In summary. G35 auto stage 3 SC installed. The car put down 275 and AF was 13.2:1 at the very top. Lean, so I drove down to Stillen to have them troubleshoot.

They found the car boosting 6psi instead of 7psi and swapped pulleys. Also, the fuel pressure was dropping by 6psi in the upper RPMS. They stated they checked everything on their kit and it was fine. The black box was tuned to give it more fuel but it was still lean.

Last step was to replace the fuel pump with one of their test ones from a 350z. The fuel pressure drop was resolved and the car hit 290 with 12.6:1 AF ratios.

They did say that they found metal shavings in the fuel tank ?!?!?!?! How this got in there I have no idea. Its all stock otherwise with 32k. Now would this get into the injectors? would the fuel filter contain all the shavings?

I am now told that they can not work on it further and I need to decide whether I want the bad stock pump put in there or a new factory one. Lame options. They will not install a walbro pump.

Frustrating to say the least. Would I need to pull all the injectors, fuel tank, and flush the entire system?

Any help is appreciated.

 

There is a filter on the fuel pickup . I wouldnt think any metal would be picked up and sucked thru that filter . As far as Stillen goes....good luck...they got a bad reputation when it comes to customer service . With the stage 3 kit...you should be well over 300whp . There is a web site dedicated to Stillens bad customer service

 

www.stillensucks.com

 

Yep. I was thinking Stillen would come through for me but I was wrong.


When they pulled their 7th injector I was told that there were a few tiny pieces of material present. His assumption was that if it reached the 7th injector, it probably has contaminated the other 6 as well.

 

You git it Mia....couldnt remember it

 

I suggest you remedy your stillen problems the way I did. I traded in on a C6.

 

It sounds like you should replace the fuel pump and remove and clean the injectors.
There is no additional fuel filter in the system to catch these shavings if they came from the pump and, if there was a pressure drop from the pump that was fixed when it was replaced, it is possible.

 

I would concure zparts....

 

That is what I will probably end up doing.

Do you know if there is anyway to clean the gas tank without having to remove it from the car?

 

You might be able to fill the tank with a bit of gas (1/4-1/2) and bounce up and down on the bumper. This might allow the gas to slosh around and coat the inside of the tank and push all the metal to the bottom of the tank. If there is a drain plug located in the bottom you could then remove it and drain out the gas and the metal shavings. I would then run some more gas through the tank and drain it yet again. If there is no drain plug you could short the pump out (make it work with having to turn the car on) and disconnect the "out" fuel line that goes to the front of the car and have it pump the dirty gas out into a pan or bucket.

To clean the lines you may want to disconnect the fuel line where it enters the fuel rail and have the fuel pump pump gas through it until the fuel looks clean and metal free. You're obviously going to need a new pump and screen so pumping the contaminated gas through the pump isn't going to hurt it any more.

You'll have to remove each injector and have them professionally cleaned and flow tested. RC Engineering does this. They also provide you a chart of the amount of flow through the injector before and after they clean them. This will be cheaper than replacing each injector and RC should be able to tell you if they are worth cleaning rather than repairing. Do the 7th Stillen injector as well.

You'll have to run some sort of gas or solvent through through fuel rails as well to clean that out. I'd remove it form the engine to do this.

You'd be surprised about what can and will get through those intank screens. I'm surprised that the car didn't come from the factory with a proper fuel filter. Maybe you should retrofit one in the line somewhere.

I'd assume the metal go into your tank from a dirty gas pump. There's no way a SC will put metal shavings in the fuel system since the SC is independant form the fuel system. Your fuel pump could be shredding itself form the inside out and depositing metal shavings when it turns on.

I had fuel issues with my old VW bug way back in the day. A rusty gas tank was the culprit and it was a pain to clean everything out. I have to disassemble the carb, clean out the jets and bowl, have the tank sandblasted on the inside and latex coated to prevent new rust from appearing, and then run a few gallons of gas (via cranking over the engine with the plug wires connected and letting the fuel pump suck out the remaining rust in the lines) through the lines to clean everything up. The last thing was replacing the fuel pump. It took lots of time and work to do it, but it's something that had to be done.

Why didn't stillen want to put a walbro in? Was it because of how the car was tuned or did it void the warranty or....?

Why didn't you just have them toss a stocky pump back in? Just curious and trying to help! Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

sean