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78 280z idle problem


Jack Pearcy

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16 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Try turning the engine off then pulling the hose.  Just to see if it's wetter, the engine vacuum won't pull through the hose with the engine off so any leakage should still be there.  The fact that it runs better when you turn the pump off is a sign that it wants a leaner mixture though.  Seems like you need a new FPR.

Edit - if the FPR is leaking you might see some drops at the hose nipple for the vacuum source, on the FPR itself.   Run the fuel pump with the vacuum hose off.

I tried all of the above and no liquid, just the smell of gas, I also just turned the car on with the fuel pump turned off and it’s been idling smooth as silk for about 5 minutes straight and still going strong with the fuel pump turned off, it’s not even smoking 

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54 minutes ago, Jack Pearcy said:

I tried all of the above and no liquid, just the smell of gas, I also just turned the car on with the fuel pump turned off and it’s been idling smooth as silk for about 5 minutes straight and still going strong with the fuel pump turned off, it’s not even smoking 

impossible. The pump is running.

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2 hours ago, Dave WM said:

impossible. The pump is running.

That’s what I thought but the switch was off and when I went under the car the pump wasn’t running but the car was, I can’t explain it, normally the car just dies out pretty quickly with the pump off but it ran for about 8-10 minutes before I turned it off. Honestly I can’t explain how it happened unless there’s another way to turn the pump on other than the fuel pump relay.

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I suggest If you have not already you read the EFI section of the factory service manual. It has extensive trouble shooting and information on exactly how the EFI system works. Read is several times if need be until you have a through grasp of how the system works. Coming here for answers when you state the fuel pump is OFF and the car runs for 8-10 minutes is a waste of time.

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On 6/15/2019 at 2:11 PM, Jack Pearcy said:

It will also occasionally die out in addition to not accelerating sometimes. I’ll be driving and suddenly the power will not exactly cut out but not change if that makes sense. It’ll hold steady but stop reving and accelerating. It also blows darkish white smoke out of the exhaust when I rev it.

I've seen people report the engine running with the pump off before.  If you have elastic rubber lines they can hold some pressure.  Idle doesn't use much fuel.  If it's running rich, then it will slowly go from rich to lean as fuel pressure drops.  There's an assumption that fuel pressure will be zero if the pump's not running (no offense Dave), but that might not be the case.  A gauge reading would tell more.

The pump not running results suggest that the FPR is not the reason for the rich running.  Could be a bad ECU or a stuck AFM.  The other part of your first post, above, is kind of typical of either of those.

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8 to 10 minutes? with the pump off sounds impossible to me. the hoses are maybe a couple feet total, I just cant see them expanding enough to maintain any kind of pressure for more than a few seconds, even at idle. However I could be wrong but just cant see it happening for 8-10 min of idle. And if they are expanding enough, then I suggest a fire extinguisher be at the ready, really should have one on hand, but in this case, replacing the hoses would be 1st thing.

agree with needing a fuel pressure gauge as a 1st step.

 

Edited by Dave WM
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I agree.  I had actually written something about how his 8 to 10 minutes might actually be 3 -4 in real time.

On the other hand though, there are other possible causes for that.  A ballooned fuel supply line maybe.  Once it expands and the pump check valve closes, it's a small reservoir of fuel.  So it might be true but it's a sign of a bigger problem, a line about to explode.  He should really examine his fuel lines, front to back.

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for fun I am going to try turning power off to my pump on my test stand. It has several feet of rubber tubing. If nothing else should be interesting to see what happens.

Any way back to the OP issue, I would look at the FSM and check the CTS to see if its gone high resistance. Always the 1st and easy thing to check.

 

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5 hours ago, jonbill said:

Pretty sure car with triple carbs won't run for 8-10 mins with the fuel pump off, and the carbs of course have quite big reservoirs.
Any chance this car has got two fuel pumps?

My car's a 280z, so it has EFI instead of carbs

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8 hours ago, Dave WM said:

for fun I am going to try turning power off to my pump on my test stand. It has several feet of rubber tubing. If nothing else should be interesting to see what happens.

Any way back to the OP issue, I would look at the FSM and check the CTS to see if its gone high resistance. Always the 1st and easy thing to check.

 

Here's the thing, I'm not saying I can explain how or why this happened, I am saying that it did and the point of me posting that my car ran w/o the fuel pump on wasn't to impress you guys it was to voice my confusion as to how that's possible and maybe shed some light on the problem as it is most certainly a symptom.

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22 hours ago, Zed Head said:

I've seen people report the engine running with the pump off before.  If you have elastic rubber lines they can hold some pressure.  Idle doesn't use much fuel.  If it's running rich, then it will slowly go from rich to lean as fuel pressure drops.  There's an assumption that fuel pressure will be zero if the pump's not running (no offense Dave), but that might not be the case.  A gauge reading would tell more.

The pump not running results suggest that the FPR is not the reason for the rich running.  Could be a bad ECU or a stuck AFM.  The other part of your first post, above, is kind of typical of either of those.

The AFM is brand new I bought it because the old one was crap, one thing that I have seen is that there is a fuel pump control relay alongside a fuel pump relay. Could that possibly be controlling the pump at idle and me flipping the switch on the fuel pump relay is messing up the power to the fuel pump? Just a thought.

Underhood Relays.png

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