Fuel injection question.

[Bruce B.]

1961 high HP Rochester FI with a problem (belongs to a friend).

Engine starts easily and idles fine.
When you give it gas the engine dies and sometimes pops before stopping.

Any ideas as to the possible cause?

Thanks, Bruce B

[John D.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

Bruce, Could be a sticking spill valve. If the unit has the original so called "good guy" spill valve the piston could be sticking.
Pretend the FI was a carburetor with the same issues/symptons. What would one think. Answer: Accelerator pump which in theory is the spill valve in the FI units.
If the car was sitting around for a while with good old ethanol the poor FI could be gummed up. Tell him to put a '4360 unit on. LOL. John

[Bruce B.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

John,
Thanks for your expertise.
Is there any easy way to "unstick" a stuck spill valve?
Bruce B

[John D.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

Easy way you ask Bruce. Nothing is easy on those old FI's it seems. But it's not that difficult just time consuming.
You should remove the FI from the car. That takes about 20 minutes. Longer if the unit is a midyear.
Then put the unit up on end (never upside down). Up on end means with the hi-pressure pump pointing toward the workbench. Get your paper towels ready to asborb any fuel.
Next
remove the spill valve cover on the bottom of the fuel bowl. This cover is held on with three fillister head screws. 10/32 x1/2". Be careful you remove all three screws while using your thumb in the center of the cover so you don't accidentally break an ear from the cover.
Then you will need to remove the filter screen, the filter support and sometimes a heavy duty coil spring.
Look in The Corvette Servicing Guide and study the two pics of the spill valve.
Most likely you have the "good guy" spill valve and the piston is sticking or bubba played spring engineer. Easy way would be to squirt some Gumout Carb and choke cleaner or Brake Clean in the cylinder wall of the spill valve in cae the piston is sticking.
Or just remove the spill valve 100% using a hook-see the manual.
One time I was at a BG show and took apart a 58 unit on a bed in the motel for a customer. Didn't have a nice spill valve puller so we made one from a coat hanger. John

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

hey john what about using "TECHRON" in the fuel as it keeps modern FI from gumming up from all these chemicals used in modern gasoline ?

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

One time I was at a BG show and took apart a 58 unit on a bed in the motel for a customer. Didn't have a nice spill valve puller so we made one from a coat hanger. one time in daytona we overhauled a 4 speed trans in the bath tub and on the bed and when we tried reserved a room for the next year they said they appreciated our business but they preferred we stayed somewhere else.

[John D.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

HI Clem, Can't blame them from keeping you out of the room. Techron is good stuff. I have used it in my GMC with great success.

[James G.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

AT THE 1987 MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA REGIONAL event held downtown at the old DOUBLETREE that today is

Portola Hotel & Spa and Monterey Conference Center

, we rebuilt GARY SUNDA'S 58 FI in the ''BAR'' at 4PM. Created a lot of ruckous, but the bartender loved it. Said the following day it was the best Thursday HAPPY HOUR in the Hotel's history.

Didn't we have fun in the old days. Everyone is so serious today

[Dan H.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

Thanks Jim, Bryan Futo did it with an extra FI kit I carried with me in my car. Yes, those were the days!
Dan

[Dennis C.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

Wouldn't mind seeing JD rebuild one at Altoona................

Hint! Hint

Lol

Dennis

[John D.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

JD is a vendor at the PA regional at Blair Country Convention Center Sept 6-8th and helping run the show. Also will be on hand to answer questions about FI's but NOT on the show floor where the cars are being judged. Don't want a certain team leader hollering at me again. Guess who. LOL
Our show is going to be so much fun. Be there.

[Dennis C.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

Our show is going to be so much fun. Be there.

Looking forward to it.

Dennis

[John H.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

One time I was at a BG show and took apart a 58 unit on a bed in the motel for a customer. Didn't have a nice spill valve puller so we made one from a coat hanger. one time in daytona we overhauled a 4 speed trans in the bath tub and on the bed and when we tried reserved a room for the next year they said they appreciated our business but they preferred we stayed somewhere else.

When I was touring my AA/FD in 1961 (on an open trailer behind a '57 Ford station wagon), I had to tear down and rebuild the 8-71 blower once in a Holiday Inn bathtub; you wouldn't believe what a mixture of oil and nitro does to a bathtub (and to Holiday Inn towels). I didn't get invited back either.

[Jimmy B.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

In the 80's my 63 vin 660 f.i. 1094 distr. dated 2 F 15 if memory serves me correctly. I had just purchased in CA gave up the ghost going down the freeway. Purchase price for a matching numer original engine fuelie the riduculous sum of $13,000! Giving up all money hurt and it took some doing to persude my wife we really "needed" that car! We raised hood and gas was everywhere. We tried to work on unit beside freeway but cars going by 80 mph was a definite hindrance. We had a blanket on the hood with the f.i. unit and pieces scattered on top of the hood trying to work on it. Finally put unit back on car and fuel leaks remained. Lots of gas coming from spill plunger area. Got a tow to some racetrack entrance and called NCRS member Mike Scott for help, he came with trailer and towed me to his house, where we got a warm place to sleep and some meals of course. He and his wife extended a warmopen hospitality to us. Mike whom I had never met but talked with on the phone loaned me his newly rebult 65 f.i. unit, we bolted it on my f.i. 63, it ran perfect and then drove car like bat out of hell back to Colorado. That's what NCRS is all about.

Follow up, I gave the unit to Brian Futo off the 63, nice early unit, bumps/lumps on front of dog house, cutouts under nozzle blocks, Brian lived in Boulder at the time. He did a complete rebuild for me at an incredible fee, discovered in the choke there was no piston attached to the linkage rod, fixed that and of course it ran absolutely perfect. No wonder the elbow of the air cleaner had a hole punched in it and a rubber stopper, that's where you gave a shot of starting fluid to start the engine when cold. Ingenius!

I haven't seen Mike Scott in a long time but hope him and Gail are doing fine, I talked to Brian Futo the other day and he says he is doing fine in Arizona. Since my heart attack 05 July and triple bypass I am doing s lot of reflection on the good "old" days and all the great friends I have met in NCRS along the 30 + ,years of membership. Jim Blakely

[Steven B.]

Re: Fuel injection question.

Great stories. In the winter of '67 while at Purdue I met a barefoot neighbor walking to his apartment two doors from ours. He never wore shoes, summer or winter or to any of his mechanical engineering classes. (We actually had a Hippie in school!) We struck up a conversation and he told me he had a knucklehead in his apartment he was "rebuilding". My roommates and I went over that evening to see "Leto's" bike (never knew if that was his first or last name). We walked in and saw all of the furniture stacked in a corner of the room and the frame, wheels, etc. apart across the grease covered carpet. We walked past the bathroom and saw a number of parts soaking in degreaser in the tub and sink. When we got to the bedroom we saw the engine torn down and scattered on the gold shag carpet. Leto had torn down the engine on the carpet without first draining the oil. Spring came and the bike was finished. It was beautiful and really clean. It looked good in chrome and the gloss black he sprawed in the second bedroom. The day he fired it up and took it for a shake down was the last time we ever saw Leto but he remains a hero and idol to this day.