Captain Obvious

Well let me back up a little and ask... Are you just concerned about a noise, or are you concerned by the way it's running? In other words, is it running as expected but sounding bad, or is it running poorly and sounding bad?

How do your float bowl levels look? With all that stuff missing from the intake tract, it ought to be easy to see the sight glasses. Maybe your front carb isn't feeding it's cylinders. What happens if you goose just one of the carbs? With the EGT's you're seeing, I'd guess that goosing the front carb won't do much, but goosing the rear one would raise the RPM? And out of curiousity... You running the stock needles? You removed and plugged all the idle air circuitry and I'm thinking you'll be rich at idle because of that. But I guess that doesn't matter for a track car?

Haha! Speaking of timing issue... You know this thread is like over three years dormant, right? :laugh:

Haha!! Most of mine start with "Hey... Hold my beer." Funny though... Mine end the same way yours do.

Hahahahaha!!!! Hey Y'all, watch this! That's great!

The FI Bible (page 3) warns against running the tank out of fuel because it may be difficult to prime the system after that happens. They even used capitol letters and everything. I suspect that may be the source of the apprehension about priming the system. That said... I didn't run my car out of gas, but I did the same thing you did and took the pump out. When I disconnected the line between the pump and the tank, gas came out of the tank and didn't stop. I had to cap the fuel tank outlet nipple to stop the flow. I think I had about half a tank and the head pressure was enough to keep the feed line to the pump full. When I was done messing with the pump, I pulled the caps off the fuel tank nipples and hooked all the hoses back up. Then I pulled the starter solenoid wire off the starter and hit the key. The engine doesn't crank because the starter is disabled, but the fuel pump will run. I could hear the pump run and I could also detect a change in the sound once the pump fully primed. Then I could also tell when the bubbling stopped and liquid fuel had gone full circle back to the tank through the return line. Whole process took less than thirty seconds. Connect the starter solenoid back up, hit the key, and vroom. Maybe I was lucky and mine primed itself easily.

One last sorry to have provided bum info and I'll move forward. Just remember that all I wanted to do was help! I don't know how my stock check valve got empty, or where the bits went. I've had the fuel pump apart and there wasn't any damage to the internal parts, so I doubt the guts went through the pump. I can tell by the date codes on the fuel lines that my PO had been messing around back there, but I can't come up with any reason that he would have gutted the valve. I'm thinking aliens. Here's my original valve. Clean as a whistle: I can hear Adam Savage... "Well THERE'S your problem!"

Thanks for easing the pain. I just feel bad for providing bum info. Worst that you made a break in the schedule to do the work and then got stuck. If you decide to try again, here's some links for good prices on the 539: Amazon has some for $17.15 plus shipping: Amazon.com: 1 587 010 539 Ebay has some for $24.24 shipped: New Bosch Fuel Pump Check Valve 1587010539 Volvo OE 1326899 | eBay And Rock auto says they have them for $12.60 plus shipping "Stocked in outlying warehouse--shipping delayed up to 1 business day". Just search by part number 1587010539.

Haha!! Glad to help! Here I was thinking that I was the last person on the planet to realize what was really going on. Feels better to know that I'm in good company! Thanks!!

Awesome. Glad you were able to get some more life out of your original valve. That wasn't an option for me as my old check valve was empty. Completely empty. I don't know where the guts went, but they were nowhere to be found. No spring... No seal... No nothing. I dug into the numbers a little and only answer I can really come up with is that I was juggling so many different check valve part numbers that I simply screwed up and listed one that didn't belong. I've verified that the Bosch part number 1 587 010 539 works for the Audi hose. That's the one I'm running on my car now. The -004 is the one that fits into the fuel filter I mentioned earlier as an attempt to move the check valve to the engine compartment. So sorry for the screw up and I'll send a note to the moderators to see if I can have them delete the -004 part number from the list so no one else falls into the same hole.

Oh crap... Rhat's not right! Don't know what happened, but I'll dig into it right away and let you know. Can I send you my check valve? It's already cut down, and my car isn't going anywhere for a little while yet. Put your old one back in for a few days?

And one more thing. Any of you guys putting one of those alternative valves on... I'll cut them down to length for you if you want. You can do it with a hacksaw or a file, but it's a fifteen second job on the lathe and it's a nice clean square cut. I'd be happy to chuck them up and slice them for you if you want to cover shipping. Just don't forget to shorten them somehow before you smash the excess into your pump armature!

