noob with a mixture problem

[mattimus]

Hi everyone!
I have a '83? 1.6 NA out of a rabbit? I bought the engine and put it in my geo tracker.

My problem is this: the motor starts fine, but will NOT accelerate past idle. I've checked all the lines, and to the best of my knowledge there are no air pockets. The exhaust is blue/white and it sounds like its running rich (if that is even possible) The motor promptly shuts down when I pull the cold start cable. The part that makes this so tricky is it was running fine the day before - I could bump the throttle and the response was almost instant. Wouldn't even hang on revs either! Come out the next morning and now this. I literally changed nothing between yesterday and today. So why is it misbehaving???
A couple of other clues -
1. Yes, there is fresh diesel in the tank. Was a gas tank, but I drained it pretty well prior to putting diesel in.
2. I replaced the timing belt I am fairly confident the timing is on - I locked the IP, crank and cam before the old belt came off. I may have put the new belt on too tight? Maybe this retarded the timing a bit?
3. the IP NEVER has spit out any 'excess fuel' out of the 'OUT' port on the IP. That seems strange to me.
4. If I get a vacuum pump and pull fuel through the pump from the outlet side, it runs kind of OK for a half min or so.
5. the fuel filter has NOT been replaced. Its old, but diesel seems to be getting though it easily enough...

The only thing I can come up with is 1) the IP inhaled something or 2) the over-tight belt rotated the IP slightly.

This is driving me mad and my beautiful Geo is almost done! Help!

[bscutt]

Well I would have to step back and check several things.
1) you could have a clog in the fuel line - clear line between the filter and pump would show bubbles if you had a significant restriction.
2) check and recheck the timing - make sure nothing caused the belt to jump. pull the valve cover, check to make sure valve timing with respect to TDC on the crank is correct
3) if valve and crank timing is spot on, check to see if the notch on the injection pump is on the mark when the engine is at TDC
4) Check for a restriction in the return line back to the tank. If you have a restriction there it will affect the pump's ability to draw fuel
5) change that fuel filter
6) if is starts after all that but still has the problem you may have a problem in the pump. Since this was a gasser fuel tank, I assume you made sure the fuel pickup in the tank has noin line fuel pump in it and there are no leaks or restrictions in the lines.

Problems like this can be frustrating, just keep after it. Hopefully you won't need to get another pump. I'm sure several others will chime in on this.

[mattimus]

Hi and thanks!
A couple Updates:
1. I have reverted to gravity feeding the IP out of a overhead tank, used clear line. I do not feel that fuel supply is the issue.
2. I might have a difficult time with the timing - I had to switch out the flywheel for a different one that would fit the geo tranny. Is there some other way to find crank position? If I really had to I COULD drop the oil pan and look to see where the journals are...
3. I have also done away with the return line to the tank. The pump isn't spitting any excess fuel out the outlet, but I have a clear line and a bucket just in case
4. I need to find a filter!
5. Yes, the fuel pump was removed from the tank when the tank was drained of gas :/

Also, one more thing I noticed while tinkering - #1 injector is slowly bubling up fuel by its base. See picture. If I listen very carefully after shutting the motor off, I hear a very quiet hiss. I appears to be coming from that injector...

Never mind about the picture. Its 'invalid'.

Thanks!

[the man 53]

take the out bolt off and see if it is plugged.

[bscutt]

under normal circumstances you will have fuel coming out of the "out" bolt so that's suspect. Also you can approximate TDC by a couple of ways and somewhere on this forum someone posted that there is a relationship between a dimple on the crank pulley and TDC-maybe something like 10 oclock position is TDC? I'm just guessing here so you should probably try to search the forum for more info. I don't have the details on that. You could pull #1 injector and put a rod down through the pre-chamber insert hole in the head and crank the engine slowly by hand to find #1 TDC but that could be interesting to do.

[82vdub]

4th post in this thread is where I describe how to identify TDC externally to the engine.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11019

basically, two of the bolt holes will align straight up with the cylinder bank, and the dimple will be at about the 7.5 position on a clock. You can get very close to TDC by lining up the holes and then go check the flywheel mark.

As for your problem, if you bottle fed it and it's got the same problem, my other thought is that the timing is too far retarded. White/blue smoke is from poor combustion, which could be retarded timing.

BTW, change that fuel filter before you suck unknown crap into your huge conversion project and make things much more complex. A $20 filter is cheap when you think about it.