More power, Scotty!

I've noticed a strange phenomenon. Whenever I do ANY kind of repair to this van, my mileage and power improves. A lot. I have tons more power with less stepping on the gas. The engine sounds like it's straining less, and running more efficiently. It sounds tighter. It feels like it's running smoother. For some period of time, until it gets sloppy again.

Maybe this is because I always have to remove the air filter and intake hoses in order to do anything on this van, and I always tighten up the intake hoses really really tightly when I'm done. Tighter than other mechanics seem to to. It might run better with a tight, leak-free intake system; might make the electronic fuel injection happier.

It might have to do with the KIND of things that I've been doing to the vehicle. Like replacing the fuel filter, which might make it run better because there's a more free flow of fuel, and it's cleaner too. And replacing the glow plugs might help provide more complete combustion, but that'd only have an effect at startup. I dunno.

Or maybe it's because I always clean off the engine whenever I work on it. The additional heat dissipation might help it run better. That's almost superstitious. But there has to be a reason; machines are deterministic entities.

In any case, each time I work on the van, I get more power with less fuel.