4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

[TwoWheels]

I have a 2006 regal with a 4.3gxi. It is a saltwater boat I bought last year and now run in fresh water. Lots of corrosion in the engine compartment.

It ran great last year, but now it starts fine but then runs really poorly (hesitates, stumbles,wants to stall) at part throttle. Full throttle seems OK. This behavior is not consistent. Sometimes it does it, but then it gets better, only to come back 20 minutes later. The problem seems to come on as the engine begins to warm up.

The mechanic at the dealer replaced the distributor cap and rotor, spark plugs, and fuel filter. He is still throwing [my] money at it trying to guess what is wrong, and has been on the line with Volvo tech support 2 or 3 times already.

Anyone have any ides what could be the issue here? I was wondering if I might have a loose connection somewhere to the ECU that is disrupting a sensor input like the cps or [if there is one] a coolant temperature sensor or something.


Ideas?

Thanks.

Dave

 

[ENSIGN]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

Check your gas it may have water in it.Pump some directly out of the tank into a clear container. Any water will settle to the bottom.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

find a real dealer.
its a simple engine,should have a simple MEFI 4 ign control.
laptop will rule out most anything so you can concentrate on whats wrong.
run it at the problem RPM and load with a fuel pressure guage and the laptop connected and you will be 90% there.

 

[TwoWheels]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

find a real dealer.
laptop will rule out most anything so you can concentrate on whats wrong.
run it at the problem RPM and load with a fuel pressure guage and the laptop connected and you will be 90% there.

Rodbolt:

Thanks for this information. Is there a name for the laptop software so I can see if they have it (I suspect they don't - the mechanic was talking about throwing a timing light on it!)

What are your thoughts on the "bad gas" theory? Doesn't seem like it would be intermittant, but I guess if the pickup was sometimes grabbing gas and sometimes water...? I suppose I might have condensation in the tank from over the winter - I don't recall if I had it totally full (I did have sta-bil in it, for better or worse, although I've added gas since then). Will dry-gas type additive be OK to try?

 

[ENSIGN]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

Water in the tank will cause a intermittent problem.Like I said pump some out,It won't cost you anything and it's better than throwing parts at the engine.The only way to get rid of it is pump it out all the additives and stablisers won't remove it!

 

[DJ]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

All the advice given, regarding fuel, is good. It's easy to get rid of the old fuel and start fresh with a new filter.

However, you mentioned lots of corrosion in the engine compartment. That makes electrical connections suspect. It's simple and cheap to make sure ALL of the engine compartment connections are clean and tight. Actually remove them and make sure they are spotless before reinstalling.

If you are not familiar with this engine make sure you do ONE AT A TIME.

Also, DISCONNECT the battery before doing any connection maintenance.

 

[TwoWheels]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

I will talk to the dealer about fuel on Tuesday. I beleive my 4.3GXi-F is the 1st year of EGC instead of Delphi - no MEFI-4. Not certain of this, however.

 

[Don S]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

The laptop is nice, and can make things faster, but it's NOT necessary to check your engine. Have a look at page 35 of the diagnostic manual found in the link below.
The scan tool is only $400 compared to the laptop and software needed.

http://www.4shared.com/file/90016951/531f106e/7746872_EGC_Diagnostic.html

http://www.rinda.com/acro/prodlist.pdf

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

scan tool will work,I just bought the new diacom software,802 dollars.
either will work. typically they dont show an issue but keep me from chasing ghosts.
we are having problems with the paint inside the fuel cell.
seems the Efuels eat the paint and feed it to the rest of the system.
can clog pumps,pressure regulator screens and injector filters. the cells made after march of 2010 have a different coating.
a quick test for water,use a tire valve core removal tool.look at the fuel cell.
on the lower center part of the cell will be a schrader valve.
remove the valve core catching the fuel in a clean clear container and inspect what comes out.
clean up any spilled fuel.
without going to look it up I models went to EGC and ETC in various years.

 

[TwoWheels]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

we are having problems with the paint inside the fuel cell.
seems the Efuels eat the paint and feed it to the rest of the system.
can clog pumps,pressure regulator screens and injector filters. the cells made after march of 2010 have a different coating.
a quick test for water,use a tire valve core removal tool.look at the fuel cell.
on the lower center part of the cell will be a schrader valve.
remove the valve core catching the fuel in a clean clear container and inspect what comes out.
clean up any spilled fuel.

My boat (2006 Regal 2000) has a polyethylene (I assume) fuel tank, not a metal one. So I'm assuming no paint inside and no schrader valve.

 

[Don S]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

It's not the paint in the fuel tank, but in the Volvo fuel CELL that causes the problems. It's after the filter.

Item #1

 

[TwoWheels]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

It's not the paint in the fuel tank, but in the Volvo fuel CELL that causes the problems. It's after the filter.

Item #1

Oh. Crap. I never heard the term used except to the fuel tank in a race car. That sounds bad. Why they would paint the inside of a petroleum solvent containment system is beyond me.

I guess I'll just hope that some fresh gas does the trick. I'm assuming that removing the paint debris will be costly (new injectors, or can they be cleaned adequately?).

Dave

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

problem isnt the injectors,they can be sent out and serviced for 50 bucks each,the pressure regulator,item 23, can be removed and the screen carefully cleaned.
the problem is the cell assy.
only service parts avalible are the filter and the high pressure pump.HP pump is about 240,the cell assy is almost 700.
but its simple to check,attach the fuel rail pressure tester to the schrader on the rail,run engine at problem RPM while observing gauge.
should maintain 55 PSI or close to it.

 

[TwoWheels]

Re: 4.3gxi-F strange engine problem - Ignition or fuel? Going broke at the dealer.

Well, I got the boat back. They claim the problem was the fuel line from the tank was collapsing on the inside. I paid the shocking bill, and when hooking up the mechanic showed me the old hose, which looked pristine. I was shocked when he told me he made no attempt to verify his theory - only that the boat ran fine after he replaced the hose. Unacceptable.

I asked for the old hose, and when I got home I split it longitudinally. The inside was smooth, slick, and shiny everywhere. I tried everything I could to expose a weakness int he bond between the lining and the rest of the hose, but could not. I also applied a mity-vac prior to splitting, and there was no obvious leak down.

I ran the boat a little tonight on the canal (5mph no wake, but I cheated a little but not a lot), and it did seem to run better than before, but I did have trouble starting it once or twice. It also seems to run a little rougher than before, but no stumbling hesitating so far.

Mind you this is still on the original gas. They ran it on their tank to diagnose the problem which was what somehow led to the divine revelation of the bad fuel hose that I can't verify by observation. They told me that to drain the tank they had to pay someone to come in and do it for $15.00 a gallon. Some EPA thing. So not hardly a free test. I'll have to burn through it on a long weekend or something.

See my separate post on how they broke my steering while they were perhaps-fixing my fuel line.