[Mini] Fueling issue

[TVS]

Facet fuel pump should ideally be gravity fed from tank. Could be vapour
locking, keep fuel line away from heat too! Had a lot of trouble with this in
a Midget. Also as not helped as fuel being sucked by pump and not under
pressure - hence it rattles away when really it should be just ticking over
when demand low.
Sorry but short, typing on my phone!
Toby

On 4 Jan 2013, at 04:30 AM, Anne <anne at mibv.com> wrote:

> Hi Guys & Girls,
>
> 1st of all; happy Mini-ing again this year.
>
> Excuses for the 'spamming' to those who are on 'both lists'.
>
> The Van has been back on the road for about two months now and since then
I've clocked about 2200 miles with it in 3 countries, loving almost every
minute of it.
>
> The only exception is when it dies again.
>
> For some reason every now and then it seems like the petrol can't make it's
way (fast enough?) to the carb and after some sputtering the engine will die
alltogether.
>
> In almost every instance I added some fuel in the fueltank after which it
would run again for at least a couple of hours, but at times also a couple of
days.
>
> I haven't been able to pinpoint what is causing this as there isn't a really
clear situation when it happens.
>
> The Van has the tank in the back with a fuel line running under the car,
coming up along the bulkhead connecting to a fuel filter and then to a (new)
facet pump mounted on the bulkhead. From there a line runs past the
rockercover to the HIF44 carb which is mounted just behind the grill. It has
an open air filter, with a shield in front and over it.
>
> The carb is connected with a pipe to the Supercharger.
>
> When it has stalled the facet pump is always ratteling like crazy.
> That by itself does not really say much; it can also do that while
cruising.
>
> Another thing I noticed is that in all cases the fuel filter is empty.
> When it fills again the engine starts and runs no problem.
> But that also is not a tell-all; at time the egnine will run (idle) just
fine while there does not seem to be any fuel in the filter.
>
> The first 3 times it happened while driving about 50mph on B-roads and
stopping for about a minute seemed to help.
>
> But it also happens while driving on the highway at about 70mph.
>
> I didn't have a fuellevelmeter installed until last weekend, and initially I
thought the problem arose when I had used about 16l (tank is/should be about
25l) so maybe not all the fuel in the tank was sucked up properly.
>
> But it also has occurred a couple of times where I could only add 5-8l
before the tank was full again. Today it started to sputter on the highway
again and when I let it roll out to a gas station (which had unmarked police
vehicles waiting for people to speed by, so I guess my Karma is still good
:)), I could only get about 8l in there.
>
> As I also suspected the tank creating a vacuum, I removed part of the inner
workings of a fuelcap and drilled a (small) hole through it, which should make
sure it always can get air in.
>
> A couple of ideas I have left to try is;
>
> 1. Hook up a small light to the facet pump to see if it maybe falls without
power sometimes
>
> 2. See if I can find a place to install a Fuel King Filter and presure
regulator. These seem to be quite big though.
>
> 3. Use a net-stocking instead of a fuelcap to make sure it's not a tank
vacuum issue.
>
> 4. Disable the power to the facet fuel pump to see how long the engine keeps
running when no new fuel is coming.
>
> 5. Transfer all the fuel out of the tank, and add it again per liter to see
from what point onwards the fuel is picked up.
>
> The main problem is that the circumstances under which it occurs never seem
to be the same two times in a row.
>
> I've had a similar issue before which turned out to be an air leak in an old
fuel line. But these lines are new and most are not of the old black cracking,
but of the flexible PVC(?) see through type.
>
> So long story short;
>
> Any one you have any ideas what (else) I can do/check in order to get rid of
this issue?
>
> Anne
> [MIBV again :]
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