Blasphemy, I'm sorry

bigboremike · 01-12-2005, 05:33 AM

Hi everyone,
My 325is is running just fine, (knock on wood) but i do have a question for on my friends 1994 Honda Passport (With all the knowledge on this board i had to come here). Heres the problem. A couple days ago it would not start, it was freezing here in chicago so i told him to put in a bottle or 2 of HEET. seemed to work, he drove it for a day or 2 then went out of town for 2 days. Would not start when he came back. I checked it out yesterday. Cranks just fine. It is getting spark. Fuel pump is running. I changed the fuel filter. Engine cranks and just about wants to start, some popping in the air-box region. its been cold and rainy here the last few days but the truck has been in a garage. could this be fuel line moisture? any help would be great. Again, sorry for the "foreign" car.

--Mike

blkongry · 01-14-2005, 08:12 AM

I had a similar problem with my '98 4Runner. I was driving it one evening, parked it for 5 minutes, and when I started it again, it started right up but moments later started chuggin' and died. As I tried to start it again, it would sputter up in the airbox and crap out. I let it sit for the night, and when I started it again, it fired right up and I haven't had an issue since.

To me that says moisture in the fuel line. A friend of mine says the pickup in the tank is a floating tank, but I've seen other pickups that are hard mounted on the bottom of the tank. If it is mounted on the bottom of the tank, and you have water in your tank, then the water floats on top and you won't pick it up. If it is a floating fuel pickup, then you will pick up the water in the tank.

Have your friend siphon out some fuel with a hand siphon and have him try to get as much surface gas as possible (insert the tube until it just starts to pick up fuel). Put it in a glass jar and look for phase separation as it settle... water being on top.

Or, he could have just picked up some bad gas. Has it been running on the same tank of gas? Is it at a level where you can fill it up with some more gas? If so, fill it up with a full tank from a newer filling station (that will ensure good clean tanks with no cracks). Some of the older stations are 'iffy' because of possibility of cracked tanks underground.