Unhappy homecomings

My last two drives in the GT40 have ended in this fashion. It seems I will now be testing the effectiveness of the Roush dealership and customer service system. I certainly hope the situation can be resolved before the Historics at Road America. This is my local Roush tech loading her up in my driveway for the trip to the hospital.
 

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I wouldn't hold my breath. Be prepared to handle the cost yourself. Engine builder blames the installer. Installer blames the mfr, and on and on. I realized a long time ago that I was pretty much on my own with this type of vehicle. Really, it doesn't make that much difference to me. I love drivng the car anyway.

Mike
 

Kirby Schrader

They're mostly silver
Lifetime Supporter
Daryl,

Care to enlighten us on what happened both times?

Was it something to do with the engine both times?

Curious minds need to know!
:)

Kirby


My last two drives in the GT40 have ended in this fashion. It seems I will now be testing the effectiveness of the Roush dealership and customer service system. I certainly hope the situation can be resolved before the Historics at Road America. This is my local Roush tech loading her up in my driveway for the trip to the hospital.
 

Ian Clark

Supporter
I'd be shopping for a new longblock today. Something that will accept the intake, exhaust and ignition on the Aoush mill. Look at Ford Racing, even the basic 302 345hp crate motor will push you down the road quicker than most mortal drivers can handle. Besides 0hp won't get it off the trailer. Still, good luck, keep us posted.
 
my buddy is a race engine builder. he can do anything. hes also a tool and dye maker, so if something isnt right, he makes a part himself. he can also tune. he has built many cars from the ground up. my spf was no prob for him.
i learned a long time ago that i want 1 guy to go to because they will all play the blame game and ultimately you are holding the bag.

hard to conjecture what roush will do since we have zero details on what the issue is.
 
a little support for roush uk.Having blown the cylinder head gasket while assembling my car under dubios bleeding circumstances roush uk. honoured the guarantee and rebuilt the top end . It did take a few phone calls and threats but they drove 300miles to pick up and return it with in 3 months of the incident and its been fine since
 
I wouldn't hold my breath. Be prepared to handle the cost yourself. Engine builder blames the installer. Installer blames the mfr, and on and on. I realized a long time ago that I was pretty much on my own with this type of vehicle. Really, it doesn't make that much difference to me. I love drivng the car anyway.

Mike

I'm not seeking to blame, I'm just looking for the solution. I don't want anyone but someone with Roush expertise messing with the lump. Between Roush, Olthoff and my local Roush tech I'm confident it will get sorted out. The frustrating thing is that the car has performed flawlessly for nearly 2,000 miles except for these three instances. The first was exactly a year ago. I got caught in a rain storm and the engine began to miss. The miss worsened until the engine stalled. I limped home and parked the car in the garage. A few days later it started right up and ran perfectly the rest of the 2008 driving season, including a drive to Elkhart Lake and several laps of Road America. I attributed that first problem to rain water in the electrics. I rolled the car out this spring, warmed her up, drove 6 miles on a beautiful dry day, and the same missing-stalling thing happened. This time there was no re-start, and I came home on a flatbed.

Then the head scratching began. My first thought was that the low pressure fuel filter was clogged and the high pressure pump was draining the fuel standpipe. (The standpipe would seem to hold about 6 miles worth of fuel.) So, I replaced the low pressure filter and set out again. Once again, I got 5 or 6 miles and it quit. Back home on the flatbed.

I thought it might be the ill fated Superformance fuel pump switch, but the pump is loud and I know it was always running. I also thought it might be a problem with the hose connecting the fuel tanks, so I added gas to the driver's side tank to make sure there was indeed fuel there to be picked up. Still no-go. My theory is that the high pressure pump is somehow getting ahead of the low pressure pump, and draining the fuel standpipe before the low pressure pump can re-fill it. Both pumps come on at the same time, so if the fuel level in the standpipe is low the high pressure pump could win the flow contest and suck it dry. Also, the return plumbing from the injection runners goes directly to the upper portion of the fuel tank with a "T" connection just before the tank leading back to the standpipe. Most of the returning fuel may be taking the course of least resistance and going back to the tank rather than making the turn and recirculating to the standpipe.

However, none of this would explain why the car worked perfectly the remainder of last year. I'm thinking it's going to take more than my architect's brain to sort this out. We'll see.
 
I'd be shopping for a new longblock today. Something that will accept the intake, exhaust and ignition on the Aoush mill. Look at Ford Racing, even the basic 302 345hp crate motor will push you down the road quicker than most mortal drivers can handle. Besides 0hp won't get it off the trailer. Still, good luck, keep us posted.


My understanding is that Ford Racing engines have NO warranty, but I could be wrong. At least with Roush you have some kind of written warranty. I believe it is one year. Again, I may be wrong on the time period. Sounds to me like it is an electrical problem, probably related to that rainstorm you got caught in.

Mike
 
Get a 4 gallon jerrycan of fuel and hook the high pressure pump & return directly into that & see how far you get, at least that will eliminate/confirm your thoughts re the tanks & low pressure pump.
 

