Fuel consumption and Hesitation

[Glliw]

I certainly plan to.

I do not see this being a lean condition, being that it got 8 mpg and still had the problem. I'm gonna pull the plugs here in a couple days and see how they are looking now that i leaned it back up. Also, the floats were set when i put new needles/nozzles in a week or so ago.

[Bruce Palmer]

Monkeyman,

You touched a nerve with your statement about "all of a sudden the rear carb started running poorly" or words to that effect. I'm only using your statement as an example of how guys get in trouble fixing carbs trying things that could never or rarely be the problem.

The key element to keep in mind is "suddenly, overnight, just the other day" it started to run like crap. When that is the case, look at things that can change suddenly. Foreign material holding a needle and seat open, water in the gas beading up in the bottom of the float bowl, choke sticking on, basically things that can change. I talk to way too many guys who say they immediately attack the "float settings" without addressing why it would be that a float would all of a sudden decide to "change".

So my statement to all you guys is that SUs are pretty simple and fairly intuitive. Think your way through the situation and "check" everything over before making "changes". The problemsand their solutions, often times, can be very obvious.

[monkeyman]

Bruce,

I agree fully. I was kicking myself when I realised that my choke was stuck.

At the time I was thinking it could have been the jet in the float getting jammed.

I am the grateful owner of a couple of ZTherapy DVDs and in those the 'grose jets' are recommended. Are these still available? I couldn't find a supplier.

Do Ztherapy sell them?

[Bruce Palmer]

Bruce,

I agree fully. I was kicking myself when I realised that my choke was stuck.

At the time I was thinking it could have been the jet in the float getting jammed.

I am the grateful owner of a couple of ZTherapy DVDs and in those the 'grose jets' are recommended. Are these still available? I couldn't find a supplier.

Do Ztherapy sell them?

I'm afraid the Grose Jets haven't been available for several years. Why, you might ask, don't we get off the dime and correct the float level setting procedure on the video? We just may be doing that here shortly..... Film at eleven....

[Glliw]

Anyone mind commenting of the fuel pressure findings?

[Walter Moore]

I had a problem very similar to what you describe. My car would run fine until the engine got up to temperature then suddenly it ran really bad at high speeds. In my case however even when hot it ran acceptably so long as you stayed below about 60 miles per hour. driving faster than that, or even attempting to do so caused the engine to just slow down and run really bad.

It turned out to be the mechanical fuel pump that was the problem. Why it was heat related I will never know.

As for the pressure readings, they seem low to me but I have never taken any readings on my car. I will tell you that the "bad" pump on my car worked fairly well regardless of engine speed, so long as I didn't have a really heavy load on the engine. It was a volume problem, no a pressure problem. So long as the volume of fuel that the engine needed stayed within its capacity all was ok.

[Glliw]

Thanks for the insight walter. I have an extra mechanical pump waiting for me here in a few days as well as a stock electrical pump to throw back on the car. With those two in place, I can only assume the problem will be resolved now.

This winter though I think I'm going to drop the tank and re-do the vent lines...tired of the smell of gas in the car!