Just got back in from testing my fuel pressure. Here is the results. On koeo, the fuel pressure went up to 41-42 psi while the pump primed, after the pump stopped it dropped to about 37-38. with motor running it sat at around 36ish, with the FPR vac line pulled it went to around 42. Then I taped the gauge to the windshield and took it out and at WOT it went up to 42 from the 36ish range when cruising. Then when you shut the car down the pressure slowing dropped to lower 30's where it sat for a little while and looked to stop dropping altogether at least quickly. So does it look as though my fuel pressure is fine? I still have crankcase contamination, and I still have occasional hard starts, not as frequent as before, but still there, especially in cooler weather. I know fuel pressure would have nothing to do with the non start up in the rain, (for those that've seen past threads) but thats beside the point.

EDIT: for the sake of troubleshooting and mechanical physics, what are all possible way's for a crankcase to be contaminated by fuel besides the obvious fuel injector leak or FPR leak???

 

those are the only two ways for the crank case to get fuel in them, unless your running soo rich that the oil is contaminated with the unburned fuel that gets washed out of the cyl.s with the oil on the walls. that would be pretty rich, and it would be VERY bad for your eng. bearings. have you put a hand vac. pump on the fpr to make sure its not leaking back into the intake through the vac. line on it? that will create hard starts. your fuel press. should not be droping down after youve shut it off. it will level out initially when you turn the eng. off, but should hold and not drop after that. does it gradually get down to the lower 30's? or does it go right there when you turn it off? if it gradually falls, Id pull the fuel rail out of the intake, keep the lines conntected, and turn the key on to make sure there isnt any fuel spraying/dripping into the eng. on shut off.
chrhis

 

Seems to me it could only get by the rings, valve seals, or through the head gasket. As you see in my post in the other thread, I had many symptoms like yours due to a blown head gasket.

Do you have a scan in another post I may have missed?

Does it stumble / miss in open and closed loop mode?

Have you done a compression check? Results? (I wish I had instead of so many new parts )

I didn't notice fuel in the crankcase, but the leak was messin up the throttle body (lots of oil and seals going bad). The cause of my blown cylinder head is because I drove so long with the broken bolts exhaust leak. Idiot

Good luck,

Sean

 

yeah, the fuel pressure started dipping into the lower 30's immediatly after shut off. It doesn't just go straight there. If anything it'd have to either be the FPR or my injector harnesses because the injectors are brand new SVO 30#'s unless they were **** out of the box but I know thats not the case because this problem was happening before the injectors as well. Could a fouled spark plug or two possibly allow some fuel to slip down into the crankcase because of it not being ignited?? because when it rains, the car starts but its spits and sputters so bad right before dying that it seems only a few cylinders actually fired and the rest could just be letting the fuel run down. I know this would mean bad rings too, but im kinda at a loss right now, cause the vac line to the FPR is always completely dry. I see no sign of fuel leaking there, but obviously there is a problem, and its one of the prime suspects right now.

 

Yes actually I do have a scan in another post but it will throw you off because it shows lean due to an exhaust leak in the manifold that will be fixed with the headers in a week or two. it doesn't stumble at all. There is very very very small hesitation at extremely low RPM like 1200 or so when in a high gear cruising. If it weren't your car you'd probably not notice it at all. I can hear what sounds like a misfire from the exhaust when I get right next to it in both closed and open loop. I have no smoke at start up ever since my opti dried out (got coolant in it during a t stat swap) So basically my only problems right now are a weird ticking sound that doesn't appear to be injectors from the passenger side, occasional hard starts in cooler weather, Crankcase contamination, and it wont start in the rain and if it does, its spitting and sputtering like crazy for a couple seconds before dying as posted above. Thats pretty much all im experiencing right now. When the car is running in dry weather, it pulls smooth and strong as far as I can tell. I don't drive it much at all, though, usually only when testing things. Until I get this figured out.

EDIT: no compression check yet, but thats next on the list in the coming week or so.

 

Eerily like my problems bro. I tried to solve the exhaust leak with headers too, only to still have high BLMs - 150+ on pass side (the exhaust leak turned into a blown gasket eventually). Computer was dumping fuel to that bank to make up the the detected "lean" condition. Actually it was unburned/barely burned mixtures from the dead cylinder (high O2 content).

Do you have oil leaking around the valve cover bolts and/or filler and/or breather on the side that you are having problems? While the other side is bone dry? Or lots of oil under that black cover on the top of the throttle body (easy to check)?

I've seen blown head gaskets to water jackets and between cylinders, but this one was kinda new to me. No white smoke (or loss of coolant), no blue smoke (or oil consumption), only one cylinder low comp.

Sean

 

well if you have an exh. leak, it's prolly pulling fresh oxy. into the mannifold and the 02s is reading it and richening up the mixture. makeing it run rich and yes, the extra gas in the cyl.s will get past the rings and into the oil. Id fix that and go from there. also whatever is causeing your misfire isnt helping you either cause all the fuel its spraying to get the car started isnt bein burned.

 

well guys, I already have the header install/tune up planned and lined up, so im gonna go ahead and do that, and see what happens. Do a compression check while im at it and see what I come up with. Carline, im hoping I don't have a bad head gasket man, but if that ends up being what it is, then I guess I have a rebuild sooner than expected coming my way. Thanks for the help guys.