Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi , i have a 90 2.8D lux in perfect condition only 193kms. But the car has this one whopper of a problem, i drive it for about 15 min then all of a sudden it starts to lose power and konks out, its a strange problem because any normal day i can drive it and it is almost guaranteed to stall after 15 min but some days it drives all day and one time i even drove it all the way to Dubbo from Syd .
After it stalls i turn the car off and let it rest for 5 min then i start it up again and drive for another 15min. I'm lucky this is just my weekend car otherwise i would have burnt it by now.
I already have tried a few things to fix it, It really feels like the car is either gasping for air or more fuel just before it stalls, i suspected it might be the fuel filter assembly "the one with the little pressure pump"so i replaced it and the filter , after that the car drove fine for a few weeks"thats why i went to Dubbo i thought it was fixed yay" then the same problem came back again bugger , i replaced the fuel filter assembly again, this time i bought a brand new one but it did not fix the problem it still stalled, so then i started looking carefully at my fuel system. I noticed that there is a breather hose at the fuel tank"under the car" this breather hose has a little valve on it I took it all off, hoses and valve to check it for blockages, the valve was faulty it did not allow air to flow either way, hooray i thought that was it, i took the valve off and put back all the hoses, since there is no valve i tied a bit of rag at the end of the breather hose to stop any gunk going into the fuel tank. I came to the conclusion that the car is running out of fuel because the fuel tank was not breathing properly and the incorrect pressure or lack of was effecting the flow of the fuel to the pump. After that i drove the car for a few days and no problems, it went fine no hickups whatsoever, the problem is fixed and this bodgy backyard mechanic is a legend!! wrong!!! i drove the car again today and it stalled after 15 min arghh!!! I'm going crazy if anyone has experienced something like this or if you can give me a few things to try please help,

The car is not overheating, the radiator, the hoses, the coolant, the temerature guage is all fine.

ps: thank you for reading my long story any help is greatly apreciated.

Muzz

muzz......does it blow smoke...does it stall after comming of the gas? have u flushed ur lines??? pm sounds like that or ur fuel pump

cheers

i have a 1990 2.8 D also and have fortunately not had this problem howevr i can try and offer some ideas:

1) Deisel in sydney is shit...my dad drives a truck and has had problems like this caused by a build up of an alge in the fuel tank that comes from the ground tanks that deisel is stored in at the servo...remove fuel tank...pull down and scrub and wash out with solvent.

2) Remove fuel lines and blow out with compressed air.

3) Could be a fuel pump issue...what can be done about this i dont know...take to an expert i surpose...i dont know how complicated these are to pull down.

Hope i could be of some help.


Best of luck, Wes.

Luv to 4B wrote:i have a 1990 2.8 D also and have fortunately not had this problem howevr i can try and offer some ideas:

1) Deisel in sydney is shit...my dad drives a truck and has had problems like this caused by a build up of an alge in the fuel tank that comes from the ground tanks that deisel is stored in at the servo...remove fuel tank...pull down and scrub and wash out with solvent.

2) Remove fuel lines and blow out with compressed air.

3) Could be a fuel pump issue...what can be done about this i dont know...take to an expert i surpose...i dont know how complicated these are to pull down.

Hope i could be of some help.


Best of luck, Wes.

I agree fuel in sydney is shit, I work in a quarry out penrith and we've just had to clean our fuel tanks out and treat them for deisel algae, as our trucks and loaders were losing power, the problem was sourced back to the algae, we now monitor this weekly, but just backing Luv to 4b's point.

Mine used to do the same thing but it would go ok for 6 months then one day it`d do this 4 or so times then ok again for a few months.

All I used to do was remove fuel cap, then remove supply line from the tank to the filter at the filter and blow back down the line untill I could here air bubbling in the tank. Some times this once easily done and some times it took a bit to do it. Also some times I only had to do this once and the problem was gone for a while again, other times it`d do it again with 5 mins so I repeat the same thing again then it`d be fine.

I put the problem down to crap in the fuel tank that would float around and then get sucked over the pickup line. I still haven`t pulled the tank out to clean it but will be doing so before the lux is back on the road.

I had the same prob in my 4runner but not as much i thought it was the
fuel i was useing so i tried every brand of fuel and same prob but one day while 4bing the car just stalled would not start the fuel pump had gone. You might want to get the pump checked cos if that goes its mega buck mine cost me $600 but new pumps are $4500 NO JOKE!!!!!
But once fixed it has'nt missed a beat.

you guys are great thanx for all your help, i had also suspected there might be crap in the fuel lines, planning to take out the fuel tank and clear out the fuel lines in the next week or so, i'll let you guys know how it goes, thanx again for everyones help.

muzz

Some pricks probably but a square of gladwrap in your tank, which migrates round, gets sucked over your inlet, starves motor, then you turn it off, no suction, glad wrap drifts off.... start it again, process repeats


Some shit at dads high school did this to our hilux

Ok i have taken all your good advice and used it, Last weekend i took out the fuel tank , i removed the fuel pickup to take a closer look, as soon as i saw it i knew i found my problem it was completely stuffed, full of gunk and crap its a wonder that any fuel got in there at all, the tank had a small amount of water in it and the bottom of the tank was extreemly rusty , about 20% rust, I completely cleaned the strainer and the pickup and then i proceeded to clen the tank. I put some kerosene in there and got a small plastic brush attached to a long wooden stick to try and free up some of the gunk stuck at the bottom, the brush worked great, i cleaned up most of the gunk and was ready to rinse it out, I poured some more kero in there and then i noticed a small trickle of fuel from the bottom of the tank,oh my god!! my cleaning had removed a hard speck of rust from iside the tank to reveal a hole!! a FARKING HOLE !! FAAARRKK
i calmly said. Hmm just as i was ready to jump for joy the nightmare just go worse. so now i'm looking to either get the tank repaired " i'm not too keen on the idea but its an option" or get another tank from the wreckers, or buy a stainless steel replacement tank, " good option but mucho dollaras" my budget is around $350 and i'm looking for some advice from you guys on what you think is the best option. thanx

Put a wanted fuel tank topic in the wanted section, if no joy there after a few dasy go and see the local wrecker

look in the trading post there were two long range tanks in there, were asking 450 but as far as i know neither are sold...try them....if not F100 trucks at campletown, east coast 4x4 spares, franks auto parts, or land vehicle spars.

Thanks for the advice guys, i could not find those fuel tanks in the trading post, i was looking in the nsw section, are you sure they are there? can you send me a link?

muzz i have a stock 4runner/ hilux diesel tank you can have for $50