RE: [Chevelle-list] Long Story... Fuel pump?

[Crazy Rusty]

Well I didn’t see any squirts from the carb so I figured it was a fuel pump issue.  Put a new fuel pump in and it started right up.  I was getting all worried for no reason.  Thanks for the replies J   Crazy Rusty Systems Engineer II       From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Herb Lumpp Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 2:08 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; The Chevelle Mailing List Subject: RE: [Chevelle-list] Long Story... Fuel pump?   What kind of distributer is in it?  The reason I ask is because your symptoms sound just like the problem I was having with the HEI in my Vette.   While living in FL I was having problems with my Blazer.  I couldn't decide if it was the carb or the distributor.  Since the Vette was running perfect I decided to take a known good part off the Vette and swap it with the questionable part on the Blazer.  First I tried the carb and nothing changed on the Blazer and the Vette seemed to be running fine.  Since they both were using the same carb (Edelbrock 600) and there weren't any changes in how they ran, I left the carbs swapped.  Next I swapped the distributers.  The Blazer seemed to run better and the Vette still ran fine.  Since I drove the Blazer every day and the Vette pretty much collected dust, I left the two swaps the way they were.   Now fast forward to when I got transferred to Northern VA.  On the drive up I was in my wife's truck with the Elky in tow and my wife was in the Vette in front of me.  We were cruising along at 80 mph or so when all of a sudden two huge balls of fire blew out the tail pipes of the Vette and it went off the highway into the median!  It looked like a Busch car sliding through the grass!  When I was able to stop the truck I ran back to find out what happened.  That's when the Vette started doing the things you mentioned below.  It would idle fine and seem to run ok then die all of a sudden for no reason.  Fortunately the Elky had an HEI so I swapped some parts out to keep the Vette running.  When we made it to our destination the Vette died and wouldn't restart for anything.  My wife suggested I try the whole HEI from the Elky (not just parts) and see if it would help.  Sure enough, when I installed the Elky HEI it fired right up and ran like a top.  I ordered a new distributer from Performance Distributors and dropped it in and it's been running great ever since.   With that said, I would suggest you try a known good distributer to see if that fixes your problem.   Herb Lumpp http://users.adelphia.net/~hlump/index.htm -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Crazy Rusty Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 3:07 PM To: 'The Chevelle Mailing List' Subject: [Chevelle-list] Long Story... Fuel pump? Hey everyone,             I wanted to see if I could get some opinions on my current issue with my 69.               A few days ago I started her up and was going to take it to work.  I went a few miles, fairly straight though a little uphill, and then all of a sudden when I pressed on the gas after stopping at a light, it started to cough and seemed to want to die.  I just eased on the gas and then it was ok.  I shifted into neutral once I got going and gave it a rev and she sounded fine so I put it back in drive and made the turn to get on the freeway.  Once I got the light on the freeway ramp, it did the same thing but this time she did die.  Started her back up and then it was coughing and sputtering all over the place so I got right back off (luckily it was a clover leaf ramp).  Once I got off and started going straight again, she was fine.  I hit about eight lights on the way home and never had the problem again.  A few days later, same situation except that everything was fine until I hit the freeway, then the problem came up again and lasted a few minutes and then went away.               I initially thought it was the fuel filter getting clogged or something, I know I hadn’t changed it in quite awhile.  I replaced the fuel filter, started her up and gave her some rev’s, all sounded good.  She sat for about two months with just being started on the weekends and running for about 30 minutes.  Never had an actual load, just sat in park.  A few days ago I went to move her from the spot to my new garage which is a few miles away.  Everything was good until I hit a stop light and then the same problem came up, except this time it was worse.  Not only did she die right away, but I was never actually able to get her to go.  This time when I put her in neutral, she kind of coughed when I got more then… 2000 rpm (hard to tell because my tach is broken).  When in drive, she died almost immediately.  Luckily the light was on an incline and right next to a gas station so once I got everyone off my ass (why do people need to get so close?), I put her in reverse (which she ran just fine in) and backed into one of the parking spots.  I shifted into neutral just to hear the sound again to see if I could figure out what was up but this time I got more then I expected.  I pushed on the gas and just about shattered the windows of the gas station with a backfire.  Complete with a nice dual ball of black smoke from both pipes.  She then died and I didn’t try to start her (it was night, raining, and rush hour).  I towed her to the garage so I could take a look at her later.               >From what I can see, everything looks normal.  No leaking anywhere, all fluids are good, nothing can be seen from the engine compartment.  I checked the fuel filter to make sure I didn’t put it in backwards (that would have sucked… or not sucked if it was in backwards). I tried starting her but now all she does is crank, never even tries to start.  I’ve got two people recommending suggestions.  One says it sounds like a fuel pump problem and the other says it sounds like a timing problem.               I’m going to go out and test the fuel pump suggestion.  If I try and start it, then go manually pump the gas while looking in the carb, I should be able to see fuel shooting in.  If the streams are good, that means the fuel pump is good.  If they sputter, I know it could be the fuel pump… right?   Anyone have any suggestions?  Thanks for reading my book of an e-mail ;)   - JB   Crazy Rusty Systems Engineer II