[Vwdiesel] Timing Impacts

[Val Christian]

Gang,

Timing and tuning.

Personal experience with all the 70's and early 80's Rabbits was
that I could set timing, but as the engine components aged, the results
were more and more varied.  Some cars ran fine, but just would not
start.  Compression  would be fine, but cold temps would kill the 
startability.  

My 91 NA does about 52 mpg around town (mostly rural driving).  
My 03 TDI does about 57 or 58 around town, and 60 or 61 on trips.
The 03 TDI has timing issues, and needs the timing tweaked.  It's
affecting the startability, and also affecting (to a much lesser
degree) the mileage.

There are all kinds of tricks and techniques, and we should all 
be open to learning from them.  Similarily, our good ideas are not
always as good for other people.  Most of my local friends still
don't have passive IR thermometers (aka IR radiometers, pyrometers, 
or whatever).  Yet, it's my tool of choice for so many things.
What can I say?

OT:  I think I'm hearing some wrist/rod slap in my 25+ yo compressor.
It dies down after the tank gets a few pounds of pressure in it.
I'm thinking that things quiet down because there's more of a load
on the piston, offseting the inertial tendenancies of the piston.
Also, the oil is getting dirty faster.  If I'm going to rebuild
this sucker, it makes allot more sense to do it late winter, before
the pothole season, as that season seems to cause impact 
tools to be used more often.  


Does anyone have compressor evaluation guidance to share?   The 
compressor is a Sears 919.15678, which has an al pump, single state,
and was made by Devilbiss.  

Val