Autocrossing Disaster!
 

As some of you know i purchased an 87 that had been sitting a while with minimal gas in the tank. Anyways i went AUTOxing this weekend and my first 3 runs went very well....ass end sliding around the track on my BFG's. It was a BLAST! then the second set of runs were plauged with failure. The car would accelerate good but when i shifted to second and put the pedal down the car would basically starve for fuel and the motor would shut down for a split second and then fire back up like it would hesitate or something. I changed the fuel filter when i first got the car because it was doing this when i first bought it. I'm going to change it out again. Is there anything else it could be? Any sudgestions? And what is the easyest way to turn the motor by hand should i use a torque wrench or remove the belts.....and twist by hand. Let me know.

You need to change the Fuel Pump Inlet Sock inside the tank!!!!!

and then verify fuel pump voltage at the pump

do i have to get teh "sock" at the dealer?

I have the same hesitation, the tach drops to the floor for about a second and then fires back up and starts where it left off. This only happens during left turns.

My car, before I owned it, sat for about two years. I have modified and replaced just about everything now. And the hesitation is still there. Drives like a champ going straight or on right hand turns. 90 NA

what goes wrong with the "inlet sock" that causes this problem with the fuel. my fuel pump is new and have checked the voltage

maybe I need to start a new post with my left hand turn nightmares

the inlet sock gets gummed up with varnish/gunk over time, during hard left turns it uncovers the pump inlet, causing a hesitation.


Mazda Part Number: n327-13-ZE1

The sock, fuel filter is probably dirty again and you should flush out the tank, it's just got some sediment in it and you need to get it cleaned out.

hmmm that makes lots of sense. it was only during hard left turns...... hmmm ok buying part today... now when i turn right hard the alt light comes on and a buzzer goes off what's that?

Couldnt see the pictures.

When I did the carb cleaner trick, it only lasted about a month before the problem came back. :/

That's a good point. Cleaning the strainer will work for a while, but a new filter sock is best.

Sorry about the pics - It's a really old html generation from Word.
Can anyone else not see them?

'TEC,
You are aware that there is a drain plug in our gas tanks?
Take all the usual precautions when dealing with gasoline (no live flames; no sparks; handy fire extinguisher etc.). Drain the tank while jumping on the bumper. Then flush it with clean gas. That should get the worst out. There are baffles in the tank. The fuel pick-up sits in a well that cannot be drained. Perhaps someone here has a bright idea on how to clean that up safely?
Dave

yeah i am waiting for the tank to get a bit lower before i drain it. I have 3/4 of a tank right now. I have only had the car for about 12 days...

Does the pump come on when the key is hot? If so take the fuel line loose from the rail and let it pump the rest of the tank dry.

I will be ordering that part tomorrow.
thanks

It was fuel starvation. Do not autox with such low fuel.

Good thing it wasn't a TII. They do not like fuel starvation at WOT.

Go put a half of tank in and throw your car around. See if it does it again.

You could pull the pump asy. out first to inspect it before throwing money at it.

James

You can also get the "sock" or fuel pump filter at your local parts store. I think mine was like $14 or something. And that will definently fix your problem, had the same problem with mine after it had sat for a couple of years.

i had a little over a half tank at the time. i am going to replace the sock. thanks for the advice..

Thats cool. When you posted you said min. fuel.

Hope that works for you!

James

God that seems like a lot of work when you can buy a new one for $13... ;)

Just replying for easier location later. Good info.

]

First off, only briefly. To get it to run continuously, you would need to jumper the yellow connector on the passanger side shock tower with the key in run.

Secondly, this is a bad way to drain the gas, since when it is all drained, the pump runs dry, causing it to overheat and fail. Its also a lot of extra work considering there is a drain plug on the gas tank.

I was having the same problem at Summit Point last weekend. I am relieved because I thought that it might be the fuel pump!

This is just a testament to the knowledge on the board and the power of the search function.

:) :)

Buy a new fuel pump because as someone stated its only a quick fix...Never cut corners on fuel delivery and pumps are cheap.

OK, I pulled out the sock and utterly blasted it out with an air hose. Its better then fine now. High PSI is the way to do it.

BTW - fill er up before you race. On a turbo it's manditory unless you want to blow your engine from fuel starvation & boost.

