Engine wants to die

[r00b]

Took some time off work and went to California, 1300 miles. On my way back to Colorado I was having some trouble with my fuel pickup line, had to stop a couple times. The pump was making some noise again, I stopped for gas. When I started the car the engine died right away, I had to keep my foot on the gas to keep the engine going. This was at Kingman AZ, At the time I thought it might be the altitude, but it looks like it's only 3,333 ft above sea level. my previous stop was in Needles CA and the car started fine there. My engine had been running rich in Colorado, in California I adjusted the mixture at about 331 ft about sea level. Don't know if that could have had anything to do with it since the car ran fine from Colorado to California.

When I start the car the engine will die if I don't rev the engine. After driving for a short while the engine will stay running but the rpm's drop really low, might still die. Driving longer and the engine seems to behave normally, rpm's might be on the low side. but as soon I restart the car it does the same thing. I noticed that the engine surge when starting is very low too. Ideas?

[Citizen]

First thing that comes to mind for me is low fuel pressure, although I admit, you have some, but not all the symptoms. Usually low fuel pressure is related to the pump, but I suppose it could be pumping okay, but still not able to build enough pressure for the engine. This happened to my old S10. It had low pressure, even though the pump was fine. Turned out a rubber fuel hose inside the tank was cracked (probably due to ethenol), so the pump could work all day long, but the fuel was just spilling right back into the tank, and only very little was getting to the engine (had to keep pumping the pedel to keep it running). In the case of the DeLorean, could be your pickup hose is collapsing.

Second thing that comes to mind is the fuel filter. But again, I'm just guessing.

Sorry if this is not much help.

...

[David T]

There are a lot of things that can cause this symptom. You need to start eliminating possibilities and try to narrow it down to a system, fuel or ignition. Make sure the frequency valve is buzzing. Fill the gas tank. Check the connections on the ballast resistor. Are you getting a nice fat, blue spark? Is the pick-up hose bad? How long since your last tune-up?
David Teitelbaum

[galbiati]

There are a lot of things that can cause this symptom. You need to start eliminating possibilities and try to narrow it down to a system, fuel or ignition. Make sure the frequency valve is buzzing. Fill the gas tank. Check the connections on the ballast resistor. Are you getting a nice fat, blue spark? Is the pick-up hose bad? How long since your last tune-up?
David Teitelbaum

I had the exact same problem last night at the red light. Stopped at light, car would idle so low it almost stalled. I kept it running by keeping my foot on the gas. Once I made it home I noticed a injector seal leaking. DPI Josh is sending me new ones.

[r00b]

Tried another ignition coil I had, no change. In January I replaced the distributor cap rotor and spark plug wires, also pulled all the plugs cleaned them a bit and regapped. I'll check the injector seals, I know that they were pretty hard when I had them out last.

[r00b]

I replaced the fuel pump with another I had, no change. Put the previous fuel pump back in started the car and got it to were it would nearly die but still run. Still had the coil cover off and wiggled the wires on the white bulkhead connector, she came right back to life. Guess it was just a bad connection, anyone know what wire this probably was and what it does?

[jawn101]

I replaced the fuel pump with another I had, no change. Put the previous fuel pump back in started the car and got it to were it would nearly die but still run. Still had the coil cover off and wiggled the wires on the white bulkhead connector, she came right back to life. Guess it was just a bad connection, anyone know what wire this probably was and what it does?

Was it the small 2 pin connector? That's the frequency valve. Or was it the larger one? There's a bunch of stuff in there. Check this out: http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?at...0&d=1310439341

[r00b]

It was the big white connector next to the 2 pin one. Looks like it was probably a wire to the idle speed motor.

[jawn101]

It was the big white connector next to the 2 pin one. Looks like it was probably a wire to the idle speed motor.

I had a HUGE headache tracking down a bad pin in that 2 pin FV connector a few months ago. And I mean HUGE. I swapped the entire fuel system from another owner's car to mine and the damn thing STILL wouldn't run properly. It turned out to be a marginal connection on the inside of the pontoon (back side of the bulkhead panel) - a quick crimp and solder and everything was perfect again. But it took about 15 hours to find the problem first. So if it isn't immediately obvious where the loose or marginal connection might be, save yourself the trouble of assuming it's not this same thing