I was driving the TA home from work a few days ago and it was a warm day - high 80s. The air conditioning was on the whole drive of 40 miles. There were no problems at all until around 5 miles later in stop and go street driving. The TA stumbled at a red light and was clearly struggling to stay running. I was able to make it to a parking lot where I noticed my fuel pressure was under 10 psi! When I turned it off and back on after a short time to see what pressure was at the priming pulse, it was only mid 20s. I left it there overnight. Yesterday I had it towed home and before I drove it up on the flatbed, I checked the pressure and it looked normal at around 60 psi! I had suspected fuel filter and possibly fuel pump - but now I'm wondering if there was a vapor lock issue before. The racetronix fuel pump probably only has 20k on it but the fuel filter hasn't been changed in a while.

Vapor lock? I truly believe that it was heat related. The coolant temps were normal at around 195.

 

More likely just a sign the pump is failing.

​​​​​​Vapor lock is a thing of the past ever since fuel pressure was increased for EFI systems. The fuel is not going to boil at 58 PSI line pressure.

 

Right ... OK ... that's kind of what I thought.

 

^ This.

However, if pressure got low enough (due to a failing pump) I suppose vapor lock would be possible in the right scenario, but then the primary issue is still the fact that fuel pressure is dropping off so low in the first place.

I agree that the pump is likely failing and the excessive heat/long run duration just exposed its weakness.

 

I'm going to revisit this. I changed the fuel filter but still have no confidence in driving the TA. I've been seen a fuel filter that would be the cause of what I experienced and then be ok. In other words, I had 10psi of fuel pressure when I broke and was normal a week later doing nothing to it. There's supposed to be a racetronix pump in there. I reckon I'll see if one is there before buying one. I wouldn't be surprised if my stocker that I replaced a few hundred thousand miles ago is in there.

 

Unless you have a carburator vapor lock is very unlikely.

 

I yanked the fuel pump this morning and it has a racetronix RXP252TE pump. It has less than 30k on it. Could it be that the fuel pressure regulator caused the low pressure issue?
I don't have any confidence in driving the car. I'd hate to throw another Delphi in there when there was nothing wrong with the pump.

 

I went ahead and ordered a Carter fuel pump and housing. I also ordered one of these: Quantum fuel systems seem to have some good reviews.


1 x QFS In-Tank OEM Replacement Fuel Pump for Chevrolet Camaro Z28 1999-2002, Replaces Racetronix FPA-016, Racetronix FPA-001A

 

Slapped the Carter in there and I'm gonna finally put the TA on the road. I love my trap door. Makes a fuel pump change a 15 minute job. I'm going to take my other pump on the road as a spare ... just in case. I'd probably one of the few that have done a fuel pump replacement on the side of the road (in tank).