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Round n round I go, where I stop, I dont even know

cabledawg

cabledawg

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I think someone got my trucks. The 88 Burb stalled out a mile from the house and was towed back. Cranks but wont fire. The 90 died this morning right after I got to work. Same MO, cranks but wont start. I had driven the 90 yesterday, but it still had 15-20 gallons of gas, the 88 was only about 5-8. Both wear running fine before Halloween night, so I'm suspecting my trucks were f***ed with. How do you check to see if something was put in the tank? I cant see any residue around the fill neck, but if a funnel or turkey baster was used, there wouldnt be anything visible anyways. I have comfirmed the 90 will start/run on starter fluid.

Once I get the 90 home, I'm going to pull the fuel lines and see if gas is even getting to the TBI. Otherwise I'll have to tear down the TBI, but I dont suspect thats the case:(
 
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It'll clog up the pump sock filter and the line filter. IF it manages to get to the engine, it'll foul the injectors and can cause scoring in the cylinders, but the filters usaully get everything before that point.
 
Remove the fuel filter and dump it into a CLEAR plastic soda bottle. Look for contaminates.

Sugar will look like sand in the bottle. Sugar will clog up filters, score the inside of the pump (reducing pressure) and foul injectors and pressure regulators.

Water will separate from the fuel after it sits for a while. Water will cause it to not run or sputter or die out and come back, but no physical damage.

If you find sugar, replace pump and filter and flush out the tank and lines. Dissassemble and flush the TBI completely. You may need to replace the injectors if they can't be cleaned.

If you find water, you should be good with just flushing out the tank and the lines and replacing the fuel filter.
 
that sucks man sorry to hear about it . hope you can get it fixed. Im no expert but let me know if you need a hand. BTW this happen in base housing or do you live here in town ?
 
Just a quick repeat for everyone here. The Locking gas caps for these rigs are under $20, and would deter this type of vandalism.

I purchased one for my blazer in highschool and now run it on my burb. Totatlly worth not having to worry about ppl Fing with my tank, or trying to steal 40gal of gas. Yes, there are other ways to steal the gas.....but this prevents one method.
 
Yes Base Housing, LE report filed already.

I used to have locking gas caps, but living up north in the dirt and snow, I was tired of not being able to get it open to gas up so I quit using them. I'll be sure to pick up a few at AZ today when I go get the rest of the stuff I need.

Thanks for the info on the bottle thing. I'll see if the Mrs has some laying around. The cops will be pleased to see proof if I can get it.
 
cabledawg said:
I used to have locking gas caps, but living up north in the dirt and snow, I was tired of not being able to get it open to gas up so I quit using them. I'll be sure to pick up a few at AZ today when I go get the rest of the stuff I need.
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Yah, that makes sense. Maybe squirt some WD40 in the key holes ever oil change or something.
 
Do they sell locking caps for the huge filler holes on the cucv's? I bought a truck that had sugar in the tank. Ran that truck for about 15 hours with no problems. Bought it for parts. Found the sugar when I cut it up. Didn't notice anything weird about the way it ran
 
Mythbusters busted that theory of sugar in the tank thing.
 
I thought I saw that on Myth Buster's also. If it does turn out to be water, drain the tank, refill with good gas and a shot glass of Isopropal alchohol,or a bottle of "Heet". Then bleed the fuel system a bit, put it back together and run it. Should clear it up .
 
Sometimes i swear Base Houseing kids are the devils spawn. Most all of them are pathetic wimps but they run around in groups acting hard as nails. Never do anything confrontational, but Egging homes, TPing homes, ****ing with vehicles are favorites of these retards. Oh and they "mean mug" the **** out of you when you drive by. Marine, Army, Navy, Airforce....All housing kids mean mug like you called thier mom a whore.


Sorry to hear about your bad luck.
 
x2 on the locking caps. We run them on all our commercial trucks back home in AK. The cheap ones will get gummed up pretty bad (tons of grime from the snow + sanding/salting roads). Not sure why, but the higher quality ones (had good luck with NAPA ones) seem to have tougher internals or something. They hold up a lot better than the cheap ones at WalMart. Like someone said, penetrating oil, lithium grease, or graphite (my preference) will go a long ways.

I'd pull the filter (cheap, and they never get replaced enough anyways). That will tell all. If it's just water, draining and some Heet or Seafoam should take care of things fine (rolled rigs through rivers and got them going again with alcohol). If it was sugar, you might be able to dump a can of seafoam into the top end. Even if you can't get the engine running, letting it soak in the injectors is likely to break things up. I've never dealt with sugar before, I've always ran locking caps due to paranoia of going to jail for ending the life of the punk I catch doing it.
 
abig84 said:
Do they sell locking caps for the huge filler holes on the cucv's? I bought a truck that had sugar in the tank. Ran that truck for about 15 hours with no problems. Bought it for parts. Found the sugar when I cut it up. Didn't notice anything weird about the way it ran
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If they don't, I don't see why you couldn't switch the cap over to a more common style. All the GMs I've ever owned use the same 3 screws to hold the cap receiver to the body. Just grab the parts off a rig in a junkyard. They were all interchangeable for me between 2 S-10s, 2 '96 pickups, my '76 K5, and I don't know how many various year pickups we had at work for the last 22 years. Hell, even our '78 GMC hi-lift is interchangeable. Some gas tanks use the cap for a pressure release so keep that in mind.

It's not that I found all this terribly interesting, we've just always run the same caps so that we have a master key for the whole fleet.
 
Well I did manage to get the 88 running after replacing the starter I burned up yesterday. Since it stalled in an intersection, I used the starter to get it up the entrance ramp of a nearby parking lot. Mustuv been too much for it. But the truck starts and kinda runs. The knock sensor wire is fried and the sensor itself is burnt.

When I first start it up, it lopes at about 300rpms for a few seconds then scoots right up to 1100rpms. If I creep the throttle up it starts skipping at about 2k, runs good till 3k, then starts stumbling again. If I back off too quick it backfires like a shotgun. So is this from the knock sensor or after effects from yesterdays adventure?

I still cant get the 90 to fire. It cranks, but now the batt is going dead, so once I get it home and the batt charged I'll start tearing into it. I'm gonna drive the 88 around tomorrow so if something is in the tank, it'll stir it up again and we'll see if it clogs the system or if everythin was just a fluke. Still doesnt explain the 90 though.

Good advice on the lithium grease. I didnt know that stuff existed back in the day. See, this is why I come here, you guys have all the answers;)
 
thatK30guy said:
Mythbusters busted that theory of sugar in the tank thing.
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No, it can still mess stuff up, but the old theory was that it would dissolve in the gas, then carmelize in the cylinders because of the engine heat. This would foul the carb or injectors and foul the plugs. Once the engine stopped and cooled, the remaining sugar would crystalize and solidify inthe cylinder, seizing the engine. In reality, it's the same as sand. The sugar doesnt dissolve in gas (has something to do with the molecular makeup of the gas and the sugar) and therefore stays solid. This just clogs the filters and if it manages to reach the engine can foul the injectors. If it manages to get enough inthe cylinder, I've read it will cause scoring, but certainly not seizing.
 
cabledawg said:
The sugar doesnt dissolve in gas (has something to do with the molecular makeup of the gas and the sugar) and therefore stays solid.
Click to expand...

Glucose is hydrophillic and petroleum is hydrophobic (in a nutshell). Same reason why water won't clean grease off your hands.

There ya go :)
 
So the NAPA gas caps are better? Whatever one I bought from the parts store pops apart with a little force around the outer rim and is completely worthless.
 
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