Went to VA for a week (SML area - real nice down there) and jumped in my truck yesterday for the first time. Started up, but noticed I was low on fuel (bellow E) so I headed for the gas station. On the way there (1/2 mile) it sputtered pretty hard under any throttle, so I figured I was on fumes and pretty much coasted in.

After pumping it started REALLY hard. TOok a couple minutes of cranking. Then once it was warm and running it was fine. Ran many errands and it never started hard again.

This morning I'm headed for work and it started WICKED hard. Like 5+ minutes, glad I have a strong battery. I went through half a can of ether which may or may not have helped. Anyway it keeps stalling under throttle so I'm letting it warm up in the drive now as we speak, hoping that when warm I will actually be able to get to work.

Any Ideas? I'm thinking maybe because the fuel got so low and its E10 ethanol a piece of gunk got sucked into an injector? I dunno man. EFI not my strong suit. Any help is appreciated. Hopefully I can check this for responses from my work comp.

 

Clog up the fuel filter or possibly harm the fuel pump runnign it dry? Have a way of checking your fuel pressure handy?

 

Water in tank can cause issue also.

 

Get it warm and run some seafoam through it. Also agree on checking fuel pressure. Do a visual inspection of the fuel lines, make sure there not rusted and weeping, causing air to get in the line (happened to my 92)

 

Okay - sounds reasonable. Fuel filter is 6 mo old. I dont have a way of checking pressure. It started right up the rest of the day, even when 'cold' when leaving work.

I will do a visual inspection of fuel lines and tank. I have a can of seafoam kicking around so I will try that too. Hopefully it does not happen again.

 

As several have mentioned, fuel pumps need fuel for cooling and lubrication, so running them dry or close to dry may kill them, especially if they already have a lot of miles on them. So x3 on the fuel pressure and volume test.

I try never to run the tank below 1/4 for that reason.

But if FP is fine, test the coil, especially when hot (using hot specs).

 

I posted this up weeks ago but cannot for the life of me find the thread. Not trying to repost.

I went to VA for a week and left the truck with very little fuel. When I got home it started up fairly easily but limped to the gas station, acting like on fumes. From then on the truck has been miserable to start first thing in the morning. After between 2 and 4 minutes of steady cranking and feathering the gas it will gurgle to life. If I try to drive anywhere until the temp is up to operating it will stall unless I'm really hamering it.

Pretty clear its a fuel issue. I followed someones advice and put half a can of seafoam in the tank and the other half in the air intake. It didn't even smoke so I'm not sure if I did something wrong or what.

Last weekend I was going to start tearing things apart but the left front inside pad wore through and was grinding so most of my free time go used up replacing pads/rotors/calipers and screwing around with all that BS that is required on these trucks to do a simple brake job.

Any ideas? I'm only driving my truck once or twice a week because its been nice out but as it starts to get colder I'm gunna be SOL if I cant fix it - seams like the colder (and muggier) it is the worse the problem is.

**edit** - once started it is okay for the day even if it sits for 8 hours. Let it sit overnight though and its a no-go.

 

You could have clogged the fuel filter by running on fumes like you were saying.

That would explain the long cranking, it takes extra time to get pressure to the fuel rail before it finally starts.

I would start with that, and go from there. $30 part

 

Talk to Levi aka TruckFiend

He had this EXACT problem. His cold start injector time switch was busted, and the truck esentially wasn't getting enough fuel on cold start. Very common problem as well.

 

Oh yeah, forgot about that little guy.

If its the CSI, you can send it to witchhunter.com or a similar place and have it cleaned + flow tested for $19.

If its the time switch, they are pricey new, but you might luck out on a good used one at Nix99

 

Great - thanks for the help.

I'll have to read up on the CSI and how that works within the system.

I'll start with the changing (or at least inspecting) the fuel filter and hope that is it.

Thanks agin.

 

Try the fuel pump test jumper:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#FuelPump

 

Hey - thanks for the help. I've been riding my bike as it's been nice out. Finally got around to replacing the fuel filter last week. Took me 5 minutes to find it - didn't realize it was directly under the EFI unit. I traced the lines from the tank and was thinking "oh man - its IN the tank, bummer" when I felt it tucked back there. What a pain! Good excuse to do an oil change though as I needed to remove the filter anyway.

It took me an hour to change it! I did it in the pitch black, but it would not have gone any quicker during daylight or with a light as I couldn't see what I was doing anyway.

Anyway - that was the issue - starts up easy now. Hope I didn't damage the engine by cranking it so much. It was a pretty new filter too. About 1 yr old. Having sat for a week on E and then getting driven to the gas station on fumes must have done it.

 

To find your threads look under your member profile by clicking your name or go to UserCP

 

Okay - I may have spoken too soon. The truck started right up for a week after the fuel filter replacement, but yesterday, after sitting a day and a half, it started pretty hard again. Maybe the warm, dry weather and frequent driving tricked me into thinking it was the FF...

I'm hoping it was a fluke, but will see if it starts early tomorrow morning (will have sat over a day again) and should know.

I'd like to test the fuel pump, fuel pressure (and volume?) before I replace anything else.

I see the fuel pump test on 4crawler's website so I'll do that.
How do you check for spark at the coil?
How do you measure the fuel pressure? Volume?
How do you check the CSI?

If it is a fuel issue and its before the pump then I've been cranking that pump dry pretty often - hope I have not made matters worse. Its abundantly clear that the longer I go without driving it the harder it is to start. A couple days + a cold morning typically yields minute apon minute of cranking.

 

Any resolution? I've got some issues with my 91 22re 2wd pickup. Some of the symptoms are similar to some things I have found on here, but I find a lot of threads just abandoned! I hope you figured out what the problem was/is, and I would love to know what the solution is!

Thanks,
andy

 

Just curious why so many people drive these vehicles with in tank fuel pumps on empty and fail to see .

All the fuel pump and filter issues caused by that practice. I know a few people that have gone through 3 new brand name pumps and blame it on poor quality pumps in less than a year.

On these older vehicles 20 plus years old.

 

YA... when u got a 20yr old vehicle, gunk has built up in the tank over that time, run it low, or empty, and u got gunk in the system...The gunk wouldnt likely make it past the filter tho, so I suspect its in the tank.... I would drop the tank and check the screen on the pump.... also... If its the original pump... ya might wanna consider replacing it, as said above, the pump needs fuel for cooling, and lubrication... you may have ruined it by running it down that low, and even if it is just that the sceren is clogged... that mean the pump was struggling to suck fuel, and prolly overheating, so I'd replace it either way.....

 

Replacing the CSI switch fixed it and now starts as should, even in this weather. Thanks for the help - would have taken me a long time to figure that out troubleshooting.