Mike, Haha! I've got bags of extras from McMaster. Nitrile though, not Viton. As soon as I get my car back together and can verify that everything works properly, I'm going to offer my extras to the forum. I know you can't wait though. Sorry I didn't move fast enough to cover you.

Well duh. :bulb: So you want a new part from Audi, but don't want to deal with the hassle or cost. I get it. :laugh: If your local hydraulic shop succeeds, make sure you take some pics of that. It would add to the knowledge base. Let us know what the hydraulics shop comes up with for costs too.

Agreed, but that's exactly what happens! The hard to believe-edness why it took me so long to catch on too. If you really study it though, there really isn't that much rotation. Especially if you start unstressed at the middle of travel. If you were to measure it plus-n-minus from there in degrees, it's really not that bad. You doing inner rears too? Note the teeth on the inner sleeve of the inner rear bushings. Those teeth are intended to bite into the control arm and washer surfaces as extra insurance to prevent the inner sleeves from slipping. Fridge is fixed. Garage door opener is fixed. Battery is still dead.

Is there a reason that you wanted to be way way advanced at idle?

If you're looking for new... Have you tried an Audi dealer?

Mike, I'm running the check valve with the Audi line on my car as well. I was just trying to provide other Z guys with as many different options as well. I've got baggies of extra O-rings... I gotta get my car back together so I can test that fuel pump!

My temp sender was intermittent. Would occasionally alternate between normal and open circuit. Some days, it would be fine, and other days it would be flaky. Replaced the sender and problem went away.

And I know it seems like it takes a lot of force to twist the rubber bushings, but to the springs and the weight of the car? Easy. Those bushings will twist alright! They'll twist, or they'll tear! And one more thing... The most common issue I can remember seeing with this type of bushing is that the mounting bolt or nut was not installed tight enough and the inner sleeve was allowed to rotate on the bolt. Galling, clicking, and mysterious hard to find odd knocking sounds usually result. PS - I'm not at all a suspension guy. I had an epiphany about this stuff a little while ago and it suddenly all made sense.

What you are describing is exactly how the rubber bushings are supposed to work. The only movement in the bushings comes from torqueing the rubber portion vulcanized between the inner and outer sleeves. Essentially, the inner sleeve rotates and the outer sleeve does not. That twists the rubber between the two. So, the spindle pin DOES act like a hinge, but the relative motion is not right at the surface of the pin. It's at the rubber. That's why (with the stock style bushings) it's so important to put it on the ground before you tighten up for the final time. You want the rubber to be "at rest" in it's unstressed natural position when the car is sitting neutral. That way, the rubber can twist one way when the suspension is extended and twist the opposite when the suspension is compressed. All the rubber bushings are like this too. Inner front, inner rear, outer rear. They all operate the same way. Interesting to note that the poly bushings do NOT operate this way. They rotate the inner sleeve inside the poly bushing and because of that, you can tighten them with the suspension hanging. And no... Mine isn't back together yet. Projects spiraling out control! Fridge died. Garage door opener died. Battery in one of the other cars died.

txvepr, For performance reasons, the best functional place for the check valve is back by the pump where it is on the stock system. But I agree that it would sure be convenient to have it up front. With that in mind, I've identified and purchased a fuel filter that fits the stock mount and accepts an alternate check valve to be screwed directly into the filter. However, I haven't yet worked out how to easily connect to the other end of that check valve and that's why I haven't talked about that option.

Hmmm... To be completely honest (and a little embarrassed)... I did not actually purchase one of those sealing caps for the banjo style. The cap shown in my pic is actually a Honda cap with the wrong thread pitch. I figured out the part number and verified that they were seemingly available on both RockAuto and ebay and called it a day. I figured that I had already spent extra money on several different check valve styles and for something as simple as that cap, I didn't need to buy one just to prove that I could. So if you go to Rock Auto's site and hit the part number search tab at the top, that cap comes up for $2.40. Did you try them? It appears they have them? If not RockAuto, they're on ebay. More money, but I'm sure they're available.

Bruce, Are you talking about the filter back by the fuel tank, or the one in the banjo bolt at the carbs? Have you got a pic of what you're looking for?

Thanks for the info guys. I think I've got a spare oil pressure sender in the garage somewhere and I know I've got NPT taps down to 1/8. If I get a chance I'll take a look and see about how many turns you would get before things start binding.