Hello all,

My 1990 XJ40 "donor car" has got me tearin' my hair out.
(Not a good thing, I only had seven hairs to begin with!)

Below is a short synopsis of the situation.
The maschosists among you can get the whole sordid story over in the "Non Jaguar Vehicles" section:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=38533

Here's the deal:
1990 XJ6 Sovereign ... 4.0 inline six.
Ragged, parked for at least one year .... probably longer.
Fuel pump DOA.
Installed new fuel pump, cleaned fuel tank and lines as much as possible, blew out fuel filler drain hose.
Cleaned fuel rail, pumped fuel through system (with the new pump) until it flowed clean gasoline.
Had no way to check or clean injectors, so installed new seal kits and reinstalled injectors
Tried to start .... engine started briefly and then died. Would attempt to restart, but something clearly wrong.
Built a "cave man" fuel injector tester/ activator.
Flushed and backflushed injectors (they were very clogged).
Four injectors responded to treatment, two were DOA.
Two new (remanufactured) injectors arrived today.
Hooked everything up, looking forward to my first drive ....!!!!
Nada! Nothing ...!! Zip ...!!!

So after pouting, whining, kicking the dogs and generally being an ***, I started checking into things.
I currently have NO fuel coming from the fuel tank to the pump.
Blowing air up the line from the fuel pump into the tank resulted in no flow, but DID cause fuel (or some liquid!) to drip down from the fuel lines up front near the engine.
Running a stiff wire up the fuel line into the tank was unsuccessful. I encountered some sort of obstruction. As far as I have been able to determine, Jaguar doesn't use a strainer/ filter at the tank outlet.

What might have happened in the last 4 or 5 days to shut down the fuel flow from the tank? I'm bumfuzzled ...!!!

I gotta admit, I probably know more about brain surgery than I do about fuel injection systems ... (absolutely nothing!)
If anyone has read this far and not fallen asleep, I could use any suggestions, insights and/or help you can provide.

Thanks for listening!
Retro

 

Does the car turn over.
if it turns over check your fuel pump relay if the pump is not pumping.

 

Yes, the pump is working fine ... there's just no fuel getting to it from the tank.

 

It looks to be that you have a blockage in the tank or fuel line, I would try it in steps .
Disconect the line from the filter to the injector rail and blow air through(use high pressure). If you get good air flow then.
Disconect the line from the pump to the tank,and again use air (fairly high pressure)
I think you have a piece of crud stuck somewhere in you lines and it takes a lot of pressure to dislodge it.
Also make sure that there are no kinks in the lines

 

Lumppy, I agree with your prognosis.

I had already tried the steps you mentioned. Yesterday, when I tried blowing through the line from the pump up into the tank, I had fuel running on the ground from somewhere up near the engine.
My guess is the air pressure was feeding into the fuel return line instead of into the fuel tank. As you said, indicating a blockage of some sort.

I'm gonna jump back on it today, and I'm sure I'll get it figured out.
No big deal ... guess I was just disappointed and needing to vent last night!
I took some of the old "barley cure" and readjusted my attitude.

I'll give a progress report later.
Thanks ....

 

Guessing that you have a problem with fuel pick up in the tank area.

The car was standing under the trees for quite a while.

Without blowing yourself up, could you not check the system out by having the pump inlet hose in an external fuel source. (that empty keg of Bud Light for example?)

The other point, you do have sufficient fuel in the tank... Yes?

 

As much as I hate to admit it, I think you may have hit the nail on the head!

The car is on jack stands. When originally working on the fuel system I couldn't quite get the last jack stand under it so it was canted slightly to the right rear.
(Betcha can't guess which side the fuel outlet is on!)

Had need of my jack for another project, so I regrouped and got the 4th jack stand under the car ... effectively changing the height of the tank outlet!

So what was a sufficient fuel level is probably not sufficient at this point.

Didn't work on the car today, had business out of town.
Driving along mulling over the problem, and it all sorta fell together in my head.
(Can ya gimme a DUH ...!!! Sure ya can ...! Say Hallelujah ...!!)

Will report findings tomorrow.
Damn I feel like a dummy!

 

Fuel supply problem from tank to fuel pump is fixed.
Yes, it was insufficient fuel ...
however,
... I don't feel quite as DUH! as I did last night, because there are contributing factors, and I still have a problem.

After my original fuel tank cleaning and installation of new fuel pump, I put approximately 7 gallons of fuel in the tank. I figured that should be sufficient to run regardless of the attitude of the car on the jack stands. According to my info, the car has a 22.somethin' gallon tank, so we should be talking about 1/3 of a tank or so.

I also checked all my connections and hoses, and looked underneath the car all the way from the fuel tank to the engine area for leaks.
In other words, everywhere a normal human being would expect to find a fuel leak.

But wait, I forgot .... this is a British car!
Silly me ... I forgot to check the freakin' headlights ....!!!

Yeah, that's right ... the majority of my original fuel supply apparently leaked out of some infernal device located behind the left headlight area.

I now have that hose temporarily plugged while I consult the various oracles in an attempt to figure out what's goin' on.

So I still haven't heard this car run. Meanwhile my 235 Chevy and 270 GMC engines are over in the corner laughin' their bee-hinds off and sayin' "we told you so ...!!!"

I'm coming close to giving up on this modern crap. Too many demons in them once the new wears off.

 

No DUH from me.

Just to make you feel better my British 92 does not have any of that EGR, fill a can of petrol under the headlight, for more spectacular collisions gubbins.

This must have been a Jaguar Special for the US market and so did not immediately spring to mind as a likely source of a fuel leak.

Good luck with changing the canister, vac line plumbing etc...

And all this, just to see if the car will live again!!

 

I feel an exorcism coming on.