The story thus far; Put the VK head and injection on a 186 (recond. head), got a carter hi flow lift pump for my 2 ltr surge tank, got a new hight pressure fuel pump to get the fuel to the rail from said surge tank. Have all new lines 3/8 in to fuel rail and from tank to surge and useing orginal fuel line as the return to the tank. My issue is that I can drive for a few ks' (about 5 ) and it is fine then it starts to starve of fuel. If I go to the bleed valve on the fron of the rail and depress it air come out first then fuel. Hey presto we are on the road again. Now I have double checked all clamps and my breather line to the tank from the surge but now I am unsure where to go from here. The carter I have is a black which is rated well with in specks as is the high pressure pump.
Also checked the hose from the tank for blockage but nothing but fuel came out.. There is heaps of pressure there as tested by my auto electrician mate with a gauge thingie used for testing fuel injection pressure.
I have also taken the restrictor off the input side of the fuel rail and it runs better. I have disconnected the return reg and it runs in spurts depending on how much excelration you give it.
Any other ideas from injected straight 6 drivers cause I have nothin', and it makes it hard to enjoy a cruse.
HELP PLEASE.
P.S. does anyone know where I could take it to get some help???
ok i don't quite understand how you have the system all connected up but this is my recommedation.....
you want to have the lift pump feeding into the surge tank, anywhere on the side fittings is fine, then from there you want to have the efi pump on the bottom larger fitting and that should then feed into the rear end of the vk fuel rail .... from there you need to have the regulator on the end and it needs to have its vacuum hose connected to the manifold, then the return line from the regulator should go back to the surge tank in one of the side fittings..... then from there you have the top fitting of the surge tank going back into the main fuel tank .... this hose needs to be at the top of the surge tank so if there are any air bubbles it can pump them back to the main tank .....
this setup will always ensure the surge tank is full to the brim with fuel and you shouldn't have any 'surging' issues
if you don't have a return line to the tank you will need to add that .... in an old holden the easiest way i have found to do it is to get a 5/16 brass barb fitting then get a centre punch and bang a hole in the filler neck and keep hammering the punch in till its made the hole just big enough to get the brass fitting in there then you need to solder it in .... problem is you need a pretty grunty soldering iron to do it.
sounds like maybe the surge tank is running low?
maybe it sucks a gut full of air then fuel.. is the pump to the surge tank pumpining enough fuel to keep it full all the time?
i never run a surge tank to mine i dont think theres realy any need to unless your gunna be throwing the car around
"THE JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH A BROKEN FAN BELT AND A FLAT TYRE"
***just cruise***
yeah my torana doesn't have a surge tank either and i only have problems when the tank gets low ... but if the surge tank is setup as i suggest above it should only ever get low if the main tank is empty.....
all excess fuel from the engine goes back to the surge tank and that helps keep it fuller .... but a small pump should have the capacity to keep the surge tank full all the time even with some air sucking around corners etc....
the first ever EFI i did was on an EK Wagon and back then i thought i would cheat the system, put a T-piece in between the tank and the EFI pump (no surge tank) and so the excess from the engine would go back into the efi pump and hense it should work fine .... and it did till summer when it would get hot, make air bubbles in the fuel rail, re-circulate these through the system and eventually there would be more air bubbles than fuel and it wouldn't go no more!! thats when i ran the return back to the tank and i haven't had a problem since!
its especially an issue with straight sixes because the fuel rail pretty much runs along the top of the exhaust manifold and hense cops alot of heat!!
Thanks for the reply Sammie. I have spoken to another mechanic and he said to run the return line to the surge as you said, I have it going back to the fuel tank filler. I have 2 connections like yours to the main tank filler but these are threaded and tapped in. I have one return from the top of the surge to the filler and the next one down also going back to the filler. One was a breather and the other is the surge return. The next on the surg is the line from the lift pump and the last goes to the hp pump which feeds the rail. I didn't run the return to the surge as I belived the fuel would be too warm and thinking if it went back to the main tank it would have time to cool down. When I get time I will run the rail return to one of the connectors in the surge and see how I go. Keep you posted and thanks again.
Dave
well if thats the case then it sounds like your lift pump is not quite up to it .... but yeah return from rail to surge tank should help it ....
you wouldn't happen to know the psi of the lift pump ???
also if the lift pump is too high or too far from the main tank it might struggle to get fuel up .... if so you'll need to move it to under the car somewhere thats level with or below the tank.
i have a 4psi holley pump which is feeding my surge tank in the gemini and the fuel return from the surge tank to the main tank is literally a high pressure hose .... its not dribbling by any means....
so as you can see here, bottom of the pic is the lift pump feeding into the surge tank, then the return from the surge is on the top of the tank feeding into the main tank.
then the efi pump has the lowest outlet to get constant fuel and then its grey line runs up to the engine with the upper side fitting being the return line from the engine to the surge tank.
Don't know the PSI but it is a carter black which is ment to be for this application. The lift pump is near level with the top of the tank so I am wondering if that could be the problem. It doesn't flow a heap of fuel but it is no trickle by any means. Will mess around with it tomorrow and do some runs tomorrow night and see where I am at. Will get back to you then. Thanks Sammy.
Well here is the update.....Swaped the rail return line to the top of the surge tank, moved breathers around and checked voltages, carter running at +13vdc and the bosh efi is running at +12vdc.
Just got back from my test run +40ks' and not a miss, even got to race a zimmer off the lights And won, just .
So I think it is all okie dokie thanks to the EFI professional Sammy.
Now for a decent run and I will update ya all'.
Cheers, Dave
O.K now i don't know what you are talking about. I know it smells rich and have no idea on how to tune it up. Is it hard to do and how much damage can I do if I get it wrong? Have set the timming as close to 6 deg as possible and need to adjust idel but short of that I have nothing
I can see a trip up the coast on the cards, have to go and visit some friends on the central coast anyway so I might kill 2 birds with one stone, and it would be a good run anyway to test it out..
well i dunno if i would go for 6 degrees ... you can probably get more out of it with a bit more advance ... generally my rule of thumb is advance it till it pings then retard it a few degrees .....
as far as tuning the efi goes i usually use #1 spark plug colour ... if its black shes too rich, if its lean it will be more of a white/grey colour .... if its spot on it will usually be a nice tan colour..... (thats about as good as you can get it without an oxygen sensor or a dyno tune)
as far as adjusting it goes, you simply have to move the wheel under the air flow meter lid ......
if you wish to tackle it i am happy to explain in more detail how to do it ?
And won, just 
.