I cant freaking win. Sound like fuel pump?

[shadango]

Had the car to a point where I thought she was not going to die on me anymore....figured the carb was flooding.

Tweaked the floats down lower and put in a fuel pressure regulator.

Took the car for a nice 40-50 mile ride and ran great.  No issues at ALL.

Then, gave her some more advance...running 18 now....took another ride....though only for maybe 10 miles.....around the house...ran great.

Took the car out today to pickup the kids at daycare.....running great.....took the long way home to show off the car to relatives...about 10 miles away....running great....

Took my aunt for a ride, running great.

She gets behind the wheel for a couple miles and fine until it stalls at a light.....Then its trouble from there on.

Basically stalls at every stop so gotta keep the rpms up.......if I get on it, backfiring thru exhaust, farting, coughing, etc......dies at the side of the road a few times, but I eventually limp on home.

The fuel regulator showed 7 lbs....(its set to 5 psi) at the side of the road.....pulled the hose to the carb and there is some gas there though maybe not as much as I expected.....but enough to dampen the rag.....

No power, etc....rougher than ever idle and running......surging.....

The clear fuel filter I am using has very little fuel in it pretty much empty from what I can see.....I guess my next step is to replace the fuel pump, but how can I be showing 5-7 psi on the gauge if the pump isn't pumping?  AFter the car sits a few minutes more fuel trickles in usually but not always.....

I had blown the fuel lines out before hooking everything up and all seemed clear......

I am not sure if its starving for fuel or not.....but it seems like the fuel filter should be full of fuel or at least half, right?

I was flying high up until this started,,,,,

[brads70]

How is the clear fuel filter mounted? Is it straight up and down or mounted horizontally?
That will affect how much fuel you see in it. I'm wondering if you are boiling the fuel? (vapour lock?) Either in the line or in the carb?  Just a though?

[72bluNblu]

Fuel filter should be at least half full, and I'd change it before I changed anything else. Just because its clear doesn't mean it isn't plugged.

But you changed the float height too? Could be too low. Maybe not the first thing to check since it did work fine for awhile, but it could be a heat related lean issue, or the newly bent float arm could have gotten stuck...

Where is the fuel filter in relation to the regulator? If the fuel filter is after the regulator, the filter could be plugged and you'd still show pressure at the regulator. Also, something could have gummed up the regulator. If the regulator is set to 5 psi, why is it showing 7?

Always best to make one change at a time, easier to troubleshoot that way. Just because the regulator is new doesn't mean it isn't a suspect.

And if you changed the routing of the fuel line, vaporlock could be an issue as Brad mentioned.

[shadango]

I had this very same issue when I had the first regulator on it...and when I removed it the car ran right away.  So I assumed it was the regulator....but then I had the car shut down again, so I put a new (Holley) regulator on thinking that my pressure was too high and flooding the carb.  Same issue.  Changed carbs, went to the 650 vs the 750 that was on it.......thought I had it licked, but same issue.....changed cap, rotor, whole distributor.....

Basically the pump is all that is left.

The filter is before the pump, and it ends up horizontal.    When the problem happens the filter looks almost dry...even when running......

Now, I have the fuel pump off and fuel is gushing from the fuel line if I have it down low....it filled a 32 0z jar in seconds flat......(there goes my mileage this tank...LOL).....so I dont think the line itself is clogged.....trying to figure out how I will change and then reconnect the filter with gas coming thru like that....I guess I will have to disconnect at the tank...but will I have a gusher there too?

I opened the tank cap and didn't hear air rush out or anything like it was pressurized....

The front of the car is slightly lower in my garage...I assume its just gravity working?

[73Chally]

I just replaced my fuel filter and only had maybe 8 oz of gas come out, including half of which was in the filter itself, and even then it just kind of dribbled out.  If it's shooting out of your, then your system is somehow pressurizing, which is odd.  As far as taking out the filter, jack the front end of the car up enough to get the front higher than the rear.  Either that or back the car into the garage.

[moparniac]

 how is your regulator setup? is it a return line setup or non return..... a guy here locally had a non return setup and run 1 of the lines back to the tank for a return 

[shadango]

Its a non-return regulator.........the bottom port is the inlet, the one outlet is going to the carb and the other outlet has the gauge on it, just like the directions say.

[Moparal]

Is your tank vented?

[shadango]

Yeah, several of them....a cluster of vent lines comes out of the side of the tank on the right.,....one of them runs to the engine bay for the charcoal cannister which is gone... and I have one of those little chrome crankcase filters on it...out of the 5 lines that are venting, all of them cant be clogged.....also, opening the gas cap (an old one) didnt help.....

Guess it wouldnt hurt to try blowing air again through the vent lines......but opening the gas cap should be the same thing.

As fast as fuel was flowing thru the gas line, though, I dont think thats it.....unless its something that is moving around in one of the lines.....

I installed a new fuel pump and filter.....too late to start her up.....

I used a pair of surgeons vascular clamps to clamp the rubber fuel line before the filter and that allowed me to swap the filter and install the pump without losing more fuel.

Whole house smells like gas now though ...integral garage.,.... (note to self:  use GLASS containers only to catch gasoline....it will eat through plain old plastic food containers!!!!) ...(ALSO note to self:  disconnect battery the next time you work around teh fuel pump!  Its easy to cross the terminals and gets sparks....and thats not good around gas...DUH!!!!)

The only other thing I can think of if this doesn't work is some sort of heat related ignition issue...but I am pretty sure it did this stuff before and the car wasn't even warmed up fully yet....

Doesnt look like I can disassemble the old pump to check inside...so I guess another test run will be needed.  I keep pressing my luck....so far I have been able to limp home.......may not be that lucky next time.

But it does seem consistent in that if I wait a few minutes it usually starts for at least a time.

The little bit of gas that came from the carb hose didnt seem hot at all, and wouldnt it be hot if there was vapor lock?

I ran a steel line down between the block and the alternator like was suggested back when I had inquired on that.....touching nothing but the oil dipstick tube in one small spot.....

What kills me is that it ran pretty good before it all went to pot.  I did notice the negine running a bit on the warm side (but not overheating) when this started happening...but not sure if that was due to the constant stop/starting/cranking or if that was a symptom.....

[6packCuda]

Is this a mechanical pump? If so, you could try running a line from the pump outlet into a bottle and have somebody crank the engine while you watch for fuel to pump out into the bottle. Another thing to check is the needle and seat valve at the carb inlet. If it's not seating properly it could be flooding it out. Carb float could be sticking too. That's about all I can think of right now.

[Chryco Psycho]

do you have a filter before your fuel pump , if so it can starve the pump , ther eis a filter in the tank on the pick up tube that could be blocked as well , if the pump is starved it can damage the pump permanently

[shadango]

Yeah, the filter is before the pump right now.....had posted about this a while back and seemed like it was ok...maybe I need to change that?

Thing is, not sure where it can go.....here is what I have now:



The holley regulator directions say to use a filter immediately before the regulator.....not sure if adding it in between the regulator and carb would work....

[71chally416]

If you have the original tank it could very well be full of rust and other crap and clogging the pickup filter at random times. 

[shadango]

When I pulled the sending unit to replace it a while back I hadn't seen any crud on the pickup sock of the old unit......

The previous owner says he dropped the tank and flushed it out......

Wish I had a way to see into the tank without dropping it, to be sure.....

[Bullitt-]

I had blown the fuel lines out before hooking everything up and all seemed clear......

I am not sure if its starving for fuel or not.....but it seems like the fuel filter should be full of fuel or at least half, right?

I'd be looking on the supply side.... Have you ever inspected the "sock" filter in the tank?