Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.
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Alright Mike, you've had time to get home.....how's the old gas tank look?
I'm really hoping you're out of gas for two reasons, most importantly, you've had enough sht getting the monster to the running stage.
And secondly for
I'm really hoping you're out of gas for two reasons, most importantly, you've had enough sht getting the monster to the running stage.
And secondly for
Amazing thing,...... The internal combustion engine.
Mix the proper percentages of air, fuel, and spark, introduce compression to the mix, and you get energy.
Delete any one of the 4, and you get jack.
The car was out of gas.
In effect, I spent 72 dollars to find out that I needed to add 3 dollars worth of gas to achieve the same end result. Both would've got the car home.
Only one would've saved the damaged paint, the cracked trim, and my sense of pride.
I went downstairs and turned the key. Despite what I thought, I was able to see the FP gauge. Turning the key once produced a dead needle. Adding the three gallons of gas, and three consecutive turns to properly prime the system produced 42.5 pounds of pressure. The forth turn produced a running engine.
Despite all of that, I wrote this to prove to you guys that despite the fact that I can create an amazing combination of stuff,..I can still be just as dumb as a fence post. I am not afraid to admit that I do stupid sht.
This is the second time that either as a result of a defective fuel pump connection, or simply running the damn thing out of gas,..I immediately assume the worst.
Hopefully the lesson learned tonight will harden my resolve so that I will become callus to the "My engine is f'd up syndrome", and start thinking w/ a analytical mindset, instead of a I'M ON FIRE!!!!! OMG SOMEBODY PUT ME OUT!!! OHHH GOD, OHH GOD, PLEASE KILL ME!!! mindset instead.
Self deprecation aside,..Now I have to decide to take the free tuner studio session for the sake of why my tuning software has all of these red boxes at the bottom w/ red circlesw/ slashes running through them, or call it off, and try to figure it out myself.
Signed,
Respectfully,......
Dumber than a box of rocks.
Mix the proper percentages of air, fuel, and spark, introduce compression to the mix, and you get energy.
Delete any one of the 4, and you get jack.
The car was out of gas.
In effect, I spent 72 dollars to find out that I needed to add 3 dollars worth of gas to achieve the same end result. Both would've got the car home.
Only one would've saved the damaged paint, the cracked trim, and my sense of pride.
I went downstairs and turned the key. Despite what I thought, I was able to see the FP gauge. Turning the key once produced a dead needle. Adding the three gallons of gas, and three consecutive turns to properly prime the system produced 42.5 pounds of pressure. The forth turn produced a running engine.
Despite all of that, I wrote this to prove to you guys that despite the fact that I can create an amazing combination of stuff,..I can still be just as dumb as a fence post. I am not afraid to admit that I do stupid sht.
This is the second time that either as a result of a defective fuel pump connection, or simply running the damn thing out of gas,..I immediately assume the worst.
Hopefully the lesson learned tonight will harden my resolve so that I will become callus to the "My engine is f'd up syndrome", and start thinking w/ a analytical mindset, instead of a I'M ON FIRE!!!!! OMG SOMEBODY PUT ME OUT!!! OHHH GOD, OHH GOD, PLEASE KILL ME!!! mindset instead.
Self deprecation aside,..Now I have to decide to take the free tuner studio session for the sake of why my tuning software has all of these red boxes at the bottom w/ red circlesw/ slashes running through them, or call it off, and try to figure it out myself.
Signed,
Respectfully,......
Dumber than a box of rocks.
Don't be to hard on youself, even a genius has a 'ahhh crap' moment
Besides there are a few that will jump on the 'your a dipsh#t' bandwagon.
Let the beatings begin
Besides there are a few that will jump on the 'your a dipsh#t' bandwagon.
Let the beatings begin
Alright Ricky-Bobby, so you weren't on fire. Good for you, seriously. I think we all feel emotionally attached to the monster and felt a bit sad that you had a problem.
Admittedly, running out of gas may or may not be a source of entertainment for us that just keeps on giving.
Get it tweaked and get it going now Mike. You need to drive to Tulsa.
Admittedly, running out of gas may or may not be a source of entertainment for us that just keeps on giving.
Get it tweaked and get it going now Mike. You need to drive to Tulsa.
