engine skipping occasionally

[ft laud mike]

Hello all,
Had same problem a while back, thought it was fixed. when driving the car will skip and stutter under acceleration. The first time this happened i went with the easiest (cheapest) solution and changed the feul filter. This helped, the problem went away for about 6 months. yesterday it reappeared. After the car sat for a while at a friends house on thedrive home there was no skipping.
My thought is that it is vapor lock (heating of the gas inline), but why would this suddenly appear (ive made no changes to the engine or compartment to change underhood heat). The other thought i had was failing feul pump. while the car was sitting at friends house i looked at the new feul filter which is clear. there was no fuel in it. is it normal for the fuel to drain from the line like that?
any help would be appreciated
thanks
mike
1970 454, 4 spd, edelbrock torker, holey dbl pumper, jet hot coated headers, msd6 box/coil

 

[Bob Chadwick]

I was told that because the pump sits down low the fuel will drain from the line when the car is off.

 

[JJS]

Could be just carbon buildup. Do you open it up every now and then? Get on it a little bit on the highway and see if it goes away, or, if you're driving around town, let the rpm's get up there before you shift to the next gear and see if that doesn't solve the problem. You should see a puff or two of black smoke come out of the tail pipes if it's carbon.

You've probably done this, but I just figured I'd offer my 2 cents worth! Let us know how you resolve this.

 

[ft laud mike]

hi guys,

thanks for the quick response first off,bob, between my first post and this one i checked the fuel level in the filter, its full and it hasnt run since yesterday 630 pm, so im thinking its not suppose to drain (maybe there's suppose to be a one way valve in the pump that is failing along with the rest of the pump).
jjs, yesterday when the problem occured, i was "testing" one of those new gto's, nice car btw, but it started skipping, so i sut down and went on to my friends house, so im thinking its not carbon. my biggest fear is its electrical (dont know much about that stuff)
mike

 

[Bob Chadwick]

Mike,

I'm having a similiar problem, though mine is at steady freeway speeds. Take a look through this encyclopedia and and see if there is something there that can help you.

The pump pro0bably does have some type of action that prevents drainage in the short term but I suspect that it gets around it sitting for six months.

I've gotten some other information that suggests that WOT problems may bt secondary rod related, while cruising problems are usually primary related. If you want more information on this let me know and I can forward some PM's I have.

Bob

 

[wishuwerehere82]

It could be the fuel pump if it holds gas in the filter one day and doesn't the next or several days later. It could be the check valve is sticking open, which would cause a loss of pressure intermittently. Bob, have you checked yours for that missing problem that you are wrestling with?