I've been busy tonight doing some diagnostics on the van. I'm trying to determine if the air flow sensor is good or not. I'm not sure what the outcome is yet. I find it hard to believe that the thing would run very well at all if it was broken but I suppose it's possible. I'm coming up with some ohm measurements that are leading me to believe that there could be an issue with it. I haven't ruled out the possibility that there may just be a huge vacuum leak that's causing it to be a bit cranky on cold starts. I have identified one area just after the meter where the upper airbox attaches to the intake boot and it is really loose. I don't have any starter fluid to verify that though. I should know tomorrow.

As I was sitting there thinking about things, I noticed a small puddle underneath the sliding portion of the door. It was coolant. There's no coolant hoses anywhere near the sliding door but it was clearly coming from that area underneath the door. So as I'm sitting there scratching my head, I started to laugh a bit. I forgot that there is a rear heater in the van and it's under the back seat. I had it all apart in about 20 minutes and......the heater core is bad. So it's 70 bones to replace that and it makes a huge mess. All the carpet and padding under the rear seat is soaked. Gonna be fun to clean up. The van is definitely needing some TLC before I trust it but the thing is so cool. I am constantly finding little things that I find interesting. For example, there is a valve under the back seat that, when open, allows hot water to enter the core and heat the van when the blower is turned on. In the summer you can flip that valve closed and keep things cooler. I know what you're thinking, I can just close the valve and wait til later. Not so much. There's still some back pressure in the system and it'll leak...just slower.

At least it's snowing here again and we're not looking to go camping anytime soon.