I did an engine swap about a year or so ago, and when I put the fuel rail fromthe original engine on the new engine, (both engines are 89 305's) it would make a full revolution and then shut off. Eager to get the car on the road, I took a different fuel rail from a similar 305 TPI and it worked just fine.

I've been driving the car with this fuel rail ever since up until yesterday, when I decided I would try and get the engine to run with the original fuel rail again because of the suspision that I may have leaky injectors.

I did the entire swap yesterday and tried to start the engine. It did the same thing that it did before (full rev and quit), as I expected it would. I cranked up the idle screw a little bit and then it started up just fine. The problem, however, is that the car seems to lack power on a significant scale. It doesn't ever seem to want to go to WOT, and the exhaust smells like there is a bad mixture going on somewhere. My first guess is that one of the injectors is bad, but I'm not going to resort to that conclusion just yet. I feel as though there is something very basic that I am missing here, as this fuel rail is the ORIGINAL fuel rail for this vehicle, and this type of an engine.

The only notable difference that I can see in the two fuel rails is this:

The original is greyish with grey and green injectors -I am told this is the stock fuel rail.

The second fuel rail (the one I've been running with for the past year or so, and the only one so far that makes the car run decently) is a little different. It's from an 88 vehicle, and has a cold start injector. Also, the injectors are black and look to be sized differently. I assume all injectors from both fuel rails are 19 lb injectors, however. (Or whatever injector size is needed for a 305. Either way, I believe them to be the same.)

Any ideas? Could the fuel pressure regulator be to blame for this?

 

sounds like the fule pressure regulator. Get an aftermarket adjustable one there not to expensive, or bad/cloged injectors

 

Upon taking the fuel rail off, I noticed that one of the bolts that holds the FPR in place was out. (one of the 4 larger ones) Could that have made the difference?