Out of fuel -> Now wont start

[WindeX]

Hi all,

Last night I ran my car out of fuel in a quite unfortunate place, luckly it was close to my home. However upon returning to my car this morning and putting approximatly 20 liters into the car I still cant start it.
My car is a TA23 with a 3SGE in it. It has a exturnal surge tank, I can hear the fuel pump running but it is the pump between the surge and the motor, I am unsure if there is another low pressure pump that should be filling the surge tank. Anyone had any issues with aftermarket surge tanks and running out of fuel?

UPDATE BELOW

[barned01]

i remember that the way to fill the surge tank was to disconnect the pump after the surge tank...
this filled the tank up so the pump after the surge tank had something to pull.
And I also have a vuage recollection that the fuel going through the pumps is what keeps them lubricated so to run the gravity fed pump dry may have caused some damage (hopefully not)

[rob]

yeah running the high pressure pump dry can be a problem

[Starfire]

as long as you didnt leave it with the ignition on for too long it shouldnt be a problem.

There should be 2 pumps in a surge tank setup - 1 to lift fuel from the tank to the surge tank and 1 to provide pressure to the engine.

It is possible that by running the car dry you picked up some crap from the bottom of the fuel tank which is causing a blockage.

[myne]

If you could pressurise the fuel tank somehow that might work.
Block the breather, leave it in the sun for the day, and then try?

[rob]

as barned01 mentioned prime the fuel system before u give it another try

[Ghetto-AW11]

Is the surge tank filling up? test it by giving it a tap. My gte sprinter once died with low petrol, not empty but low when going over a slight bump in the road. The lift pump still made noise, but it was rooted.

[WindeX]

Yeah I have been trying to crank it a fair bit, I can still hear my fuel pump(its a bloody noisy sucker) thats the high pressure one, I will attempt to fill the surge tank tomorrow and see if that helps the POS start. Tonight its latest trick was to just cut all power, fucking electrical gremlins.

Hope I havent killed the fuel pump, its only done 1000 kms!

[rob]

if youve been trying to crank it a fair bit which runs the pump dry your not helping it

[WindeX]

Today I did a few things, I disconnected the fuel return line and ran the fuel pump, and sure enough fuel came pissing out of it, so the pump is still fine, but she wont start! I am starting to wonder if I even ran out of fuel. I can crank it and some times it almost catches, but never a full fire up. Anybody got any ideas what it could be? Could I have sucked in some crap from running her low in the tank and the injectors got clogged? I have two filters, one between the lifter pump and the tank and one between the high pressure pump and the fuel rail.

I took the spark plugs out and checked them, they were a little black but still reasonable in the all other senses. I dont have a immobilser, but the wolf does have a security feature which is disabled when I start it.

Any ideas?

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

how are your spark plugs looking? is the coil firing? err.. afm? got a big air leak between it and the TB??

[Enchanter]

Id say its your efi fuel filter, when was the last time it was changed?

I had exactly the same problem with the ex wifes pulsar, fuel came out of the fuel lines but it wasnt up to the pressure needed for the injectors. I changed the filter and hey presto it worked.

[crowncustom]

Another way of checking would be remove the main fuel pump or get another electric pump,disconnect your main fuel line feeding your injectors and put the pump inline,connecting one end to your fuel rail and connect a piece of hose long enuff to the inlet end and dangle it into a tin of fuel and see if the car will start and keep goin.If it does,then work your way back down to your tank.Or just disconnect your surge tank and run your high pressure pump inline from main tank to your injectors.Hope this may help.
Cheers Brett.

[crowncustom]

Also check to see if u have any spark at all at your spark plugs?Do these engines run a module in the dizzy?or ignitor,coil pack etc.My ex wifes Laser basically did the same,it cut out but kept goin enuff to get home,then she went to go out later on and nothin.No spark.put in new coil,had spark from coil to dizzy but not from dizzy to plugs.Then I realised it ran a module in the dizzy for the electronics,replaced this and away it went no probs at all.This could be the problem as well.
Cheers Brett.

[EldarO]

/Eldars places bet on fuel filter clogged with shit floating around in tank.

Mates silvia WOULD NOT START, AT ALL.

we changed the fuel filter and she started first crank.

we flipped the old filter around, and shit came out that had the consistancy of oil, nasty.

change it, get back to us

Eldar.O.