C34 Fuel Surge.

[Captain Wow]

Hi guys,

When I bought my Stagea, the guy told me it started to surge if you got down to quarter of a tank. Now since I've owned it I've never been down to quarter except for over this weekend, and it does indeed surge when going up some inclines and when it comes onto boost.

Is this a common thing in the C34's? If so, is there a fix for it? It's had a Walbro fuel pump put in which I'll check the placing of this coming weekend to make sure it's seated right. It's also had a Tomei fpr installed.

Cheers,

- Lance

[scotty nm35]

Sounds like the Walbro isn't installed correctly, you might want to get it lower in the tank...

[KiwiRS4T]

Sure it was a genuine Tomei fpr? Were a few fakes floating around. I have a Walbro 4 -5 years old still working fine. it was a bit smaller than the original and had to be secured with cable ties. I think I used the original pickup but can't remember now. Maybe your pump has come loose in the cradle. Its not too hard to get at to have a look.

[Ben C34]

I have a walbro 455 pump, and often run my tank all the way to below the E with no issues at all.

My pump is in the stock mount, with the aid of cable ties.

Its definitely not a c34 issue. No factory car runs shit with 1\4 tank of fuel. That would be pretty bad work by the new car engineers, and thwy never atuff up

[Captain Wow]

Cheers guys, I'll be checking the pump position when I get a moment.

I'm not sure about the fpr Bob, I don't know how to check for fakes. Though it seems to operate fine the rest of the time.

I assumed it wasn't a common fault as it would be a tad of an over site from factory, still worth an ask though lol.

- Lance

[533 RYC]

I have a walbro 455 pump, and often run my tank all the way to below the E with no issues at all.

My pump is in the stock mount, with the aid of cable ties.

Its definitely not a c34 issue. No factory car runs shit with 1\4 tank of fuel. That would be pretty bad work by the new car engineers, and thwy never atuff up

LOL, I agree about them never stuffing up Benny, but VX -VZ commodores had recalls on fuel pump assemblies, due to running out of fuel at 1/4 tank! Not having a dig at you Adelaide guys , but they never could get them reading right between the sender & the cluster. Don't stress though, Ford had issues with the LPG gauge calibration vs what the tank gauge use to say.

But the Japs have their sh#t down pat, Id also be checking position of the pump.

[Captain Wow]

Had a look at pump position today, appears to be in the right place and secured by some wire ties, the holder is also secure to the bottom of the tank. I took a picture so I can get someone to double check that it is in fact seated properly.

Cheers,

- Lance

Edited March 7, 2014 by Captain Wow

[Ben C34]

It is a bit hard from that angle,is the intake sock lying totally flat on the bottom of the cradle. It looks a bit high.

[Captain Wow]

The sock is down on the bottom of the cradle. I'll have a muck around with it tomorrow and see if I can get it seated lower.

- Lance

[Ben C34]

The whole lot has to be as low as possible.

I have a 455 walbro, and only yesterday put 62liyres into the car, with no surge issues at all.

Does your cradle have the lid on it?

[Captain Wow]

Okay, that's interesting to know. Nope, the lid of the cradle is missing. Other than that I guess I'll be looking at the fpr.

- Lance

[KiwiRS4T]

Read somewhere in this site that some early Walbros had a couple of holes at the bottom that suggested that they needed to be fully submerged to function properly. Apparently this changed for later models. Don't know the truth of this but if you can get your hands on another pump that would be worth a try.

[GoldZilla]

I put 54 litres in mine today (was just below a quarter tank) and it was running fine, and have driven the car down to a 62 litre fill before (I think it was right on empty, can't remember) and it ran fine then too.

[Captain Wow]

Hrmm, I've filled it up now and it seems to be fine with normal driving. Still haven't taken it for a boost yet so can't confirm what's going on with that yet.

- Lance

[KiwiRS4T]

If it runs fine most of the time its unlikely to be the fuel reg - more likely to be something to do with the pick up. I ran mine empty to see how far I could go with the red light on and it went fine until the last drop and just died then.

[Captain Wow]

Rather than starting a new thread, I'll carry this one on as it's still related.

I installed my new pump today, seated it as low as possible, so hopefully it has fixed my problem, though only time will tell.

As a side 'issue', when I turn the car on and the fuel pump primes, I get rather a loud, low chirp coming from the engine bay as the fuel system pressurises. Is this normal?

- Lance

[coparts41]

Probably only the regulator doing its job , Is the fuel gauge reading right and not actually running empty ,just seems funny that it is perfect until you get to 1/4 tank thats all