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Re: winterizing


At 00:27 9.10.1997, Toby Basiliko wrote:

 * I agree with the octane, but find that I end up richening the carbs
 * ever so slightly to compensate for colder, damper, DENSER air.  Maybe
 * it's just an ideosyncracy with my car, but it's been the pattern for the
 * last three years- it needs a little more fuel in late fall, and starts
 * running a bit rich in mid spring.

I never run anything but "leaded" 99 in my car anyway - as I understand it,
there is no leaded gas in Europe anymore, just unleaded that has some type
of potasium based additive that substitutes for lead (Heiko, is this
correct?).  However, in the winter when the temps fall to minus degrees C
and it is difficult to get the engine at its normal operating temperature,
I notice a huge increase in fuel consumption.  Conversely, when the weather
is around 10C and the air is damp, my Square runs perfectly and fuel
economy noticably improves.

Another wierd thing is that if it is rather windy, my idle speed goes to
hell and the engine runs rough.  I do not know why.

On the subject of winterizing, one area that I would highly recommend
triple checking three times is your heat exchangers.  Make sure that
everything is tightly connected, especially the old flimsy tubes that go
from the exchangers into the underside of the back seat.  I have replaced
these with two that I took off of a late model Beetle.  These are flexible
plastic and do require some modifying to fit.  On most Type III's that I
have seen, these tubes are either falling off, or are in such bad condition
that they are not providing much warm air flow into the car.  Another
important item to check is the heater control cables and heat exchangers
flaps.  Making sure that these are functioning correctly will ensure that
you have some heat (assuming that your exchangers are not rusted out to
death).  If all is well with these areas, your driving pleasure will be
multiplied several times over.

Just my $0.02 worth (at today's exchange rate).

Patrick






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