Mike Phillips

Last night I drover my 260Z home from work, (about 88 miles), as I was pulling over to fill up the tank, (I'm checking the gas mileage), the engine idled down and stopped and then recovered and I pulled up to the pump.

Filled the tank, got back in and she started up. Drove about 30 yards out onto the highway and the engine died. It sounded like it ran out of gas.

Temperature gage read about 2/3 up the dial.


I just replaced the electrical fuel pump with a Carter pump NAPA listed as the correct pump. Since purchasing this car about 3 weeks ago I've noticed my fuel filters filling up with sediment from the tank before the electric fuel pump.

I would like to replace the gas tank but until then I placed to in-line fuel filters before the electric pump and one after it. Upon inspection of the fuel filters I found sediment in the first filter, but nothing in the second filter.

The glass filters before the carbs were empty.

Because I've read about vapor lock being a characteristic to these cars, I opened the hood and waited for about 15 minutes. Then squirted some starting fluid into the air intake of the air cleaner and with a few squirts and few tries, the car started up again.

I felt the Carter fuel pump and it was running, and all fuel filters now had gas in them.

Does this sound like my engine vapor locked?

I guess if this is the case I'm a little surprised as it didn't seem at 2/3 on the temperature gage that the car would be that hot.

This was at 8:00pm at night.

For what it's worth, the 88 mile drive was on the I-15 Highway in SoCal and I was in the inner lane going with the flow of traffic and/or leading traffic at around 80 and 90 miles an hour for about a hour and a half. (That's normal for the 15 highway in SoCal).


I have to drive to Las Vegas tomorrow and I'm going to flush the cooling system, change the oil and purchase a back-up fuel pump with extra filters so if I have to I can fix the car on the side of the road should the fuel pump go out again due to sediment from the gas tank.


Would adding an electric fan in front of the radiator help to cool the engine and engine compartment to a tolerable level? (This worked on my 1959 Cadillac with a 462 big block Chevy)

Thanks for your help...


Mike

Mike Phillips

Whoops!

I meant to post this into the Technical forum, perhaps a kind Moderator can move the thread and delete this post.

RodMoyes

There has been a crapload of smoke in the air up there and all over this whole area for the last few day's too. Check you air filter before your next long drive... I'll bet it's NASTY. I'm not saying that was your problem, but it won't help you any having a dirty air filter. Sounds like you just have a lot of crud making it's way out of the gas tank. Too many filters will also restrict the flow so... Be carefull.


Rod.

Mike Phillips

Good point, I'll see if I can locate air filters for this thing today, what are the chances Autozone, Kragen, or Pep Boys is going to care filters that fit this car?

RodMoyes

I'd say that as long as you have a stock air cleaner box, then all of the big chain auto parts stores will probably carry your air filter in stock.


Rod.

BoulderZ

A friend I worked with at NAPA (long, long time ago) had a similar problem with a carb'd 240 he inherited. He was a Mopar guy and had zero Z experience. After a lot of vapor lock problems, in what seemed like pretty mild conditions, he finally noticed by comparing part by part to his FSM that he was missing the main heat shield. His exhaust manifold was cooking the intake under even a little bit of warmup. I know you just got the car, make sure the PO didn't try to throw out all that "useless" weight stuff. At least it's an easy thing to check.
good luck,
Dave