73 baywindow aircare fail

[synner88tc]

hey guys

i bought the van a little over a year previous to this aircare fail, i did a full tune up (valves, cap, rotor, point's, condenser, plugs, wires, oil, fuel drain and replace, replace fuel lines and filters, air cleaner) i ran it through aircare and it passed (i may have used methal hydrate but i can't remeber for sure) i had some problems with the rear axels and a few other non-engine problems causing the van to sit for almost a year, a week before aircare was up i scrambled to get the van roadworthy and insured for a year. i needed the van for work as my previous work truck packed it in, i was carrying tools and material to a job site back and forth between langley and harrison hot springs, after a week i realized i was going to trash the van using it like this for the long term, so i made tha hard desicion to sell it and buy a safari to use for work. i ran it through aircare and it failed.

so it was aircared, sat for a year, driven for 1 week on the highway and it failed aircare in the driving portion with high CO

http://aircare.ca/getresults.php

my registration number is 02778415

the odometer readings are off for some reason, it was 79,000 last year and 83,000 this year but it only was driven for maybe 500 km's

the motor is stock 1700 (it has a VW of canada rebuilt motor sticker on it) dual carbs. when it kicks down to idle after warming up and i walk behind it i can smell fuel (running rich?)

i just want to get this thing through aircare so i can sell it, i have allready picked up a safari for work, but i have to pay it off with the sale of the bus. i usally maintain my own vehicles and i am pretty handy, but i don't know the first thing about tuning these dual carbs, and i am thinking that they must be at fault here.

any suggestions?

[BUSDADDY]

It's kinda odd that your driving CO is up and your idle CO is way down. My first guess is you have a vacuum leak causing the lean idle, not much to worry about as it's still passing. The driving CO could be a loose jet or clogged air filter but is most likely a clogged air correction jet. Time for a carb cleaning and vaccum leak witch hunt.

[synner88tc]

so how far do you think i need to go with the carbs? take them out and rebuild? where is the air corrector jet located?

for the vacuume leak i can spray carb cleaner along the lines right? and are we are talking about the lines that are connected to carb system only?

[Tundra_Trail]

Why don't you advertise where there is no aircare to sell the van... then you don't have to worry bout it

[Bruce]

Does it have 1 year old gasoline in it?

[synner88tc]

it did have 1 year old fuel in it, but i went through almost 2 tanks by the time i ran it through aircare. i ran it for about a month after that back and forth to harrison so at this point the fuel is very new.

[synner88tc]

so i figured i would update this and see if anyone has any idea's

i ran it through again to get a current idea of where i stood before i messed with anything.

i ran a dura-lube fuel system cleaner through a full tank and refilled with premium fuel (cheveron) hoping to dislodge anything that may be in the carbs. i put a guarantee to pass aircare additive in (snake oil?) and some methyl hydrate. ran it through jan 24th in abbotsford - see results - soooo close but still a fail.


my next step was check and re-adjust points, static time and i found 2 places on the intake that were without vacuume lines and sealed them. ran premium fuel from husky and some methyl hydrate. ran it through feb 21st in abbotsford - see results - driving Co'2 got worse!

today i took it to a local shop with an emmisions sniffer, carbs were adjusted at fast RPM with CO'2 showing around 1.5% - same tank of fuel from last test. ran it through in langley lane 1 - Co'2 got way worse. we re-checked it on the sniffer and i ran it through again in lane 2 this time in langley - got slightly worse yet!!!

we came to the conclusion that it needs to be adjusted on a dyno. i booked an appointment for thursday at the auto clinic in langley.

does anybody have any idea's? should i have someone look at the carbs first? or should we be able to tune this thing under load on the dyno to pass?

[BUSDADDY]

You've got some serious driving Co issues my friend, is your air filter clogged up? If it's good you need to go through the carbs before you waste any more time at aircare. I would look for loose mainjets or plugged air correction jets.

[synner88tc]

the aircleaner is clear. i replaced it last year with everything else and it has had limited use since. i opened it up when i was looking for vacuume leaks as well just to confirm and it looked as new.

ok i am going to hold off on the auto clinic and get these carbs looked at first then.

thanks alot! i really appreciate it.

[Bruce]

First, stop playing around with the snake oils, methanol, & premium gas.  They do NOTHING for you.  Use straight 87 octane.

Are you taking this to a non-VW shop?  How are they synchronizing the carbs?

What was the engine temp?  Do you have a functioning thermostat system?

[lil bugger]

If your in langley,go see  Duanes autohause 604 436 2932.He'll get it through! O0

[synner88tc]

i have done all the work myself, untill today. i brought it to a non VW shop to use the emissions sniffer. he tuned the carbs by ear.

i don't have a temp gauge. it idled for about 15 mins while it was tuned and then i drove it 5 or 6 blocks to aircare. all the other tests were after running it on the highway from langley to abbotsford.

i am taking the carbs to see Daniel from the Old Beetle Shop in langley.

[synner88tc]

If your in langley,go see  Duanes autohause 604 436 2932.He'll get it through! O0

where in langley is he? sounds familiar but i don't think i have ever been there.

[lil bugger]

I don't know the streets well ,but if you go to A&B transmissions & turn the opposite way down a street beside the sheet metal place ...maybe a mile or 2 he's on the left .Good guy .he got my baja through yrs ago

[synner88tc]

cool! i will have to check it out one of these days.

[BUSDADDY]

he tuned the carbs by ear.

There's one of your problems.

Duane is at the back of the complex just south of International house of old people and General paint, always a few Vdubs on the street out front.

[synner88tc]

update time.

i took the bus to see Duane. He worked on the tuning and replaced a leaky brake booster and master cylinder (the booster was letting brake fluid travel up to the motor via the vacume line and causing it to want to stall out when braking), but it still wouldn't pass. the numbers looked really good on the sniffer but under load at aircare were still too high.

it was decided that either the carbs needed to be rebuilt or replaced. i took the bus back home and installed a weber 2 barrel progressive carb. brought it back to Duane and the numbers were looking really good, he adjusted it a bit more and i ran it through. PASS!! the numbers were actually really good.

BIG THANKS to Duane from the German Autohause, and also to Daniel from the old beetle shop for all their help through this project.