Changed Gas Tank, Car Now Sputters

[JonTheGreek]

Ok so my friend had a leaky gas tank that we changed out yesterday everything was going way too smooth, not a single problem. All the lines went back exactly how they were before, evap was semi connected like it was before, just to the tank, engine side nipple was busted. We took out the fuel pump fuse and ran the car to depressurize the system per TIS specifications. After we installed the new tank and buttoned everything back up the car starts to struggle accelerating. We used the old fuel pump that was in the old tank, because it was peferctly fine before the swap because we knew it was good. So after that started happening we changed it out with the one that came with the gas tank thinking maybe the old one maybe got a little clogged from being moved around and nothing it still sputters. My friend says the car starts to run better when it was up. This doesnt make any sense to me at all! I've worked on a lot of cars in my life and this has to be the strangest thing. Has anyone else had this problem? Did i cross the fuel lines? I don't think I did, if I did it shouldn't run, correct? All the rubber hoses were only a certain length respective to their hard lines. Im just really baffeled and hope that someone on here had encountered the same issue.

[tauntdevil]

Welll....

Lets start off with a simple check and process of elimination ight in here.

Check the fuel filter. take it out and try to blow through it, if it is difficult to blow through like a coffee straw, its clogged, if its easy, than its fine.

If not that, rent a pressure tester from whatever auto place is near you and see what it is. Depending on which car you have around 34psi or so. If too high, than its your FPR and if too low, than its either a clogged line, bad pump, bad fuel pump sock, or something behind the engine.

If that is fine, than you may have a bad injector. Pull out your injectors and try turning over the car having the injectors shoot onto a rag that way you can see which shoot and which dont.


This is all if it is a fuel issue. Of course, could be a spark issue, never know.
If you reply that all you did was work on the tank so it shouldn't be on the engine... just remember... you fix one thing, something else will most likely go wrong.

Happens all the time.

[JonTheGreek]

Ok, now the filter you are talking about, is it the one attached to the sending unit or the one in the engine bay? I have a fuel pressure testing kit. I will have to set some time aside this week and check it for them. I assume that the 34psi is with the vacuum line disconnected, correct? I'm pretty new to working on KA series engine.

[va240dude]

He's talking about the only fuel filter on the car, in the engine bay.

[JonTheGreek]

Well there is a filter for the pump you know... :P

[g14novak]

Did you clean the new gas tank or at least check it for sediment before you put it in?

[JonTheGreek]

Nope, was told it was a clean tank and too their word on it, I was doing them a favor. It was pulled from a working car and then sat my friends car for about two months. So I don't think there could have been much sediment in it. Even their old tank was super clean, surprisingly.

[JonTheGreek]

I finally pinpointed the problem. Someone must have leaned up against the plastic intake ducting that leads to the rubber boot next to the throttle body. I managed to clean it up and wrap it with electrical tap untill they can get a new one.