fuel starvation and stalling

Mike Strausbauch strausbauch at mayo.edu
Fri Aug 6 22:15:10 GMT 1999


<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger>Hello all,


my subscription atempt to get on the list bounced so you will have to
respond by email to "strausbauch at mayo.edu"


I have a fuel problem that is driving me nuts.  I have a 1988 dodge
caravan with the 3.0 liter  v6 multiport fuel-injection system (130K
miles all original fuel system componets).  I have what I believe to be
a low pressure or no fuel delivery problem on extremely hot days. This
has occured 2 years ago on a trip thru South Dak. near Sturgis during
Harley Days (of all the times to be stuck on the interstate this was it
because of the wall to wall people there was a lot of company and
assistance.).  Now It's happened again under similar circumstances.


After driving all day in record Hot temps for this part of the country
@ 100 F. on a clear day with the sun beating down on the road and
cruising at the speed limit (70)

in the middle to late afternoon the car will have a very light stumble.
 About 30 sec's later it will stumble again and and they will come more
quickly and more violent so that over the course of 4-5 min the car
will stall and the engine die. At the end the surges are quite violent.
 If you ease off the gas the car will run smoothly but there isn't
enough power to maintain speed and in the end you end up about the same
distance as you would otherwise.  After sitting 10-15 min you can get
about 1/4 mile down the road- further if you wait longer.  During a
surge the engine seems to be able to pull the van normally.  But it
won't start at all if you try imediately.  The car might fire but will
die before you can get it in gear. Sometimes I think I can hear the
fuel pump running quite a bit while the car is trying to stall out. I
have been using 10% methanol reg gas (we are in the corn belt), and the
engine doesn't seem to be overheating.  And the oil pressure is good as
far as I can tell and I can hear the fuel pump running so I don't think
its cutting power to the fuel pump.  I have Just changed the fuel
filter thinking that the flow of fuel might be reduced and might have a
  vapor problem up at the fuel rails but the old filter didn't seem to
be blocked after I replaced it.  Could this be a cavitation problem at
the fuel pump or a vapor lock in the fuel line since it runs the length
of the van right next to the exhaust system? (I thought it was near
impossiable to vapor lock a pump-in-the-tank system.)


please, any suggestions would be helpful,  strausbauch at mayo.edu.

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