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Or put a restrictor in the return pipe to the tank - the added resistance will force the fuel back to the swirlpot / stanpipe to keep that full for the HP pump to draw from


Ian
 
The Roush rep I talked to not that long ago said their engines have a 2 year 24000 mile warranty. He said all the others have a $ limit on what they will do. So if you lunch the whole thing they are only on the hook for so much. Roush said they would pick up anything including an entire engine. Just my $.02. Good luck, if it's their problem make them fix it, they have deep enough pockets.
 
Darryl,

You did mention to them that they have less than a month to get this rig squared away? For we need to have it fully mission capable for our drive to Elkhart Lake next month.

I'm confident things will work out. :thumbsup:
 

Jack Houpe

GT40s Supporter
Daryl from the sound of it, I bet its going to be something simple and not major. I would rather have a miss any day rather than a loud banging noise. :)
 

Kirby Schrader

They're mostly silver
Lifetime Supporter
Daryl,

Based on your description below, you seem to maybe believe it to be a fuel problem. My car died several times on me until I realized the fuel tanks were full of crap and I was plugging the primary fuel filter in front of the LP pump. This was even before I put the EFI on; I was using a carb in the beginning.

I could drive a few miles and then the engine would miss and die. Wait a few seconds and it would start up again and drive another few miles. I found that if I turned off the LP pump with the dash switch, waited a few seconds and turned it on again, I could drive on without stopping. Turning off the pump allowed the crap around the filter to fall away and allow fuel to flow again.

I have had to clean out the primary fuel filter about 7-8 times before I stopped having problems. I don't know what kind of filter you have, but I am using the screen type which Olthoff installed and that allows me to pull it out and clean it. I found metal filings, lint from red rags, what looked like black RTV pieces and sand in the filter. Mike Trusty took pictures of his tanks before using them and they had the same crap in them....

But the water/rain thing obviously doesn't fit with a fuel problem....

Just a thought based on personal experience. It may not be relevant to your problem.

Good luck,
Kirby

I'm not seeking to blame, I'm just looking for the solution. I don't want anyone but someone with Roush expertise messing with the lump. Between Roush, Olthoff and my local Roush tech I'm confident it will get sorted out. The frustrating thing is that the car has performed flawlessly for nearly 2,000 miles except for these three instances. The first was exactly a year ago. I got caught in a rain storm and the engine began to miss. The miss worsened until the engine stalled. I limped home and parked the car in the garage. A few days later it started right up and ran perfectly the rest of the 2008 driving season, including a drive to Elkhart Lake and several laps of Road America. I attributed that first problem to rain water in the electrics. I rolled the car out this spring, warmed her up, drove 6 miles on a beautiful dry day, and the same missing-stalling thing happened. This time there was no re-start, and I came home on a flatbed.

Then the head scratching began. My first thought was that the low pressure fuel filter was clogged and the high pressure pump was draining the fuel standpipe. (The standpipe would seem to hold about 6 miles worth of fuel.) So, I replaced the low pressure filter and set out again. Once again, I got 5 or 6 miles and it quit. Back home on the flatbed.

I thought it might be the ill fated Superformance fuel pump switch, but the pump is loud and I know it was always running. I also thought it might be a problem with the hose connecting the fuel tanks, so I added gas to the driver's side tank to make sure there was indeed fuel there to be picked up. Still no-go. My theory is that the high pressure pump is somehow getting ahead of the low pressure pump, and draining the fuel standpipe before the low pressure pump can re-fill it. Both pumps come on at the same time, so if the fuel level in the standpipe is low the high pressure pump could win the flow contest and suck it dry. Also, the return plumbing from the injection runners goes directly to the upper portion of the fuel tank with a "T" connection just before the tank leading back to the standpipe. Most of the returning fuel may be taking the course of least resistance and going back to the tank rather than making the turn and recirculating to the standpipe.

However, none of this would explain why the car worked perfectly the remainder of last year. I'm thinking it's going to take more than my architect's brain to sort this out. We'll see.
 
Thanks for all the replies and PM's. They will start looking at the car today. If I were chasing the problem myself I think I'd start by just disconnecting the low pressure line from the swirl pot and running the low pressure pump to pump fuel into a bucket. If the flow was good that would seem to eliminate a problem with the low pressure filter or pump. Then I'd put it back together and disconnect the return from the injectors where it enters the main tank and run that into the bucket. If that flow was stronger than the low pressure circuit, then the low pressure pump would eventually lose the battle to keep the standpipe full. I had installed a brand new filter on the low pressure side the just moments before the last stalling event, so I can't see that as being the issue. There is also the possibility that there is some kind of crud in the main fuel tank that is obstructing the outlet. Were that the case, though, it would seem that pulling the car tail-first up the flatbed would likely dislodge that kind of debris. Lots of variables here. First I want them to check all the electrical issues to eliminate an ignition or ECU problem. It would be nice if the Roush ECU kept event data in memory so we could look at what was going on when the engine quit.
 

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Blow air back through the pipe into the tank (Disconnect before low pressure filter) Open fuel cap too to let air out or you will pressurise the tank and when you disconnect the air you will have fuel squirt out)

I needed to do this at the LE Mans Classic last year as the "explosafe" stuff in the tank had managed to clog up the outlet pipe.

Ian
 
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