Ok here is the deal. This car was having trouble bogging out/losing power when hitting the gas to the point of stalling completely after driving just a few meters. If I let it sit off a few mins it would start again. I pulled the carb and replaced the gaskets and float, cleaned it out and changed the fuel filter. That fixed it. It ran pretty good for over 500 miles.

I should add this is a pretty much stock replacement 350 eng with a quadrajet carb. It’s in an 84 z28 HO that came originally with a 305.

Then I was heading up a steep hill and it started losing power again just like before. It died completely and when I checked the carb no fuel was going into it. I was stuck without tools so I tapped a bit around the fuel filter and the fuel pump hoping to break lose something to get gas flowing again. Got in and it started.. Made it all the way home (35miles) and seems to be running ok again. I put another 70 miles on it today without problems. I know though the issue is not fixed and will bite me again.

The strange thing (I think) about this car is it seems to have a electric fuel pump in the tank (I can hear it when I turn the key on) AND a mechanical one on the side of the engine.

My question to the forum is what would this most likely be caused by? Fuel pump going out? Crap in the tank getting into the system? Bad karma?

My internet connection went down just as I was going to post this so maybe it IS bad karma.

 

Yes, you should have an electric in-tank fuel pump if it is a real L69. And, mostly likely it's gone bad - they often do.

Drop the tank, replace it with a quality part, run it for another 25 years.

 

Thanks for the reply your posts have helped me much since I have been around here. Another question is it normal to have and use both an electric and mechanical fuel pump? Also is it possible to mount a new electric one outside the tank and leave the old one in there?

 

The '84-'86 (basically '84-'85) L69 cars and '87 LG4's had the in-tank electric and engine-mounted mechanical fuel pumps. I've also heard there was a dealer-installed kit for vapor lock that included the in-tank electric. And, the "HO 350 Camaro Conversion Kit" the factory offered for awhile to install an emissions-legal ZZ4 crate engine had the in-tank electric pump (not sure if it retained the mechanical pump - it also included a non-return regulator, so I'm guessing it did retain the mechanical).

You can't effectively put an in-line external electric in because the dead in-tank electric will be too much of a restriction. One way or another, the tank pick-up is coming out.