Ill look at it sometime this week buggy sits in heated garage year round so freezing is a no go lol although it may find itself out side with the airfilters off and exposed to mother nature before long

Ok here are exact number for compression on each cylinder #1-75 #4-88 #3-90 #2-96 this is engine cold all plugs removed prior to compression test i have strong spark at the coil and strong spark at the plugs i pulled the tops off my carbs and the fuel is orange looking i cant see where it can be jelled up already i just got it out of the pump a week ago and have ben cranking fuel through the carbs since then it will still only fire on #4 checked all valve lash again and it is still good, timing is still good , maybe this little bit of imfo can be a little better than last

Also im wondering if a bad set of heads with leaky valves couldve caused my compression rings to burn up already they were never good from the time i put my new jugs and pistons on

a vacuum ga. will tell you sticky valves, leaky valves,and bad valve guides, a bad plug wire, intake leak on and on......and get fresh gas if it smells rotten and get some Gumout. Compression looks sad.

orange fuel means moisture. the moisure rusts and turns fuel orange. time for a carb rebuild.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

and yes those compression readings are sad. are you opening the throttle and letting it cycle 3 or 4 times when you check it? I still think your low readings are from fuel wash though. take your carb apart and clean it real good blow air through all the ports. put it back together and see what happens.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

Will the rings recover from fuel wash if not before i bother starting it again and hooking everything up ill go ahead and put a new set of rings in it

Hpfreak i just did another compression test with throttle opened these are my readings #1-140 #4-150 #3-148 #2-149 i noticed 2 days after i got fuel they had all pumps cautioned taped off at that same gas station up until then i was making progress prior to putting that gas in so i dont know if i got shit gas from there i am going to blow my carbs back out and make new gaskets for them and try some new fuel again

Ok cleaned the carbs and #1 and #3 cylinders dont fire unless you pull the end of the wire out of the distributor cap and hold it flush even with the hole that the wire goes into any ideas on this tried multiple sets of wires with same results

Have you checked your cap and rotor? Some times the rotor button gets real worn and causes problems. I know this may sound stupid but what about the firing order is it out of sequence? With the problems you are describing it sounds to be ignition. Check for condensation in the cap as well. Points can also get a bur on them that changes the dwell. I would replace your cap, condenser, and rotor first as the are inexpensive. If you still cant figure it out find someone close by that you can take it to that can put eyes and ears on it or post a video of the problem. Firing order is 1,4,3,2 Number one cylinder is on the passenger side nearest to the flywheel.

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Water Cooled Consortium, Chairman of the Build (Former AC purist)

Ive changed cap and rotor points are still good and condenser should still be good this is a brand new distributor i thought maybe i had plug wires hooked up wrong but my number 1 is where number 3 would be to your description it has come down to an ignition problem now everything else has been fixed or replaced at this point

I will say it one more time COIL. When you pulled the plug wire off it demanded more KV from the coil.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

To rule out the ignition switch,run a hot wire from the battery to the positive side of the coil.

I put a new coil on 2 weeks ago its just an oem coil for it since i was just running points again never had an issue with this set up in the past ill try jumping a wire from the battery or starter again and see if it makes a difference for me

You put that coil on two weeks ago and you have had trouble ever since............... Geeeeeeeee I wonder what the problem is? Seriously when you pulled the wire away from the plug and it fired its because you demanded more kilo volts from the coil. Coils do have a shelf life. And you also said that's a 3 ohm coil that IS the WRONG coil for points. A resisted coil requires a lot more dwell time which electronic ignition can provide and points cannot. Speaking of dwell have you set it correctly? Dwell can be set by the point gap or using a dwell meter but a dwell meter is more precise and accounts for lobe wear. You can keep beating your head against the wall or you can at least try a new coil.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

This is a pre exsisting problem that started labor day weekend at wellsville never had an issue with it before then it had electronic ignition and 3.0 ohm coil at that time when that ignition popped it sat up until recently. When i started working with it again i put points and a OEM COIL from autozone in it problem still here what coil do you suggest running and ill return the new one i just put on it, and try something better.

If you go with another coil I would buy one from a place that sells a lot of vw stuff so your not getting one that has been sitting on autozones shelf for 5 years. If you know someone with a vw engine try their known good coil. Find someone on here close too you I guarantee someone on here would jump through hoops to let you use their coil THESE ARE ALL GREAT PEOPLE. Sorry I don't mean to jump your bones about the coil but I had the same EXACT problem. I bought a bug when I brought it home it fired up and ran great 24 hours later it wouldn't even start. I threw parts at it just like your doing. Every part made it run a little better then I put a coil on it (from appletree) and it ran like a champ. Don't get me wrong every once in a while I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure about this one especially after you told me you gapped the wire and the cylinder started chugging.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

Thanks hp no harm done any advice is good advice i have a buddy that just bought a bosch kit with brand new coil for points ill get it and give it a try tommorow

I know some folks still believe in points but if they were that great I believe they wouldn't have went out way back in the 60's, ive had 3 a/c vw engines with petronix and bosch blue coil and NEVER had a firing issue whatsoever, any vw shop worth its weight in salt should be ble to set you up with correct parts

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

Just wanted to give a heads up problem is fixed and it turned out my new distributor i put on was bad out of the box i ran it all day yesterday with no problems. Still need to do a couple tuning things but all and all it climbed nice again. That was a big relief yesterday to have it running like it use to

good to hear. glad you figured it out.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that