Jump to content

Bad gas....!?!?


Red1990LX

Recommended Posts

I was driving around town tonight and needed gas so I filled up. I bought 92 which should be good for the car as it was tuned on 91. About three miles down the road, the car started acting really funny. It wouldn't got above 1,300RPMS without it cutting up or backfiring. I have never had these problems before but the tow truck driver said that there has been some bad gas stations who water their gas down. Does this sound like the case? Any help would be great, thanks!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I say its very possible. Where did you go. I have heard alot of problems with BP fuel. When I had my mustang and evo it only ran on sunocco 94. I suggest you run that fuel.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Water does not mix. NTB has a fuel system "cleaner" that bonds the hydrogen molecules together so the water is dispersed throughout the tank. This actually makes the water combustible with the gas.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had this problem last winter. There was a lot of water in the tank at Sunoco and i filled up with 94. I made it home, but when i tried to leave again I got about 50 feet down the road and my car bogged down. I made them pay for someone to drain it all out and fill my tank back up.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When the tow truck driver dropped the car off yesterday, it was pitch dark out-side. After giving the car a once over, I noticed that these crappy headers I have on the car now actually touch the boot from the spark plug wire. Two of the eight wires were so bad that there was a crack going up the boot. My assumption of the problem was that the exposed plugs were arching on the headers causing the car to miss-fire. I pulled the plug and checked them as well to see if they looked like they were bad (White deposits) and they were just fine. I replaced them anyways though. Buttoned everything back up and the car started just fine. I am having the same issue though with the boots as the two imediatly started to BURN.... I am going to try and get those 1200 degree boot covers to see if it helps any before junking the headers. Thanks for all the input, never did I think it was the wires, just started from the easiest things first and got lucky. It still hasn't been driven though, as I don't want to burn the new wires I just bought...
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used the 135 degree boots. I put the sleeves on them and they held up fine. However when I took it out on a short drive after the new plugs and wires, it acted up yet again. I have power throughout my ignition system from the coil to the distributer then to the plug themselves. I went ahead and replaced the cap and rotor today to see if that would help, it didn't. I messed with the timing a little to see if retarding it would help the idle still nothing. My problem now is that I can hold the throttle all the way down and it acts like it has a bad delay and it will rev up really choppy and it will almost act like it is struggling to get fuel and it will back-fire terribly (hence why I messed with the timing). I do not understand what is going on with it as it is almost like it is starving for fuel but my pressure guage reads 42-43psi with it running really crappy. Oil pressure is at 50-60 psi and my vac guage reads 0 with it at its crappy idle. I can't hook a tester up to it as it has no stored codes, and I cannot data-log it with it being able to idle to complete the test. What I thought was strange it right after you shut the car off, the fuel pressure guage drops back to 0 rather quickly. I always thought that the pressure drops a little at a time. Any ideas on what the deal is. Here is what has been replaced or checked throughout these couple of days:

 

Smog was deleted (just the air pump and associated hardware; holes were capped in the heads as well as the two vac lines)

New plugs and wires

New cap and rotor

Checked the MAF seemed fine (ran the car without it still nothing)

Sprayed brake cleaner near vaccum lines to check for leaks

Tourqed the intake manifold (upper) to specs.

Added octane booster (had to try it)

Reset computer didn't check the chip though...

Tomorrow I am going to pull the fuel filter and replace that and if that doesn;t help, drain fuel and fill with 93 from shell after that, she will be towed to a shop to have them do their thing with it if all else fails. Does anyone know of a good shop with decent pricing that will work on a supercharged car in Dayton? I just need this going again as I am going to sell it to buy a house and I don't want someone else to have to fix this as I haven't the slightest idea as to what the problem is... If you are still reading, thanks for looking and any help would be great... Thanks

 

 

do you have straight boots or angle boots.....

 

I use the autolite pros with the 90 degree angle boot and they clear ok on flowtech shorties

 

the straight boot wires always seem to hit the sleeves should take care of it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pull the vacum hose off the fpr and make sure its not leaking inside (it'll be wet if it is)

 

check the maf for debris they make an areosol cleaner you can use

 

check for a stuck open injector

 

if you have a scanner watch your o2 values and see if its loading up at idle

 

hth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Removed

take a fuel sample in a gas jar...let it sit for a few hours, if there is water getting mixxed with it then the two will seperate. the water will sit on top of the gas.

 

 

the boots on the headers are a issue, but unless you just put the headers on, you may just be chasing your tail here. cause that will cause a misfire thru the whole rev range.

 

also fuel pressure is one thing, but what is the volume? pressure can be there, but if there is no volume behind it, its not going to run very well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thread cleaned up.

 

No, water does not mix with gasoline. Even if it did, modern pumps have water filters. Good luck on figuring out your problem.

 

you can still get water in your tank, especially if they are low on gas. i have had it happen and it was bad, the car wouldn't even run i put some isopropl alcohol in it to dry out the water overnight and it ran fine after that.

luckily i only put in a couple gallons because the pump was pumping slow so i knew they were low.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I changed the fuel filter today and let her run for a bit. Same problem came back after about ten minutes of idle. It's almost like the fuel pump it heating up after a short while and the in-line pump is trying to feed enough gas into the car but it too maxes out therefore creating the choppy idle and lack of power. Is there a way to check to see if the pump is going out or is on its way out. The car runs perfect when cold but again after ten minutes it shows the same symptoms. Just a thought but seem logical... I have a 255LPH in tank with a vortech boost-a-pump in line...
Link to comment
Share on other sites

no check engine light until the car dies but hat happens normally even if you stall... I tried to pull codes on it but it said there were no stored codes...

On a side note, I did pull the vac line off the FPR and it was dry as a bone no odors of gas either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest 614Streets
Playing mechanic online is so accurate, looks like your headed in the right direction checking out the pumps. If they both check out your probably dealing with some component being a victim of heat(sink failure) , what does your fuel pressure do when you mash the gas in park after its warm??
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...