My 331 ran good til it died driving down the road, won’t start unless gas is pushed and cuts out immediately after starting, even if gas is pushed more. I know it’s getting fuel cuz I can see it in my filter, brand new plugs. Any ideas?
You need to provide a lot more info in order for anyone to make even a half educated guess.
What year engine and what kind of car?
What type of igniton system? (contact point, Dura Spark, TFI, etc)
I assume this is carbureted based on the seeing the fuel comment so what type of fuel pump are you running?
What type of carburetor?
That should get the ball rolling anyway.
This car is an 84 mustang, it’s an 84 5.0 block, stroked to 331 with stock 302 heads. Has an edelbroch 289 intake and a webber carb. I just bought the car so don’t know about internals. It’s a mechanical ignition system I believe, with accel ignition coil and msd distributor.
Thanks
Something is restricting the flow of fuel, when you pump the gas the accelerator pump on the carb that is feeding gas into the motor but that’s all. I’d check out the fuel pump, it could be worn out, or the fuel filter could be restricting flow. Since it is an older car the pick up screen in the fuel tank could be full of gunk.
It might also be caused by plugged passages in the carb.
Like I said I can see the fuel in my in line filter, and when I manually pump the gas by hand at the carb I can see the gas squirt out, any possibly this could be my distributor? Could it randomly go like that when driving down the road?
The fact that it’s starting and running when fuel is sprayed into the carb throat suggests that the problem isn’t ignition related. I’d suggest starting with a pressure test of the fuel line.
The car starts and stalls immediately, even if fuel or starting fluid is sprayed in the carb
Btw can a fuel line pressure test be performed with the engine off?
An '84 should have an electric fuel pump. As long as the pump has power, the answer is yes.
The fuel gets to the accelerator pump (the pump that squirts the gas out when you pump the pedal) through different passages than those used to get the fuel through the jets and into the engine while it’s running. It’s those passages that might be plugged.
I have an electric fuel pump that I have yet to put in, however it ran with just the regular mechanical one
Weber is an Italian company producing carburetors, currently owned by Magneti Marelli Powertrain S.p.A., in turn part of the Fiat Group.
Good Luck…
Weber carburetors use a steel tipped needle and are very sensitive to fuel pump pressure. You might have a leak by the needle. Two solutions, a fuel pump pressure regulator set to 2-3 psi or get a replacement viton tipped needle.
Thanks for clarifying the part about the fuel pump. Fuel systems were changing around 1984 and the 5.0 Mustang was available with both a fuel injected and a carbureted version. The reason I asked was because of the possibility of an FI pump being used on a carbureted engine. (That will sink the float in the carburetor.)
Since this is still a bit murky as to whether this problem is fuel or spark related I would suggest making sure that 12 volts is provided to the ignition coil while the key is in both the RUN and the START positions. If the ignition switch has failed it’s possible the engine could start and die like this.
Pull a plug wire, stick an old plug in it, and make sure it shows a spark. (Threads grounded to something metal of course.)
If you have a good spark then it may be back to a fuel issue in the carburetor itself.
The Weber is a bit of a strange choice for something like this.
Ithank you for the tips ok4450 . It’s actually an edelbrock 1406 but stamped weber on the side? Strange huh? But I’m in the middle of rebuilding the carb, hopefully this will fix the issue