Hello. I'm at a loss here.

I have a western hauler on this truck with a 45 gal tank who drive fine when I first got it 3 weeks again. Now, I can drive 7 miles and it sounds like its running out of gas. I'll take in-line fuel filter off, blow it clean and re-attach and go 7 more miles and do it again!

Fuel gauge didn't work, so I dropped the tank and fixed gauge. Then had problems with pump. Dropped tank again and took off in-tank pump and replaced with an in-line pump attached to sending unit.

Forgot to attach a fuel screen, so dropped tank again and put screen on and thought out would fix problem, but no!

Now I took the return line off of the tank selector valve and fuel just kept coming out if line! WHY?

Tank vent is fine, and even tried driving with fuel cap off....no change! What is going on...like I said, it worked fine when I got it and now its driving me nuts rather than down the road!

Also, could that little rubber duck bill check on the return line really make a difference? I just noticed that didn't get put back on!

I'm in the garage as I write this and need this truck to run in an hour! Please help!

 

I'm sorry that I don't have an answer as I know you need one ASAP. But, there are things I don't understand which could have a bearing on this:

1. What is a "western hauler"?
2. You said you took off the "in tank" pump and put an "in-line pump attached to the fuel sender". Wouldn't that also be an in-tank pump?
3. Fuel comes out of the return line, but from the engine side or the tank side?
4. Please take a pic of the "rubber duck bill check" as I don't recognize it.

 

Do you have the vapor recovery emissions-control system? One charcoal canister per gas tank, they're located on the front pass side of the frame, down by the front tire.

The EVAP (Evaporative Emissions) system collects gasoline vapors and sends them to the combustion chambers in certain situations.

Install the check valve and see if the problem goes away or not; if not, I'd be suspicious of the tank selector valve.

 

Ok, installed the check valve on sending unit. No difference! Almost worst, but that could be cause I'm frustrated....the vapor emissions has been disconnected along with the EGR.

It almost acts like its creating a vacume in the tank and once it builds too much pressure in the tank, it starves the pump on fuel. Also, I've noticed it has a high idle now 1300 to 1500. It dose appear to have an old style pressure regulator in-line by the carb, but I don't know if that would be causing this.

Thanks to everyone that has ideas; I'm open to anything realistic.

 

When I had my 86 F250 4x4 460. I had my share of fuel issues. I installed new OEM in tank pumps & they worked about a week. So what I did was install a 14 lbs of pressure Carter electric fuel pump just forward of the switch over valve. Then added a Summit Racing pressure regulator & set it 5 PSI. That pretty much solved the fuel starving issue. But I found any pump smaller wouldn't work. I also put a gate valve on my return line & did away with the factory valve by the carb. Of course I added a liquid filled fuel pressure gauge just before the carb.
Hope this helps. The fuel systems on these years trucks were awful. I worked for a Ford dealership when these came out & they were a PITA.
Craig

 

I ran the OEM setup on my 460 for years. 3 years back with the current engine build the stock setup finally stopped cutting it. I simply eliminated the return completely and it was happy until the pump puked last summer. I currently run a carter p4070 72 gph 6 psi pump and it keeps the 460 happy all day long, and it spends lots of time on the rev limiter. If the inline pump you put in doesn't require a regulator per the manufacturer lose the return line.

 

Kerrmydog, thank you! I'm starting to think it has something to do with the tank switcher. Oh also the truck has the"hot fuel"option (which I don't understand why) I'm wondering if it could be that. Don't really understand the purpose to it since it's not a diesel.

I think I'm going to try and bypass the whole switcher and just put a fuel line straight through to see if thats the problem.

Where is it you found the waste gate fort the return?

 

82......

Thank you so much. I was wondering if I could do that but I want sure.

You know, the damn thing worked fine for the first 2 days when I bought it. I had to drive it home 35 miles without any problems. Ever since I decided that I wanted the fuel gauge to work, I've had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS!

Oh ya, I also removed the EGR and plugged the ports on the headers, so that shouldn't be an issue.

The only other is that the carb sits closer to the intake now that the egr is gone, but I dont think that would have made any difference to heat to the carb

 

The only issue with not having the egr spacer on there might be Carb linkage clearance on the manifold. On my stock intake I had just plugged the port in the manifold and left the spacer in place.

 

Oh I see. I actually had a machine shop make a plate identical to the egr plate just without the small hole in it.

I suppose it could be helpful to say:

Holly 600 carb
Eledbroch performer 460 intake
And I believe there might be a can in it, but not sure.

 

Oh yes the pump, one on rail by tank: Mr gasket 42S Pump at 4 psi max.
Then another aftermarket pump on fender well by carb, which is unknown details (seams more reliable than the mr gasket thought)

Apparently, there is a need of two pumps on here as the service manual says. One to draw from tank and one to supply carb, but I have not heard of anyone else say anything about having 2 pumps.

 

I can't imagine needing two pumps - at least not two outside of the tank. Ford used a smaller pump in the tank and then a larger pump outside in many applications, but most aftermarket external pumps are more than adequate to supply a 460, and certainly won't let it die after 7 minutes of moderate driving.

I'm thinking it may well be the switch/valve as I've seen very odd things from them. In one case it put the return back in the other tank, meaning it pulled from one and returned to the other. I would bypass that thing in a heartbeat - both the supply and the return.

 

Gary thanks for confirming my same thoughts. Now I have someone mentioning the "electronic control modual". They said they were known fore puking out after it heats up, which could happen in the 5 to 10 min; causing the truck to act like it's running out of fuel.

Any thoughts on that from anyone?

 

Yes, they are known to do that. But, the symptoms shouldn't be quite the same as the module usually fails almost like throwing a switch. But, depending on what you are seeing it could be that.

So, when the engine dies you need to confirm that you have fuel and don't have spark, or vice versa. On the fuel, one way to do that is to remove the air cleaner and look down the carb while opening the throttle. If you have gas you should see two streams of gas shoot into the engine. And, you can put a clear fuel filter between the pump and the carb and see if it has fuel in it when the engine dies.

On the spark, pull a plug wire and hold it close to something that is well grounded, like the engine block, and have someone crank the engine - making for SURE your hands are out of the way of the fan and the belts. If you have spark then the module and all related bits of the ignition system are working.

If you don't have ignition you need to determine what is failing as it could be the pickup in the distributor or the module or the coil. But, lets get that step done before we go further.

 

Ok Gary, I've now tested it for 10 miles......I started out this morning and it started and ran fine for 7 miles, then started to spot and sputter like out of fuel. Shut it off for 5 min, re-started (harder but ok) then drove .05 miles and did the same. Turned off, waited 10 min, restarted and drove 1 mile and did same. Waited 15 min, started, drive 1.8 miles and did the same.

It seams like the longer I wait, the father it can make it...that is why I thought it was a vacume being created in the tank.

Whats your thoughts?

Oh ya. Did the test with the fuel. I took fuel line off by engine side (before 2nd pump) after it died and turned the key to run to active rear pump (yes I have it jumpered to run right away versus when I have oil pressure) the fuel comes out in spurts rather than constant. When engine is cool or a greater time between driving, the fuel comes out constant and faster. This is why I thought it might be the fuel filter by the first pump, but the last few times I've taken it off to clean it, there hasn't been anything in it, but the truck runs farther after I do that.

Frustrating!