procmail error

I have a private copy of procmail v3.10 in my bin directory (not
installed by the sys admin).  An associate maintains a softlink in his
bin directory to procmail and formail.

For the recipe:

# The following recipe processes email that was received from the VAX.
# It cleans up the To, From and CC headers to be UNIX correct
#
:0
* ^From.*sys2
{

  VAXFROM="`/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xFrom: | awk '{print $1}' `"

  VAXCC="`/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xX-Vms-Cc: | /bin/nawk '{
                comma=sprintf(\"%s\",\",\"); gsub(/EEE1::/,\"\");
                gsub(/FHOVAX::/,\"\");
                gsub(/ /,comma); sub(comma,\"\"); 
                gsub(comma,\"@sys2.ped.pto.ford.com, \");
                
$0=sprintf(\"%s(_at_)sys2(_dot_)ped(_dot_)pto(_dot_)ford(_dot_)com\",$0); print 
$0}' `"

  VAXTO="`/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xX-Vms-To: | /bin/nawk '{
                commaspace=sprintf(\"%s\",\", \");
                comma=sprintf(\"%s\",\",\"); gsub(/EEE1::/,\"\");
                gsub(/FHOVAX::/,\"\");gsub(commaspace,comma);
                gsub(/ /,comma); sub(comma,\"\"); 
                gsub(comma,\"@sys2.ped.pto.ford.com, \");
                
$0=sprintf(\"%s(_at_)sys2(_dot_)ped(_dot_)pto(_dot_)ford(_dot_)com\",$0); print 
$0}' `"


  :0 afW
  | /u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -i "From: $VAXFROM"

  :0 afW
  | /u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -i "cc: $VAXCC"

  :0 afW
  | /u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -i "To: $VAXTO"

}

We have been occasionally (once every month) getting the following
error in our procmail.log files when an email arrives. 

procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xFrom: | awk
'{print $1
}' "
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xFrom: | awk
'{print $1
}' "
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xX-Vms-Cc: |
/bin/nawk 
'{
                        comma=sprintf("%s",","); gsub(/EEE1::/,"");
                        gsub(/FHOVAX::/,"");
                        gsub(/ /,comma); sub(comma,""); 
                        gsub(comma,"@sys2.ped.pto.ford.com, ");
                        
$0=sprintf("%s(_at_)sys2(_dot_)ped(_dot_)pto(_dot_)ford(_dot_)com",$0);
print $0}' "
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xX-Vms-Cc: |
/bin/nawk 
'{
                        comma=sprintf("%s",","); gsub(/EEE1::/,"");
                        gsub(/FHOVAX::/,"");
                        gsub(/ /,comma); sub(comma,""); 
                        gsub(comma,"@sys2.ped.pto.ford.com, ");
                        
$0=sprintf("%s(_at_)sys2(_dot_)ped(_dot_)pto(_dot_)ford(_dot_)com",$0);
print $0}' "
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xX-Vms-To: |
/bin/nawk 
'{
                        commaspace=sprintf("%s",", ");
                        comma=sprintf("%s",","); gsub(/EEE1::/,"");
                        gsub(/FHOVAX::/,"");gsub(commaspace,comma);
                        gsub(/ /,comma); sub(comma,""); 
                        gsub(comma,"@sys2.ped.pto.ford.com, ");
                        
$0=sprintf("%s(_at_)sys2(_dot_)ped(_dot_)pto(_dot_)ford(_dot_)com",$0);
print $0}' "
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail -xX-Vms-To: |
/bin/nawk 
'{
                        commaspace=sprintf("%s",", ");
                        comma=sprintf("%s",","); gsub(/EEE1::/,"");
                        gsub(/FHOVAX::/,"");gsub(commaspace,comma);
                        gsub(/ /,comma); sub(comma,""); 
                        gsub(comma,"@sys2.ped.pto.ford.com, ");
                        
$0=sprintf("%s(_at_)sys2(_dot_)ped(_dot_)pto(_dot_)ford(_dot_)com",$0);
print $0}' "
procmail: Rescue of unfiltered data succeeded
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail"
procmail: Rescue of unfiltered data succeeded
procmail: Timeout, terminating "/u/wjenuwin/bin/formail"

This hangs the mail server and requires a reboot by the sys admin who
now wants to kill me slowly.  I have shut off this recipe as I don't
trust it anymore, although it works flawlessy 99% of the time. 

Does anyone have any ideas on why the timeout occurs?  procmail and
formail are running on a DEC ULTRIX machine. 

thanks

=========================+============================
Bill Jenuwine            | Internet: wjenuwin(_at_)ford(_dot_)com
Ford Motor Company       |
=========================+============================