Engine dies while driving

[bob from red oak]

I have 1941 PU with a 59 AB engine. In the driveway starts and runs fine. Take it for a spin and the first mile runs fine. Then it dies like it is out of gas. I set for 5-10 minutes starts right up runs great for about half mile dies again. Set 10 minutes does the same thing. I am thinking the carb bowl runs dry and the needle sticks and setting for a while lets the bowl fill back up. Any ideas? Appreciate the suggestions. Bob

 

[petehoovie]

I'm thinking your coil windings are shorting out from heat...

 

[V8COOPMAN]

I have 1941 PU with a 59 AB engine. In the driveway starts and runs fine. Take it for a spin and the first mile runs fine. Then it dies like it is out of gas. I set for 5-10 minutes starts right up runs great for about half mile dies again. Set 10 minutes does the same thing. I am thinking the carb bowl runs dry and the needle sticks and setting for a while lets the bowl fill back up. Any ideas? Appreciate the suggestions. Bob

Quite doubtful that your needle is sticking. Bowl will NOT re-fill by just sitting there and cooling-down. The fuel pump must pump fuel into the bowl.
You have just described the classic "BUM COIL" symptoms for an old Ford coil. Do yourself a huge favor and send your coil to Skip Haney and let him rebuild your coil with lifetime guarantee. Skip has done about 20,000 coils over the years. BELOW is current contact info as of a month ago. Coop


Skip Haney 29436 Taralane Drive Punta Gorda, Fl 33982 Thanks Skip 941-505-9085


Skip's e-mail: skiphaneyfl@aol.com

.

 

[tubman]

Or, you have crap in the gas tank. I bought a '36 one time that did almost the same thing, only it would go further between stall-outs. There was an old rag in the gas tank that would get sucked up and clog the fuel inlet. After a while, it would float down and the car would start and run fine.

"petehoovie" may be right as well. The next time it happens, jump out and see what you're missing; fuel or spark.

 

[Oldtmtech]

Make sure your fuel tank is properly vented could be pulling a vacuum in the tank

 

[Lawson Cox]

I completely agree with V8Coopman, on this at least. LOL Send the coil to Skip and let him do his magic on it.

 

[Lanny]

I had a '58 Ford convertible when I was in high school. I had just bought it
from a guy who said he had just tuned it up, new carb kit, new fuel pump,
and a new fuel filter.
It would run pretty good for about 10 miles, then stop, I'd sit for a bit, and
then it would start and I'd drive for another 10-15 minuets, then kill out
again.
First thing I thought of was the gas cap wasn't venting, so I took cap
off and took it out on the road again, same thing, 10 min's driving and it quit.
Called the guy I had just bought it from and he told me that the fuel tank
was probably dirty, cause both the carb, and old fuel filter were pretty dirty.

I looked at the NEW filter, and the arrow on the clear plastic filter was
pointing the wrong way.
Took the New filter off and could see rusty junk in the new filter, and after
close examination, I could see that that part of the filter was very small,
and the other part of the filter was way larger in volume. I put another
new filter on the car (with the arrow pointing the right way) and it ran
pretty good on a test drive then.
I could drive it for most of the day before it would stall out again.. Sit for
a while and I could drive it for a few more hours again before it would quit.
That "IN" end of the filter could hold way more junk than the "OUT" end
of the filter, so it would run much longer before filter would clog up.

I took the tank off and threw a couple small chains in it, and me and some
friends would take turns shaking the heck out of the tank, off and on, for
an hour or so, then put some fuel oil in and shook that around for a bit
and dumped it out.
I put the tank back on with another New filter (arrow going the right way)
and drove the '58 'Vert my whole senior year of school without ever failing.
Sold it that summer and would see it driving often. Wish I still had it.




.

 

[Flathead Fever]

Take it for a road test with the air cleaner off and when it quits spray some starting fluid in the carb. If it "does" start and run for a few seconds on the starting fluid it's a fuel problem, if not it's an ignition problem.

If it is ignition, pull a plug wire and "carefully" verify there is no spark. You could carry a voltmeter to make sure you have the correct voltage to the coil when it quits. That would need to be checked with the points open or the wire disconnect from the coil. If the points are closed, you're not checking for the available voltage to the coil, instead you're doing a voltage drop test across the distributor. If you do have the correct voltage to the coil, it's probably a bad coil.

 

[aussie merc]

take the gas cap off and see what happens tank vent could be blocked [Bugs love little holes to nest in ]

 

[Kube]

Or, you have crap in the gas tank. I bought a '36 one time that did almost the same thing, only it would go further between stall-outs. There was an old rag in the gas tank that would get sucked up and clog the fuel inlet. After a while, it would float down and the car would start and run fine.

"petehoovie" may be right as well. The next time it happens, jump out and see what you're missing; fuel or spark.

Oh yes! I had a '40 that acted very similar. A small piece of "stuff" floating in the tank would be drawn to the pick up tube and cut off the supply. Shut the engine off and allow the vacuum to leak away and the engine would start back up. Repeat.
Prior to sending the coil out, if this were my vehicle, I'd look down the throat of the carburetor for two good squirts of fuel coming from the nozzles PROMPTLY after the eng9ne died. If there are two steady streams, then we can e reasonably certain, it is not a fuel supply issue.

