Hiya folks. I had a problem that started this morning and I'm thinking right now its either the fuel pump or the fuel filter, but before I go rip my gas tank out of my car, I want to see what you guys think.


Firstly, I was nearly out of gas this morning and being stupid lazy about just going and getting a fill up.

I head to work and I immmediately noticed when I got on the highway that acceleration was absolute **** from a start. Once I got into the higher gears, accelleration piced up, the engine sounded normal, et cetera. I figured it was just because I let the tank run too dry. BTW no codes. I was wondering if maybe there was some transmission problems but the Scantool showed everytning working right. The car hit all gears and the TCC is behaving as it should.

When I accelerate, the engine feels seriously bogged down, you can even hear the engine kinda slow a moment before it picks up and the car accelerates like an L27 that hasn't had a tuneup in 300,000 miles.

So anyway, I was noticing my spark plugs looked out of wack (cables reversed, you can see it in my sig pic). So... I tried figuring out proper firing order and enlisted a bit of help from Boost and Pat. That lined up without a problem so I enlisted the wife to watch the scantool. What we found was a spark plug advance of about 25 degrees while idle, but as soon as I hit the gas, it drops to 11 and slowly climbed to about 14 or 15. Thats the most advance I got while moving.

I went to the local Ricerzone and picked up a Fuel Pressure tester. Of course I grabbed a TBI model and it didn't fit. Swear a couple times, then return it for the MFI model. Of course the godamn thing has 3 feet of line so I can't test it while driving, but it was showing me 31 PSI. When I tweak the throttle body, it drops down to 29 PSI and then climbs up to 30. Never more then 31 PSI.

While I was there, I picked up a vacuum line kit because I knew at least one line was bad and I had replaced another recently. So with my wife in the car wanting to eat dinner, I replaced the soft vacuum lines and used ties to tie them down.

Right now, the car has so little low end power, I can't even chirp the tires so beyond a new fuel filter, and then fuel pump I'm out of ideas.

Edit:

as i told ya the FP is low.......WAY low....

has the fuel filter been changed...ever?

I don't know. Need to check with Boost. As for fuel pressure, I know. I'm looking for other possibilities or suggestions before I spend $120 on a pump, and possibly another 40 on tank straps.

ya a filter dosent cost $120......maybe the pump does....

Okay, I have a fuel filter on hand. Going to change it before I go to work tomorrow morning. I'm still wondering though, are there any other suggestions besides fuel filter/pump? I was planning on changing the pump at some point, just don't want to throw money at parts until I get it right.

Glad to hear you discarded the conspiracy theory about the transmission guy swapping your wires, and that the car ran fine for a week like that before it acted up. I also see you found the wiring diagram in book 2 of the FSM'*. I told you so

Wish I had logged on last night and seen this..got home really late.

How did the fuel pressure test out?

With the FSM'* my 97 procedure does not require the car to be driven at all, which explains the short hose on the FP gauge.

Did you change that fuel filter, yet? Any difference?

Sounds like what I'm having right now. It'* sucky at accelerating from stops. Let me know what works so I know what to do.

Don't get me started on the fuel filter.

a) It was clogged as hell.
b) the godamned fuel line was rusted. Yes I held the fuel line side with the wrench and turned the filter. It was so rusted, a 1/4 turn broke the tip. Having a new fuel line put on as we speak ;( I'm hoping the clogged filter solves the problem.

Did you give the PB Blaster a chance to soak? Usually it works super fast.

Odd...I thought back a little while when you got the O2 sensor and were talking about changing plugs etc you did or would have done the fuel filter.