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On 9 Nov 2004 at 0:30, Amy Rarig wrote: > I just got my square on the road. and noticed that I don't have to much > power. I know that this could be alot of different things but my plans are > to make this my daily driver so I plan to upgrade the ign sys to electronic. > Does anybody have any useful knowledge about this so I not running around > in circles. While there may be some advantages to electronic ignitions, mainly reduced maintenance, increased power is not one of them. Unless you can feel your engine missfiring a lot, you probably don't have an ignition problem. The most common problems leading to these symptoms are: 1) Stuck mechanical advance, meaning that your ignition timing doesn't advance with RPM as it should. This lets the car idle and start up fine, but it gets excessively weak as the RPMs go up. To test this, grab the dist rotor and twist it CW; it should turn a bit and then snap back smartly when you release it. If it doesn't it needs to be rebuilt and this is something I can do for you. 2) Worn out voltage regulator, meaning that your charging system is not running at the proper voltage so the FI can't run correctly. As the VRs age, their regulating voltage always comes down; for some reason this makes our FI run rich. Excessive richness not only gives poor gas mileage and high exhaust emissions, it also gives doggy performance. Test for this by measuring the charging system regulating voltage with the engine warmed up after a drive and with the engine still running at medium rpm. You should see 14.1-14.4V across the battery. Voltages at the fuse box will be somewhat lower, while the voltage at the generator will be slightly higher. If the voltage you measure is below 13.5V, replace the voltage regulator. These are both common problems and make huge differences when corrected. -- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~