Hey guys, I *finally* got my car to run right. And it's running even better
than before! To break down my problem...I've got an electric fuel pump and adj
pressure regulator. The original one that came with the car died a little
while back...allowing the pump to flow full pressure into the carbs. Which
along with my tired float needles, made for a very nice fire hazard. So thanks
to a lot of people's suggestions, I took a look at the press reg; the
diaphragm inside was torn, so it was a goner.
Went to the local kragen's and bought a new unit..threw it on, and viola, the
car ran fine. But after a few days, things started going awry. The car would
idle fine, but cut out under acceleration/throttle. I checked the oil levels
in the damper chambers...uh oh, a little low. Ok that must be the culprit.
Filled them to spec...but to no avail. Then I decided to check the flow of the
fuel pump...it tested fine. Threw the regulator back on, and the fuel was
barely drizzling outta there! AHA! There's the culprit! But this was supposed
to be a brand new regulator, wasn't it??
Well, I went ahead and had a friend with a bit more carb experience come over
and help me tune the carbs. I popped open the "new" regulator and cleaned it
up a bit (the glue that held the steel plate on to the diaphragm had seeped
into the fuel chamber...I thought cleaning that up would do the trick). Well,
after popping open the damper chambers, allowing me to see those internals for
the first time, and cleaning EVERYTHING up, we bolted everything back
together. Oh, did I also mention that I had placed my inline fuel filter after
the fuel pump and regulator?? Whoooooooops!!! A definite no no!
Anyway, swapped the filter back in front of the pump and reg, and fired the
baby up. Vroooom, we have contact. Took the roadster out for a spin, and holy
crap! It ran even stronger than I ever remembered! Took my buddies that were
helping with the car for a ride (one at a time of course! :) and scared the
heck outta them! In fact, acceleration was a lot stronger than ever, and the
braking was AMAZING! I mean, my stock brakes are of course worn, but they
grabbed like there was no tomorrow. Now the weak link were my tires, which
left little momentos of the occassion all over my street. Can't wait to get
those 300ZX TT brakes on there now... :)
Fast forward to today, I decided to take the car out to get some gas, as I was
running on E from all the fuel diagnosing. Dang thing wasn't running as strong
as the day before. Hmmm...I know it's the regulator, but I just don't want to
believe it. I went ahead and popped the thing open and did the good 'ole lung-
powered blow test. I wasn't getting any air to flow through that thing so I
went "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I'll drive the 3 minutes to the kragen's to exhange
this piece of crap for a new one."
Brought home the new regulator...blew through it to make sure it would flow.
So far, so good. Put it on the car and tested the fuel flow (it's GOOD to have
an electric fuel pump for these occassions!), and it was no longer dribbling
fuel, but spewing it out at a good rate. Put everything back together
AGAIN...and here I am after returning from a nice spirited cruise around the
neighborhood.
My opinions on carbs: The SUs really are SIMPLE! Not full of voodoo magic like
I had thought all carbs would be. But, I'm still an EFI guy...though I'll
admit that I now have a renewed respect for carbs, and wouldn't mind working
on them after all I've learned in the past weeks.
Sorry this got a bit long, but I'm just a little excited, and I tend to go off
when that happens!
Thanks to all who offered advice/help/tips/money :)
Van
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