On Tue, 20 May 2003, R. Ashford Little II wrote:
> The AMA, American Moron's Assoc., has found that changing your fuel
> filter makes your car run better. Apparently, funk & gunk in the
> aforementioned filter make the can run "not good." So, for those
> occasionally challenged folks out there - like me, who might even have
> the clear fuel filters that "look" clean, you may want to change your
> fuel filter as part of the springtime ritual.
>
> Car run good now.
>
> R. Ashford Little II
> www.geocities.com/ralittle2
This reminds me of a situation I had a few years back. I replaced the
mechanical fuel pump in the street car with a small Facet "solid state"
unit. The Facet unit has 1/8 NPT inlet/outlet ports, so I used a 1/4
nipple to 1/8 NPT in-line fuel filter. It worked great for about 4 years.
I had a couple of guys drive my car at an autocross toward the end of the
year. They were all Spitfire drivers, so the idea of driving a TR6 was
appealing even if just out of curiosity. They all had a blast and were
quite happy driving a car with so much grunt (compared to a Spitfire).
A few days later, I drove the car to a friend's house about 40 miles away.
The car was way down on power. SO, when I got home I started doing all the
usual stuff, checking the timing, dwell angle, looking at the spark.
Everything seemed in order.
Then I decided to check the fuel flow. I pulled the line from the front
carb and turned on the fuel pump. It was trickling out. Hmmmm. I pulled
the stock filter out and checked the flow there. Hmmmmm. So I decided to
check the flow at the electric fuel pump. Dribble... I pulled the line off
the inlet to the fuel pump - lots of flow (this was gravity at this
point). Aha! I pulled the inline filter and replaced it (it's a $1 or $2
part). Bingo - plenty of fuel to the carbs.
Just for the heck of it, I tapped the filter on the work bench to see what
might come out. I literally got about a tablespoon of flakey rust bits out
of that sucker. Considering how small the filter is, I was quite amazed
that the car ran at all. Amazing.
I took the car out for a test ride. The power difference was enough that I
nearly spun the car out on an entrance ramp to a highway. Yee-ha!
I'd love to get those guys that drove the car back to try it again. I'll
bet thier autocross times would drop significantly. Or they'll find out
that this car has taillights that are faster than the headlights.
Now back to the usual stuff.
rml
AMA Lifetime Member :-)
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