DustinThis morning, around 1:00am EST, on my way home from work, my truck started bogging down, then stalled for the first time since I have owned it. It will bog down at random, but I have not been able to find out why until this morning. A quick search of the symptoms hinted at a fuel blockage somewhere in the system. Thinking about it, that made sense, so I checked everything out. I got the truck started again, then pinched off the fuel line and let it die: exactly the same as when it shut down while driving.
It had started back up and ran until I did that, so that told me the fuel pump was working at least well enough to idle the engine. I thought about it more, and though that the fuel pickup inside the gas tank may be clogged. I tried to drive away again, but it still bogged down...
I switched gas tanks(this thing has two 16 gallon tanks to feed the old 7.4L Big Block Chevy engine, which it needed at 6MPG) over to the driver side and it was perfectly fine. Almost out of gas, and completely out of money, I switched back to the passenger tank, which is full, and hoped for the best: It was perfectly fine for the remaining 30 minute drive home. I thought about every time it bogged down, and realized it either seemed to happen at random, or when stopped for a while. This leads me to believe that there is some debris floating around in at least one of the tanks, that is clogging things up and cutting off fuel flow to the engine. I will test this theory when it happens again by switching tanks as soon as it happens and seeing if it runs better. If so, then I have a single dirty tank, or clogged line somewhere. If it still fails, then I have a problem with something common to both tanks: The fuel line to the pump, the pump itself, or maybe the mechanism that switches between the two gas tanks.
This has been a huge issue for a while as it causes the engine to lose so much power that I may be unable to maintain even 20mph at times. I may have finally figure out the cause of the most serious issue my truck has, and know how to fix it. In order to fix it though, I may have to remove the bed of my truck, which requres buying lunch for a few buddies to lift it. At that point, I might as well replace the bed mounts and bolts, as well as any gas tank mounting hardware that may need replaced. I'm quite glad this happened, because it finally gave me the lead I was looking for.
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I believe I have finally fixed this. I was driving in heavy rain last week and it happened again. I happened to notice that the voltage was a lot lower than usual. Should normally be around 15 volts, but was right around 12 volts. This told me that the alternator was no longer working properly. The entire truck was running off of the battery, and the battery was not charging. The belt was squeaking really badly as well at the time. I limped the poor old truck home, and tried to tighten the belt. No luck, the bracket that I had to use was messed up and I could not tighten it any farther. I got a much smaller belt from Summit Racing, and installed and tightened it, as well as bending the bracket to fix some of the belt alignment issues. I also installed the 60,000 volt ignition coil from Summit Racing.
I have not had a single problem since, and the voltage stays right around the 14 to 15 volt range at all times. My friend came through with a proper alternator bracket for the engine, and I am just working on freeing up some time to clean it up, paint it, and install it. Then I will stock pile a few spare belts and this should never be a problem again. Will update if this ever happens again.
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Had more fuel problems today. It started bogging down again on the way to a meeting at work. I switched gas tanks every time it happened, and it was fine for a while then started bogging down. It seems to be a problem with both tanks. Could both be ditry, or there could be a clog somewehre in a common fuel line. Still cannot rule out a bad, or mis-calibrated fuel pump or carb either. The next step is to rig up an emergency fuel supply, and start measuring things, then finally take the tanks off, one at a time and start cleaning and replacing things. I think I will start with a fuel pressure gauge and a regulator, as the carburetor I am using likes 5.25psi of fuel going in. I am pretty sure my fuel pump is putting out closer to 6psi and isn't adjustable. It works for now, but this cannot go on.
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