[idontknow]

The POS truck of my daughter in law.

I don't know what compelled me to write this up but here goes.
My daughter in law (Michelle) was driving home from visiting relatives when her SUV dies. She explains to me that it was sputtering, dying at lights and just not running right. She says that this happened within the last 25 miles or so and she needs help. We (my wife and I) go down to see what's wrong. Mind you this is exactly a 100 mile one way journey (just inside AAA's limit). We're there and her dumba$$ husband says the engine is shot. Call AAA tow it home. Drained the oil and found nothing except for oil that hasn't been changed in ~20000 miles. "I've been meaning to get around to that", he says No metal flakes though. New oil and filter, and now we check for spark. Good spark, now check for fuel. Ah ha, no fuel! "You know, we should probably just replace the whole fuel system. I can build a fuel cell from scraps at work, get all new rubber lines and get a holley pump they sell at Advance Auto I've been looking at." he says.
I try to explain to him that that fuel pump won't put out the 27psi he needs as it was made for a carburetor. So I pull the fuel filter off, try again, no gas. Okay, gotta pull the tank. Did you know there are some 5 hoses connected at the top to a 87 Chevy S10 Blazer? Since the hoses weren't cooperating quickly enough he just yanked the tank out of there (also yanking out the electrical connector to the fuel pump/level sender). The fuel pump was bad and easily replaced. Upon looking at the inside of the tank we noticed a huge quantity of (unpainted) matchbox cars inside?! The kids must have been having fun and thrown the matchbox cars down the gas nozzle. My guess is that the paint flakes jammed up in the fuel pump and stopped it from working. It all goes back together smoothly, thanks to all new hoses on top of the tank.

Moral of the story: Don't let your kids have matchbox cars outside. You'll regret it about 100 miles from home!