working fine with the old exhaust however it did take a fair bit of abuse with a hammer and angle grinder to remove the old one.

Any thoughts. Is this a coincidence that something else has failed or i have dislodged something in the process of change the exhaust

As usual time is against me with this one as i have planned a holiday around scotland in a weeks time

Regards
Dave

[kevtherev]

If it's a fuel issue you've knocked a vacuum line off perhaps.. ?

[dave lfc]

try the fuel filter that might be blocked,its just behind the drivers side front wheel about 2ft left from it.if it is blocked get a couple of fuel filters as there only a couple of quid and there handy to have in.hope this helps.cheers dave

[drmac]

Thanks for the input guys

Update after last week my van was stranded so a local mechanic had a look at it spent around 2 hours stripping and cleaning the carburettor this seemed to do the trick and get me back on the road.

Since the carburettor has been “cleaned” the engine is no longer sputtering, fuel filters have been changed. All the vacuum lines are connected and I replaced the more perished looking ones just in case.

I drove it back home however it was still lacking power at the top end 4th gear I had to push to get 60MHP on a flat road usually push to get over 70mhp. So i had a friend help me look at the timing with his timing gun it was 60deg out so lined that up and it help especially with starting. There still seems to be some lack in power but its manageable.

Now it seems to be stalling when drop from running at high revs to low revs. Engine idles ok and i can fire it back up it seems to happen when i drop the revs down from a high speed. That said there is also dip in power when I rev slowly if you don’t catch it in time the engine stalls. I have tried adjusting the idle speed adjusting screw but it seems to have little effect so i returned it to the original position.

The plot thickens in the trusty haynes manual (chapter 5B.6) It talks about the TCI-H system and disconnecting the engine idle stabilizing unit, But this is missing you can even see where it was one at one time. The connectors are connected together so it hasn’t just dropped off. I have had this van for 3 years now and never had any engine problems in the past but maybe all these changes over the past week now require this device to now exist.



one last point when it stalls its becoming hard to start up again this could be the battery on the way out as if i leave it 10 minutes it starts fine.

Questions?
Where can i get an idle stabiliser unit from and quickly?
Any thoughts on what could cause a dip in power on rev ?
Anyone know any good VW mechanics in Leeds who can look at this as it could do with being a bit more reliable before Saturday?

Regards,
David

[BOXY]

it was 60deg out

If the timing was that far out I'd be suprised if the van would run at all? What have you got it set to now?

Don't flap about trying to get and idle stabiliser. If the van worked for three years without it, fitting a new one is just adding something else that can go wrong.

Any thoughts on what could cause a dip in power on rev ?

Timing or mixture not set properly.

[CovKid]

Agree with Boxy. If it ran fine before, it should again. The wire to the fuel cut off on the carb in place?

[drmac]

If the timing was that far out I'd be suprised if the van would run at all? What have you got it set to now?

Yeah I have never used a timing gun before but my mate was surprised it was even running. Its seems to be tottering around +-5 degs now

Timing or mixture not set properly

Lets say the timing is ok its seems to sounds 100% better. Have you any tips for setting the mixture I assume this is just with the CO2 adjusting screw, idle adjusting screw and fast idle speed.

The wire to the fuel cut off on the carb in place?

CovKid is this the wire your referring to

[BOXY]

Its seems to be tottering around +-5 degs now

With the vacuum lines connected it should be 5' ATDC. If it's set to 5' BTDC the timing will be 10' too advanced. What is the timing advancing to at +3000 RPM?

[drmac]

Ok I will have to take it somewhere to get it tuned correctly, Running out of time anyone know places in leeds I will give the herbie hospital a ring

[drmac]

Ok - Back from my camping holiday yes camping no van involved

So update on the problem, The distributor vacuum advance is faulty the rotary arm seem to also be loose so I have been advised to buy a whole new distributor. Anyone know where to get one its for a 1983 1.9 DF engine i think the part number is 0 231 023 013

[Ian Hulley]

Things like that don't happen overnight on their own ... work it out WHAT HAS CHANGED between it running fine and not running fine ? Is there a vacuum pipe off the carb>dizzy advance/retard system ? Have you recently put Sainsbury's petrol in ? Mine wouldn't run on it either.

Ian