Off topic...lil car crisis.. lil help?

[Snaggletooth]

Trying to rescue my daughters boyfriends car. He filled the tank up and shortly after the car started stuttering and stalling and will start again after a few minutes but has no power on a hill and will stall out again.

 

I'm thinking bad gas and/or it is clogging the fuel filter.

 

It's a 1988 Cutlass with the 5 Ltr. Working from memory that car has a fuel fitler that screws into the carb body with either a filter inside of the barrel housing or the barrel housing itself is a filter. I'm pretty sure it has steel fuel lines.

 

Anybody have any info on that. Headed out in a bit to see what I can do. Be nice to grab the right filter on the way.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[Hulign]

A plugged catalytic converter will act like that too. Lets hope its the gas/filter

 

good luck

 

Frank

[Kregerdoodle]

not sure about the filter, but sounds like he got some bad gas, either water or some other contaminant...good luck and let us know what you find.

 

 

 

 

Trying to rescue my daughters boyfriends car. He filled the tank up and shortly after the car started stuttering and stalling and will start again after a few minutes but has no power on a hill and will stall out again.

 

I'm thinking bad gas and/or it is clogging the fuel filter.

 

It's a 1988 Cutlass with the 5 Ltr. Working from memory that car has a fuel fitler that screws into the carb body with either a filter inside of the barrel housing or the barrel housing itself is a filter. I'm pretty sure it has steel fuel lines.

 

Anybody have any info on that. Headed out in a bit to see what I can do. Be nice to grab the right filter on the way.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[Eddie]

Or if he ran it to low on gas it could of damaged the fuel pump

[Yammer Dan]

It could be converter just feel exhaust when it is running to make sure it has good flow.

[oldgoat]

hey snaggle i had one of them cars its a barrle type filter right by the carb. yep its on a steel gas line. in a emergency i have punched out the filter with a nail .

[Snaggletooth]

Thanks Goat, that's what I needed to know. Now that I've been thinking about it some of that model had issues with toasting the dist rotors to. That would cause similiar problem. Along with the converter, or fuel pump, or ignition module, or ah hell.......let it be something simple this week.

 

Gotta run.

 

Thanks guys

 

Mike

[Dano]

This car has a carburetor?

 

[oldgoat]

yes dano they did i know your thinking fuel injection .

[Reddog170]

Yep it would have a carb. Where the fuel line screws into the carb you want to take that off then take the larger bolt like plug out then remove the filter and just to get it home put it back together without the filter. Should get it home at least. Shaun

[oldgoat]

assuming this is a 307 olds motor,the fuel filter is inside the fitting that attaches to the carb fuel line,you must disconnect the fuel line first.this screws into the carb.it has the filter and a spring inside of it,it also has a nylon seal at the end of the fitting when you unscrew it off the carb

[buddy]

My Mom's 1989 Olds 98 5.0L had a problem with the ignition module going out which is located inside of the dist.cap gave us no warning when it took a dump so I always kept an extra one in the glove box

Buddy

[Dano]

yes dano they did i know your thinking fuel injection .

 

I had thought they did away with carbs by the mid 80's, this must be a Rochester then, right?

[Pam]

I would be leaning towards the converter, With it running put a hand or one of those laser temp gauges on the exhaust before the converter and take a reading and then check after the converter, should be about the same. I have had a few vehicles that acted that way and once the converter was in the bush they were fine.

 

frank

[royalstar09]

First thing first. Take the fuel line off at the carb and attach a length of hose to the line, either let it start or crank it and see what the output is by putting the hose into a clear container. This does 2 things, lets you know if in fact it is getting gas, and will allow you to see what it is. Id almost bet that after the gas sits in the clear container a few short minutes you will see the water settle to the bottom.

[Flyinfool]

One other option to check.

He didn't by chance fill it with DIESEL?

If he did, be very careful, diesel and gas mix is easily ignited in the tank.

 

In those old carb thingies that they used to use on cars, and I am just thinking out loud here. There is the spring that is behind the filter, Will that spring act as a pressure relief valve if the filter gets plugged and still allow the engine to run till the jets plug up with whatever was plugging the filter.

[Snaggletooth]

I pumped out about a pint of gas and it looks clean. Going to install a new fuel filter anyway.

 

But at this point it looks like the ignition module is the culprit. Going to replace the distributor cap, rotor and ignition module and that will hopefully resolve the issue. He's getting off cheap. Under $80.00 for parts. I just installed a new ignition module in my Lincoln and that was $240.00 for it alone. Yikes.

