Friday, March 23, 2012

Fuel starvation again

I've been having the fuel starvation issues again. It was such a deja vu that I can't even retell the whole, groundhog day sequence with any confidence. Long story short, the car gets weak power, then stalls. I wait a couple minutes, turn on engine, with difficulty, let it idle. It can idle indefinitely, but when I get back on the road the drop in pressure/power happens again. There are bubbles in the lines. The first time it happened, years ago, I tried adding some Marvel Mystery Oil to the fuel filter and lines and that helped short term. Back then the final issue seemed to be a fuel tank obstruction.

I brought the car to Phat Phoo, but by that time the problem had disappeared. This happened twice, so every time I picked up the car, it was running fine, but the problem hadn't really been solved. This speaks well of Phat Phoo; as cars get closer to him, they fix themselves. I have the same influence over computers, so I can relate. Last time the diagnosis involved gelling. It had been fairly cold a few mornings, so I wouldn't be surprised if some serious jelling had built up. I've been running on regular diesel since the problems, without issues, but of course it's dirty, so next time I use bio again, the soot will build up due to bio's cleaning properties.

My current outlook is this: It's probably jelling from the biodiesel (or less likely dirt from the diesel). Everyone had warned me that I would have to change the oil filter a lot. Every time it happens I fear it's the fuel pump, which has been rebuilt, or the tank which has also been rebuilt, but completely from scratch.

So my present solution is this. Take along an oil filter filled with Marvel Mystery Oil; keep a bottle of the stuff in the car, too, and of course my homemade little funnel, a flathead screwdriver, pliers, paper towels. Then, if the problem starts again, I'll just replace the filter on the road and pour some MMO into the lines, instead of trying to somehow flush the filter out.

I am also looking into attaching an inline fuel filter, so I can better see and predict what kind of gunk is getting into the fuel filter.