Fuel Cell Dissasembly - Think this is the problem?
04-15-2007, 10:31 PM
#1
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Fuel Cell Dissasembly - Think this is the problem?
I've had a fuel starvation problem on my C4 for about 6 months now. It only occurs in very high lateral G turns, or in other words only when the car is really quick and I am having a great session. It started when I put on the Hoosier R6's and changed my alignment setup. I gained lots of grip but also this very frustrating problem. I've run a lot of track events in the last 6 months and the only thing that's kept me sane is that I have been running my C6 as a track car, so I've never been out of a car to drive. I finally got some time to tear into the car today. I had just sent the carburetor to Braswell in Tucson for a complete overhaul and they found nothing wrong so I didn't think that was the problem. Although the fuel pressure gauge has been fairly steady when the problem occurs, I guessed that the problem was behind the guage, possibly in the fuel cell. Anyhow, I removed the fuel cell form the car:
And after removing the fuel and foam here is what I found:
The fuel pickup is inside a small plastic box that has 3 check valves on it; one in front and one on each side. These check valves have small hollow ***** (like a small ping-pong ball) inside of them to allow fuel to be retained inside the pickup chamber as it sloshes around. As you can see, two of the ***** do not pass clearly through the valve body and are getting stuck. These were the ones on the sides. The only one that worked properly was the one in front that would allow fuel into the chamber under straight line acceleration. It seems strange that two would be bad and one would be fine. Also, the foam, bladder, and other parts were perfect, not bad for a cell that was manufactured in 1999. You'd think 8 years of fuel saturation would ruin everything it touched...
Anyhow, who else has taken their fuel cell apart? Is this unique or is this a common problem?
And after removing the fuel and foam here is what I found:
The fuel pickup is inside a small plastic box that has 3 check valves on it; one in front and one on each side. These check valves have small hollow ***** (like a small ping-pong ball) inside of them to allow fuel to be retained inside the pickup chamber as it sloshes around. As you can see, two of the ***** do not pass clearly through the valve body and are getting stuck. These were the ones on the sides. The only one that worked properly was the one in front that would allow fuel into the chamber under straight line acceleration. It seems strange that two would be bad and one would be fine. Also, the foam, bladder, and other parts were perfect, not bad for a cell that was manufactured in 1999. You'd think 8 years of fuel saturation would ruin everything it touched...
Anyhow, who else has taken their fuel cell apart? Is this unique or is this a common problem?
Last edited by vetracer; 04-15-2007 at 11:54 PM.
04-15-2007, 11:20 PM
#2
Former Vendor
fuel cell maintance and design is a major pain. Those valves have to be working for it to work. I have used a ton of flapper square style valves without troblem. There is a better way of doing the whole fuel stavation thing. But it uses a couple pumps and a ton more work.
Bottom line replace the valves and the filter!
Randy
Bottom line replace the valves and the filter!
Randy