I'm happy to hear that a faulty fuel gauge/sender is the problem and not a melted down MS or something
But I think @95BlueStallion is gonna give you an 'I told ya so' over your digital cluster lol
But I think @95BlueStallion is gonna give you an 'I told ya so' over your digital cluster lol
Ok,..... 'nother day.
The guy at DIY is s'posed to be calling me at 9:40 this morning. I'm gonna tell him about the bone empty status of my tank, and be ready if he chooses to go forward trying to solve the red box mystery.
I'll feel like one of the gang w/ Scooby and Shaggy. Driving around in the Mystery machine,.
..Solvin' mysteries,...
.....Gettin' chased by gremlins, and monsters,..
..( or monsters WITH gremlins)... .Eatin Scooby snacks.........
It's been a loooooooong time since I was just a "Meddling kid."
The guy at DIY is s'posed to be calling me at 9:40 this morning. I'm gonna tell him about the bone empty status of my tank, and be ready if he chooses to go forward trying to solve the red box mystery.
I'll feel like one of the gang w/ Scooby and Shaggy. Driving around in the Mystery machine,.
..Solvin' mysteries,........Gettin' chased by gremlins, and monsters,....( or monsters WITH gremlins)... .Eatin Scooby snacks.........It's been a loooooooong time since I was just a "Meddling kid."
Great news Mike... I had a moment like that a few weeks ago myself.
The wife has a 2003 Tahoe with 215k on it and it was running like @$$ and throwing codes that all my research suggested was due to the intake manifold gaskets (really common on the 5.3). So... I took the top off and replaced them, cleaned crap up, etc. Took about 4-5 hours start to finish cause I had never worked on an LS based engine before and the "safety clips" that Chevy puts on all the electrical is enough to drive anyone mad. Well, I get it all back together, turn the key and it starts... then DIES. It won't run more than 3 seconds. The wife is pissed at this point, and the kids are all pissy cause they can't go anywhere cause the wife won't learn to drive a stick so everyone is stuck at the house till this is done.
A few more hours of troubleshooting and I've decided it's the fuel pump. It's now making a ton of noise that it wasn't before I started all this and the truck is acting like it's out of gas. I find a pump at autozone for $250 (STOCK REPLACEMENT! WTF?) and I also bought a fuel pressure tester kit so I could return the pump if I was wrong. Well... 0 PSI on the gauge so I had to drop the tank. Yeah... that was fun. I finally got it all done and running around 1am after starting at 11 am to begin with.
I struggled with the "why" would the pump have died right then question but I've determined that it was a combination of the battery being disconnected, the fuel rails being disconnected, the old/weak pump having to reprime that empty system... and dumb blind luck. I wasted MANY hours looking into everything else and almost tore the top half back apart. I just had to step back and ask "what does the engine need to run?" and as you said Mike "Mix the proper percentages of air, fuel, and spark, introduce compression to the mix, and you get energy".
I said all that to say this, we've either all been there, or soon will be. It sucks about the paint and trim but at least it's home safe and it will be an easy enough fix. It's easy to get caught up thinking it was one thing (like the MS software upgrade) and not pay attention to the other things.
The wife has a 2003 Tahoe with 215k on it and it was running like @$$ and throwing codes that all my research suggested was due to the intake manifold gaskets (really common on the 5.3). So... I took the top off and replaced them, cleaned crap up, etc. Took about 4-5 hours start to finish cause I had never worked on an LS based engine before and the "safety clips" that Chevy puts on all the electrical is enough to drive anyone mad. Well, I get it all back together, turn the key and it starts... then DIES. It won't run more than 3 seconds. The wife is pissed at this point, and the kids are all pissy cause they can't go anywhere cause the wife won't learn to drive a stick so everyone is stuck at the house till this is done.
A few more hours of troubleshooting and I've decided it's the fuel pump. It's now making a ton of noise that it wasn't before I started all this and the truck is acting like it's out of gas. I find a pump at autozone for $250 (STOCK REPLACEMENT! WTF?) and I also bought a fuel pressure tester kit so I could return the pump if I was wrong. Well... 0 PSI on the gauge so I had to drop the tank. Yeah... that was fun. I finally got it all done and running around 1am after starting at 11 am to begin with.
