Fuel delivery problem on trail yesterday

[AlaskanJack]

Well I had an interesting trail run yesterday. About 4 hrs into the run my Ex started loosing power and sounding like a carburated rig. I would stop and it would idle real slow and when I gave it gas it was a slow rumble up to full rev.

I would park it for 15 minutes then all would be fine for a while. I was beginning to notice this problem arose when driving up trails. It was sounding like it was starving for fuel but we could smell a slight hint of fuel. Someone thought it was actually flooding.

I made it back out to the road and for the 30 minute drive home I had 4 instances where I got a check engine light then it would go off and I seemed to loose throttle then wam it was back.

I had a new fuel pump and filter installed less than 6 months ago so I guess I am just asking what you guys think I should check. In my mind I was thinking 02 sensor but maybe fuel pressure regulator.

Oh and one other odd thing and maybe it was just the trail but just before I would begin to sputter I noticed that my guage was reading 1/4 lower than actual and I was on flat ground. After letting rig sit for a while guage was reading true.

 

[jgilbs]

Oh and one other odd thing and maybe it was just the trail but just before I would begin to sputter I noticed that my guage was reading 1/4 lower than actual and I was on flat ground. After letting rig sit for a while guage was reading true.

I know the system has a "damper" built into it. If you were on an incline for a while, then leveled your truck out, it would take a while for the gauge to reflect the new posisition of the fuel. This is so that the gauge wouldnt slosh around every corned your took or had accel you made. This SOUNDS normal, but maybe you know more about this than I read from your post.

Also, you said your CEL went on. I would think the best place to start would be scanning the codes. Then at least you have a baseline to work with.

 

[AlaskanJack]

Well the incline wasn't great enough to show that much change and the flat runs were well enough away from the inclines for the tank to settle. I wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't an odd thing I saw. I expect different guage readings on inclines. And of course I was watching everything closely to see what was going on with my guages when it would begin to sputter. I mentioned it because I noticed the odd reading while I was running on flat trails then shortly after it would sputter. Plus the fact that the observation was made of smelling the fuel and it sounded like it was flooding.

I was thinking is it possible for excess fuel to flood the engine and return to the tank?????

I just hate pulling codes and counting the darn lights. I get so confused. I pulled codes one other time and I wasn't even sure if I got the codes right.

 

[Alec]

If it was an O2 sensor the computer should ignore it and run in open loop.

I'm leaning towards FPR, vacuum system, or maybe the wiring going to the fuel tank (could affect both the pump and sender).

 

[mrboyle]

It definatley sounds like a fuel pressure regulator. Exact symptoms mine had when the FPR failed.

 

[AlaskanJack]

where exactly is the FPR at?? What am I looking for??

 

[Alec]

will look similar to that, should be black. Should be towards the front pass side of the motor next to the intake manifold.

 

[AlaskanJack]

Oh well that is not at all what I thought I was looking for. I was looking for a sensor on or near the fuel rail.