I'd probably get the coil rebuilt regardless but I tend to do one thing at a time so I know what the issue is / was.

 

[pistonbroke]

My Lincoln 12 did the same thing sort of with one coil failing after ten or so minuets but having two separate ign. systems it would still barely run and limp home. It would run fine all day long sitting in the driveway but put a load on it and you would get maybe ten minuets and then run on six cylinders. Tim

 

[MGG]

I vote with the sediment-in-fuel folks. My 37 engine did this when the screen in the fuel pump's sediment bowl would clog up. The sediment appeared to be small pieces of tank liner material which were in the threads on the bottom of the tank where the fuel line valve screws in. Installing the valve forced some of the liner pieces out of the threads and into the tank. After I took out the tank and flushed out the entire fuel system, the problem never happened again.

 

[Mart]

I have had the HT side of the ignition behave like this. A faulty rotor arm or distributor cap can give symptoms like this.
There is possibly a way of determining if it is HT related, though.
When it starts to feel like might be failing, floor the throttle. If it fails more when wide throttle and then sort of recovers somewhat at very light throttle, it is likely the rotor arm or cap allowing the spark to leak to ground. The increased cylinder pressure at wide throttle seeks out the spark weakness. When it happened to me it would deteriorate until it would fail at light throttle too.
Once left for a while it would recover and drive part way home. A number of cool down stops and I was able to get home.
I had this happen with crab, helmet and Lucas distributors. Once the problem is fixed it's great to be able to drive wide open and it not start to falter.

If you have a good known cap, leads and rotor arm swap them on and see if it makes a difference.

Mart.

 

[Flathead Fever]

I had a neighbor that went camping with his family in a van in the desert. While they were camping their young son poured sand down the gas tank filler. On the 100-mile trip home it would drive for about ten miles until enough sand got sucked up around the filter screen inside the tank and it would die. After it sat awhile with no suction on the sand it would fall back to the bottom of the tank, and they could drive another 10 miles. I pulled the 36-gallon tanks out for him and removed at least a gallon of sand out of it.


I inherited my dad's '32 roadster with an 8BA. It has sat for a long time, probably over 15 years. The gas is so bad it is plugging the metal fuel line between the original '32 tank and the fuel pump. I've drained the tank and flushed it and it still plugs the line in 100 yards of driving and its doesn't fix itself if you let it rest. It had to be pushed back home. It drove fine before dad's health problems. Now the car is here at my house where I can work on it. I'll have to remove the tank and sticks few pounds of bolts in it and some acetone. I'll probably create a spark and blow the tank inside out. Then I will be able to get to the inside of it better.

I've had a 'vision" A fuel tank cleaning machine. I had two of those cheap Harber freight concrete mixers given to me. I'm thinking about cutting part of the concrete drum off on one of them and welding a bracket to it that the '32 gas tank can be bolted to. Then filling it with some abrasive from my sand blaster and letting it just spin round and round for a few hours. The biggest problem will probably be the balance, so it doesn't tip over. That should make it shiny clean inside. It might sound like a goofy idea but it won't cost me anything to give it a try.

Years ago I had a '33 BB that the tank was full of stuff. I had it boiled out at a radiator shop and that did not help one little bit. Even after being boiled out and bolts sloshed around in it, it would go less than a mile and plug the fuel line. I was going to try sealing the tank but I got rid of the truck. This year I bought a '34 BB project that had the gas tank cap left off for fifty-years, its full of dirt and rat nests in there so if the concrete mixer works on the '32 roadster tank the '34 BB tank will be next.

 

[vincent]

You have to put wood screws (Spax here in EU) into the tank and some Diesel as well. When it is turning on the concrete mixers drum, the sharp screws will get into every nook and cranny and clean the crap out, the diesel keeps it floating. Rinse and repeat and in a couple hours your tank is spotless clean. To get the screws out just insert a magnet on a stick.

 

[swedishsteel]

Had a '73 Olds Vista Cruiser Wagon that would similar. Let it sit for a few minutes and would take right off. Finally took the gas tank out and there was about a quarter cup of antifreeze that wouldn't go through the screen on the end of the pickup tube. It would get sucked up against it while running, but with the engine shut down it would slowly drop away and allow gas through again. Probably one in a million.

 

[Scott52]

I had an intermittent problem similar to yours on my Dodge Power Wagon. Before installing the new sending unit, I bench tested it with the gas gauge and all worked. Once the engine was done being rebuilt, some months later, it would run for awhile the stall out. I acted like it was running out of gas. Guys suggested vapor lock, so I rerouted the gas line farther away from the exhaust manifold and wrapped it in heat barrier tubing. I disconnected the new gas line from the tank to the fuel pump and blew it out with air. After awhile I didn't trust my gas gauge and I thought it might be loosing fuel. I set up the temp gas can again and engine ran fine. Something is blocking the gas line inlet inside the tank. I finally figured it out. Removed the sending unit (the Power Wagon has an access plate in the bed so you can get to the sending unit without removing the gas tank) Inside the tank were a couple of silicon slug sized worms, floating ti the tank right at the gas line opening. The feeling is great when you know you found the problem. The silicone got in there when I used it to seal the sending unit gasket.