Losing Power in 3rd and 4th gear (1 Viewer)

[TN Trooper]

Help!
I am such a newbie here, but I have been lurking over the post for several months now. I am a proud owner of a FJ43. I love vehicle, but I am having a bit of trouble. I was told that the car needed a new gas tank because the is was losing power in 4th gear. So, I did replace it. It did fine for about 2 days after filling up with gas, then this afternoon, about to go up a hill, it kept losing power. So i had to alternate shifting from 3rd and 4th to keep it going. The car would slow down, shudder, and then I would shift down and back up. It was doing this before I replaced the tank, and I thought I fixed the problem. But, apparently not. Now it is back firing on occasion too, which is a new problem.

I had a great person that I worked with in Colombia who helped get the car ready to ship, Sander Gielen (highly recommend him). When the car was worked on there he told me "they took down the gas tank, cleaned it, put new hoses on and took out two gasoline filters. Those filters were to close together. They have been replaced with one new filter". After this some more work was done - "the little fuel filter from the evaporator changed, was clogged." Then he drove the trunk again and told me this, "Looks like the gas tank is corroded from inside. I can see black things in the (new) fuel filter I had installed in Bogota already. Also, as soon as one has used up 25% of a full gas tank she starts to do hick ups. Especially going up hill. Again a problem related to the (inside of) the gas tank."

So here's my question...What's going on!! Please help. Do I need to replace the fuel pump? I read some posts about a vented gas cap? Was it the gas tank and the lines clogged?

I am attaching a few pics.

Thanks

 

[TN Trooper]

I have an update on the car. I took off the gas cap and drove the car around for about ten minutes without any problems. I thought this might be a solution suggesting a "vacuum isssue". I really don't know. So, I let it sit for about a couple of hours, and then drove it again. After driving it about 5 minutes, the staggering and hesitating started again. I made several more short trips with similar issues. I notice that it never occurred in 1st or 2nd gear. Once in 3rd gear and got up in the RPM's (3000 maybe?) - it was about 60 k/hr -the problem would start. If I took shifted down, put in the clutch and rev'd the engine, or shift up to 4th and down to 3rd again; the problem would resolve briefly. I have continued to leave the gas cap off and haven't filled the tank up. It's got about a little over 1/2 of a tank. I noticed the the problem did same to get better when the tank was full. Any thoughts?

 

[Pin_Head]

I am not sure what you are describing. Seems vague to me.

If you had dirt or rust in the tank, then there is a reasonable chance that it got past the filter and made its way into the pump and carb. The pump may be bad and the carb may need cleaning out.

Fuel starvation is worse when the engine is under load, like going up hill in 4th with the pedal floored. The symptoms include bucking, misfiring and backfiring out the carb.

When the problem starts, turn off the key, put the tranny in neutral and pull off the road and stop. Then look at the level of fuel in the carb window. No fuel = fuel starvation.

The fuel pump should be able to pump about 50 ml of fuel from the carb line in 15 seconds of engine cranking with the starter motor.

 

[brian]

Sounds to me like the fuel pump is on the brink of quitting

 

[TN Trooper]

I drove the car again tonight three separate times, each trip about 10 minutes. No failure or power issues. Since it didn't happen today, I didn't get a chance to look.

I felt on the block around the attachment of the pump. It was damp like something was leaking. The opposite side of the block was dryer. I thought that I smelled gas, but wasn't sure. Could there be a leak around the gasket around the pump? Would that explain the issue? So maybe if the car heated up and was run for a while, the gasket leaked. Then, as the engine block cooled, the leak was less?

 

[TN Trooper]

Another update. Drove it again tonight. Had to jump start it, because I left the lights on for about an hour or so last night.. stupid me. Did find and fired right up. Got the RPM's up and the speed up to about 80 km/hr. No issues again with loosing power...Not exactly sure what is going on.

 

[Pin_Head]

That kind of intermittent behaivor sometimes happens when you have chunks of junk banging around in your gas tank or fuel bowl.

 

[reddingcruiser]

The "little fuel filter from the evaporator " is not a filter, it's a vacuum check valve. What did they use to replace it?