Oh my gosh I just put a new fuelpump on and after running for a while I found 2 and a half gallons of fuel in the crankcase. Now what to do? I think I have a little rear main leak now it was dripping gas.

 

Your car is a moving bomb. is the fuelpump located on the block or in the tank? Imnot familiar with fuel pumps on the block but are you sure it was installed corectly and no gas is leaking in through it?

 

pumpismounted on the block. 1st clue was when I was cranking it over gas was coming out of a hole in front of the pump. It was installed correctly. It was a defective pump. Scary thing it actually ran that way until it stalled. I drained the crank case and will try putting some fresh oil run it for a bit and change the oil again. I just hope the main seal isnt gone on it. It was leaking a little gas. Hopefully oil will be ok. If not I will be dropping the pan.

 

Never heard of that one before.
If you can pinpoint the cause of failure on the pump, please post a pic.

I'd be asking whoever sold you that bad pump for a little more than just a replacement pump.
Provided the pump was the actual problem, of course- which it sounds like it was.

I guess in a situation like this, you can always be glad things didn't get worse- specifically a fire. I had a friend lose a nice 66 Chevelle on the freeway. Simple gas leak near the carb that caught, and got out of control. No fire extinguisher, so the car was toasted.

Hope all goes well with the repair.
S-D

 

It was the pump the diapragm was torn I put a vacuum guage to the hose connectors and none of them held vacuum. When I would crank the motor over fuel would gush out of a hole in the front of the block.. that hole in front of the fuelpump push rod. I guess I am lucky it didnt explode. That would have been ugly......It was actually more like 3 gallons of fuel and yeah I was pi$$ed off. I bought a new pump to avoid this stuff and it happened anyway.

 

i would worry too much about the rear main seal, my main concern would be the bearings having had that much gas in there, the oil would have been heavily diluted, thus loosing its lubricating properties

 

what kind of pump was it and where did you get it from. i would call the company that made it tell them whats up?

 

I bought the pump at Schucks auto supply. Besides NAPA and Carquest theyare the only suppliers in this area otherthan the dealers. I believe the pump was a Master some where in Michigan. Airtex makes them.

 

That's a relatively common way for fuel pumps to fail. Nothing unusual at all, contrary to what the FI types seem to think. Apparently you got one with a torn or improperly crimpse diaphragm or some such.

It's a good lesson in why you should replace parts at the first sign of failure. Letting something defective stay around and damage other things is not "saving money", and the "no money" excuse we so often hear (not to say that you're using it or anything, just making the point) doesn't really make up for destroyed bearings from oil that isn't a lubricant any more, or a motor that catches fire, or whatever. Hopefully yours didn't go that far and it will be OK. But I've seen motors ruined that way.

 

RB I think I was lucky this time. No knock or problems. It was a new pump, just installed it and cranked it over. It actually ran for a short time when fuel started to come out of the block. Fuelpump was one thing I didnt fall short on. I bought the pump to avoid the very thing that happened. But, all mechanical things will break in time I just didnt expect it to break as soon as it did. I called airtex they deny that the pump would have failed that way. They say it should have leaked on the ground through a weep hole. I would consider this a catastrophic failure of the pump the way it was pumping fuel into the block when turning the car over. I since replaced the pump, put fresh oil and filter on and primed the hell out of the motor while turning the crank by hand, Drained the oil and refilled the crankcase and replaced the filter again. Seems to be no problems at this point. I am thanful to that.

 

E=MC²,

If you were already using 0W-0 engine oil, loaded the engine heavily, revved it to redline, and don't have a working PCV system, you might have done some damage.

If you were using a more appropriate viscosity oil, didn't load the engine excessively while the oil was thinned, and have a PCV that would have helped evacuate some of the fuel vapor, you likely only thinned the oil enough to start cleaning sludge and varnish out of all those hidden recesses. If you kept the engine RPM down, damage from the crank dipping into the oil was probably not an issue.

The fact that you're running an "older block" may mean that you are using a flat tappet cam, which may have suffered a little more wear from the episode. A roller would be a lot more tolerant. Keep an eye on oil level and condition, an ear for unusual sounds, and watch for excessive heating. The cam and rocker pivot ***** might be your first indications of oil starvation wear.

I'm guessing you didn't cause any serious harm, since, as RB says, this is the common failure mode of most diaphragm fuel pumps, and is often the only hint of their failure. I'd hate to think of how many cars I saw drive into the garage in the '70s with a crankcase full of 104 octane Sunoco 260, and drove out with a new pump and no other problems.


You forgot to drop a couple of carbon rods in there, didn't you?

 

lol thats funny Vader (carbon rods). It was at idle not being driven. It just stalled. Refilled with oil and cranked it with the distibutor disconnected till I got some oil pressure. Its all good now. No noises or oil consumptionproblems yet not even an oil leak tomy surprise.

 

Mr. Oppenheimer,

You worry too much. You probably didn't do anything more than waste a little gasoline and clean your engine.

Don't sweat it.

 

Lol, you crack me up Vader. Who is Mr. Oppenheimer anyway? Or did you mean Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen?

 

Oppenheimer was the leader of the team that produced Little Boy and Fat Man. Effigies are probably burned in Japan in his honor yearly, in Hiroshima and Nagaskai.

 

Thanks RB I did make the connection Oppenheimer/atomic bombs. I am in the Radiation field but a much less destructive one. I am a Radiology Technologist.