Dirty fuel filter??

Hello... I was test driving my 83 Chev RV today.. I drove 50 miles-- Worked perfectly. I topped up the tank, and on the way back, I had a few problems. ...All of a sudden the engine started to miss a bit. ...No backfiring, though. Then it started to surge, as in: speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down. ...It was doing this so much that the RV was going like a bucking bronco. If I stepped on the gas, I'd lose power. The only way it would run smooth, is if I hardly touched the gas pedal at all. If I stopped and reved the engine up, it worked fine. ...Then it would go for a stretch working not too bad.

,,,I won't lie...When I got home, I changed the fuel filter (the little cartridge), and noted that it was quite dirty, and did have some crap in it. ...I am not a mechanic, but does this sound like filter problems, as opposed to being the fuel pump?? ...Of course, tommorrow, I'll try 'er again, but I am concerned that it could be something else, and I'll end up stranded some where. Thanks for any help. ...Jon

Reply to
Johnny1000
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Hi Doc. ....The stuff in the filter was just the brown crap that was in the gas tank. I did take the tank off a year ago and thoroughly flush the old gas out ..It was quite red (Ie: rusty?). However ...This is the longest drive I've had in this rig since 1986, so I probably stirred a few things up in the tank. ...I'm pretty sure the filter was the problem, just going by the way the motor was surging. ...Like it was struggling for gas. ...I'm more curious as to what the symptoms of fuel pump failure are. Could it produce intermittent symptoms like this?. I should add ...It did run good for a spell, after I stopped and let it idle for a minute. ...Jon

Reply to
Johnny1000

Jon,

If you let her sit for that long without fuel-stabilizer in it and the gas went bad (which it probably did), you'll have loads of varnish/gum deposits in your carb. You need to run some high quality carb cleaner thru the gas tank, or better yet, yank the carb, clean it with spray-carb cleaner, and blow out the fuel circuit with compressed air.

Doc

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Reply to
"Doc"

Hi Doc. ...I believe most of what you say was done. ...It's not like it was sitting, not being run, but you could smell that the gas was going bad, prior to the major valve work done. ...One can't simply run through tank after tank when the vehicle is only run for a few hours a year. -- Like many a motorhome is operated ;-( . ...I'm sure at the time they worked on it, they didn't change the gas filter. ...I'm also sure the tank is a lot cleaner now since I flushed it out.... Plus I've also re-filled it twice. ...The truck actually was running great, up until my return trip today. ...Jon

Reply to
Johnny1000

'Twas the fuel filter. ...The truck now runs great. ...Jon

Reply to
Johnny1000

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