 

Thanks for the suggestions and advice.

 

Mike

[Cougar]

I had thought they did away with carbs by the mid 80's

 

They sure didn't on the VENTURE

[JAYBIRD 2009RSV]

Check the pickup coil wires that come from the ign module and see if one is broken they tend to break just pull on them slightly

[royalstar09]

Check the pickup coil wires that come from the ign module and see if one is broken they tend to break just pull on them slightly

 

Especially on vacuum advance equipped distributors

[Snaggletooth]

Well it's over. I was convinced the ignition module was heating up and cutting out as he said it only did it after he'd been driving for a while. He came and got the car for a while before I had really dug into it and then called and said it had done it again. He was about 4 blocks away and made it back. It died in my driveway as he pulled in. I threw my tester on it and it was firing like crazy. Lots of good spark. So much for that train of thought.

 

I pulled the fuel filter and it was not clogged with debris as I thought it might be, but nothing was going to go through it either. Dead stop. I had pumped gas out of the feed line this morning to check the gas and it looked fine. I had him spin it and there was no fuel forthcoming from the feed line. Nuttin. So I assume the restriction at the fuel filter was too much for the old pump and killed it off.

 

So I gave him the good news and showed him what would be involved in changing the pump. I even hooked him up with a buddy who has more time on his hands than I do. A lot of work to install a $35.00 pump. The tow truck will be here in the morning to take it over to my friends place.

 

Kids going to need to work some overtime to fix this one.

[royalstar09]

Well it's over. I was convinced the ignition module was heating up and cutting out as he said it only did it after he'd been driving for a while. He came and got the car for a while before I had really dug into it and then called and said it had done it again. He was about 4 blocks away and made it back. It died in my driveway as he pulled in. I threw my tester on it and it was firing like crazy. Lots of good spark. So much for that train of thought.

 

I pulled the fuel filter and it was not clogged with debris as I thought it might be, but nothing was going to go through it either. Dead stop. I had pumped gas out of the feed line this morning to check the gas and it looked fine. I had him spin it and there was no fuel forthcoming from the feed line. Nuttin. So I assume the restriction at the fuel filter was too much for the old pump and killed it off.

 

So I gave him the good news and showed him what would be involved in changing the pump. I even hooked him up with a buddy who has more time on his hands than I do. A lot of work to install a $35.00 pump. The tow truck will be here in the morning to take it over to my friends place.

 

Kids going to need to work some overtime to fix this one.

 

Honestly I would not 100% assume a pump without further diagnostics. A simple test would be to remove the line that is coming from the tank TO the pump. Attach a hose and put it into a container of gas. See if the pump will pick up gas from a jug in front of the car. Inspect the fuel lines really good. Those cars are good at rusting the brake and fuel lines under the car along the frame. It could just simply be a bad pump, and they are not bad to change, but it wouls stink to put on a new pump and have it do it again. You can even remove the fuel cap and by using compressed air (very carefully) using a old towell over the fuel inlet where you removed the cap from insert an air gun and shoot a little air pressure while looking under the car. If a line is borderline you can push gas out of it.

[Piston]

Just more food for thought here but I keep thinking back to "it started after he refueled". Try running the engine with the fuel cap off, strange I know but a plugged or incorrect fuel cap will cause a vacuum on the tank, these pumps aren't strong enough to overcome that type of vacuum and will eventually stop pumping.

 

I had a customer come in years ago that was doing about the same thing. Found out they had lost the gas cap and picked up one from another car just to get by... He had tightened the cap really tight on the last fill up and the car would run for about 10 minutes or so before running out of fuel at the carb.

 

Again this is just food for thought, as these pumps will "usually" either leak fuel internally into the engine, leak externally or simply not draw fuel from the tank.

[Snaggletooth]

Hi guys.

 

Again thanks for more ideas on this. Royalstar....that was one of the reasons I farmed it out to a friend. Just getting to the pump to pull the rest of the lines and replace the pump involves removing the A/C and other items. Along with the possible other issues line a clogged pickup, a bad line etc. I just don't have the time for it. And my friend has a shop that is set up better to get under the car and chase lines.

 

Piston, good point. I remember now about the there being some problem like that. That is one thing I can check before the tow truck picks it up today.

 

I'm not going to grumble about working on my bike ever again. LOL! Cars are a PITA!!!