Re: Autocrossing Disaster!
 

this exact same thing happened to me at my first auto-x. wow the slaloms were interesting with the engine cutting out on every other turn!

itd deffinetly the prefilter. i cleaned mine but i dont know if its fixxed because i dont puch my car hard enough on th street to find out and i havent been back to the track yet.

another good thing to do is look to see if any crud is floting in the bottom of your tack and suck it out with a siphon. odds are a little crud found its way in there over the years or when you took the dusty cover plate off.

Man this thread came back from the dead..just in time for this season! Put a new sock in...we'll see how it works...

Raising the dead for the New autoX season....Figured i'd save people from embarrasment.... I ordered two more yesterday...the guy at the counter was a moron.....then i had to show him where the part was on the computer..i swear. Anyways $13 w/ tax good ole 2 for the price of 2...I figured a couple extras won't kill me....

Apparently, the fuel pump and filter are one on the S5?

It keeps getting clogged for me, witch makes me belive my tank, is caked with garbage.

I'm going to drain it soon.

Side note, they carry the pump sock filters at autozone.

:)

If you have rust and crud, its time to pull the tank, clean and seal it.

Good point, thank you, thats probably what I need to do.

And Josepi: I'm saying that i belive the Sock isnt detachable from the pump on the S5. I pulled the thing out and asked the Mazda dealer here and they said the pump comes as a whole anyway.

I replaced the sock on my '91 two weekends ago.

One screw at the base of the pump, remove the bracket, and voila, out comes the filter. Installation is reverse of removal. ;)

God Damn!!! Okay, This is why I bought an RX-7!!! No matter how many problems it has there is always some Genuis who knows how to fix it. cheap!

God bless the 7!!!

-Max

Any idea what the S5 sock part number is? That would help me out a lot :)

bump of the Mazda paprt # or part # from/manufacturer # from kragen/autozone

QUICK Q'S Ok so i replaced the filter....but still with 1/4 tank and tossing the car around i get that ...puase...brappppp wierd... My filter was all covered in varnish and what not... looked like someone opened up the top of the tank and diahreahed in the tank.... I am starting to suspect grounding issues... What guadge wire should i buy.?

If you still get that pause it is because when you are low and fuel and take a hard left the gas sloshes around in the gas tank and makes it hard for the pump to pick up fuel. I have a HKS grounding kit. I like it. I wanted a Sun hyperground kit but I couldnt get that at wholesale cost.

You're trying to autocross with 1/4 tank of gas???
Oh my god...


-Ted

what srong with a 1/4 tank ted?

I WASN"T AUTOCROSSING!!!!! JUST TOSSING AROUND THE NEW WHEEL AND TIRE SETUP! Just curious if there was something else i could check.

reminds me....i bought a whole new fuel filter assembly because the one that was in there was coverd in black sludge....i wonder what the tank is like..plus, i bet the new gas in there is eating it away...$150 for a new gas tank, that better be on my list soon.

There's a reason why we go racing with a minimum 3/4 tank...
Think about it.


-Ted

tank slappers??

wouldnt driving smoothly take care of that?

:gay: well if you had READ, you would have seen he was talking about in RACING conditions. theres no smooth driving in racing conditions, specially not autoX, what this whole thread is about, sheesh.

Come on dude, this is not Initial D.
Use your common sense.
This is not about left / right transients.
This is about cornering loads.
A race FC can hit 1.0G of cornering load, and that will cause all the fluids to climb their "containers"...including the fuel tank.



-Ted

geez. you guys dont have to be such smart asses all the time. and in case you havent noticed ted, the tank has baffles that will keep gas right up on the pickup under very heavy loads. as long as you have a gallon or 2 left in there.

now that i cleaned off my pick-up filter i've yet to notice fuel starvation REGARDLESS of cornering loads OR level of gass in the tank. granted my car probobly maxes out a fair amount under 1.0 g. but still, i dont realy thin you need 3/4 of a tank. 1/4 seems to do fine as long as you dont use all of that up.

That's right - it does have baffles.
And these baffles have about a 4" to 6" wall height.
At high cornering loads, the gas will actually climb out of the baffles.
At 1/4 full, that's not enough fuel to prevent the gas from sloshing around and causing fuel starvation at the fuel pump.

Why don't you fill up to 3/4 tank and see if this fixes the problem???


-Ted