I struggled with the "why" would the pump have died right then question but I've determined that it was a combination of the battery being disconnected, the fuel rails being disconnected, the old/weak pump having to reprime that empty system... and dumb blind luck. I wasted MANY hours looking into everything else and almost tore the top half back apart. I just had to step back and ask "what does the engine need to run?" and as you said Mike "Mix the proper percentages of air, fuel, and spark, introduce compression to the mix, and you get energy".
I said all that to say this, we've either all been there, or soon will be. It sucks about the paint and trim but at least it's home safe and it will be an easy enough fix. It's easy to get caught up thinking it was one thing (like the MS software upgrade) and not pay attention to the other things.
Believe me, I know.
I've decided that I take the bumble bee approach to solving problems,....Those crazy bastards do not fly in a straight line. They wobble, and juke all over the place, up/down,...pitch, and yaw.....buzzing along in a effort to get the good stuff they've collected back home.
stangboy
Founding Member
Good to hear that it was just out of gas, Mike. We've all had brain farts before. Here's my question about MS tho. So MS has a complete damn fit when something as simple as the car is out of gas?!?!? WTF man?!?! It couldn't just give you a code or something saying "NO FUEL" or "NO FUEL PRESSURE"? Did it really have to corrupt files and tell you your software is f*cked? I thing THAT is why you assumed the worst in that situation.
I don't think they were related... the upgrade was the last thing he did, and the dash on Tuner Studio wasn't showing things correctly but the car ran fine till it was out of gas.
stangboy
Founding Member
I did in fact get the benefit of Brians' knowledge this morning. Whether or not it contributed to anything, the software was corrupted. The old original firmware (2.906) was still partially embedded when we upgraded it to 3.4.2. The new software version flushed out that incompatibility, and threw those red boxes out as a result.
He fixed that.
We started the car and he hung on for a heat cycle an fiddled around showing me stuff that had changed w/ the new revision, made a few adjustments to the warm up enrichment (which was waaay too rich now that there was a cat "plugging" up the exhaust flow.
The car runs the best it has since I started it now,.....(at least while idling).
Now all I gotta do is figure out why that damned fuel gauge is reading what it's reading. Clearly, the "90" that is on the gauge is a percentage reflecting how EMPTY the tank is. So,...I'm gonna get 8 gals of gas, and put that in there. (16 gal tank) this should bring that display to 50% if it's working right.
I'll just look at the gauge and know now that I'm looking at how empty the tank is, rather than how full it is.
He fixed that.
We started the car and he hung on for a heat cycle an fiddled around showing me stuff that had changed w/ the new revision, made a few adjustments to the warm up enrichment (which was waaay too rich now that there was a cat "plugging" up the exhaust flow.
The car runs the best it has since I started it now,.....(at least while idling).
Now all I gotta do is figure out why that damned fuel gauge is reading what it's reading. Clearly, the "90" that is on the gauge is a percentage reflecting how EMPTY the tank is. So,...I'm gonna get 8 gals of gas, and put that in there. (16 gal tank) this should bring that display to 50% if it's working right.
I'll just look at the gauge and know now that I'm looking at how empty the tank is, rather than how full it is.
One afternoon my car wouldn't start. The car had been killing TFI modules. The one in the car was an older one that doesn't seem to allow the car to idle quite right. I installed a brand new one and the damn thing still wouldn't start. I decided to check codes and hooked up the code checker. As I was looking at the dash lights it occurred to me that the low fuel light was on and I was parked on a hill. A gallon of gas later, the car fired right up. Not a major faux pas since I was starting the car to pull it into the garage to replace the TFI module. But it sure is easy to jump to a conclusion.
I guess we all have a story where we thought we knew what we were doing and screwed up, after a blizzard I pulled the snow blower out of the garage and pulled the cord and it fired right up, after a few minutes of running I took the choke off and was ready to throw some snow, it stalls. Can't get it to start, Pull the plug and I have spark, pull the air box apart and start spraying some starting fluid, it's runs then stalls, I think to myself it seems it's running out of gas, after a few seconds it dawns on me.....yea that's right, I never turned the fuel on, Doh!!!!!
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