Credit where credit's due. Props to Piemonte.

[VNMOUS1]

Yep, a tip of the hat to a Ford dealership. Whoa! True enough.

Story:

Bought some crap race gas at Phillips 66 on Grand, west of Harlem. Have bought it there before with no probs.

Car goes 2 miles and hops into failsafe. It's only done that once before and that was after 350 miles at 80mph in a driving rainstorm and I think the MAS finally just said "Here...this is for you and your open snorkel hood.".

Anyway, look for water around the engine bay...nada. Look for a vacuum leak and find nothing. Can't hear an exhaust leak. It throws a code that is "lean condition bank 2". Interesting...only one bank. That means it's something other than fuel delivery.

Pull everything....re-seat everything. Problem remains.

Data log it. Send it to Justin at VMP and Jon Lund, who both do my tuning and both say I'm dumping buttloads of fuel as it tries not to kill itself with a lean issue.

Compression check. OK.

Fresh plugs....nada.

Throw stock airbox on and flash to stock. Of course it's not running worth a shit and I take it limping up to the shop (a couple of miles from home) with upper and lower pullies on it and it sounding like a race car.

Generally a dealer isn't gonna touch it. Liability, policy, blah blah blah. And the guys there have come close to saying that. But, I needed a smoke test to look for vacuum leaks as I'd already done the comp check and a cursory vacuum as best I could. These guys do my oil changes for reason. Not that I like paying $80 for one, but at least they know my car. The know how much it's modded and how I drive it, so there's no BS back and forth.

I was ready for about anything so I was pleasantly surprised when they said the diagnostics stuff had shown #8 dying out and then all the other ones on that bank pouring gas to save itself. They pulled the injector and it was just full of shit. They sampled the gas. Nice...water and crap.

The pulled and cleaned the tank, cleaned the lines, cleaned all the injectors, and put on a new fuel filter. Bam...it starts and runs. I had a new set of o2s waiting for it....new injectors ready to go...but they said, "save the money and change them when you really need to".

Big props to Ron the service writer for being willing to take it in the first place, for not trying to dick me with extra parts or labor and for getting itup and running again. He listened to what I wanted, what my concerns where,and then did a great job of communicating with me so i knew what was up.

From Lund to Justin to Larry at SpeedInc (thanks dude), we were all scratching our heads.

In the end-

Tank full of 100 unleaded, water and contaminants: $91.00
Labor, parts and fresh gas to get my car running perfectly again: $500.00
The fact that I didn't get hosed for $1500 or more: Priceless


Kudos guys.

bj

[wolfe]

Nice to hear there are honest people out there

[Since 1964]

Glad to hear the good news.

[BlaqSnake]

Nice!

[01Cobra]

Now submit bill to phillips 66 with proof from dealership that the bad gas caused your issues.

[VNMOUS1]

I did. I gave them the sample. They paid me back for the fuel and are "talking" about the repair bill. We'll see.

bj

[Bob@Kurganmotorsports.com]

this has been quite common lately.. we did a YSi on a pushrod and a BS3... it was an 800rwhp car.. customer took the car and drove it for a week.. calls me up as he just filled up with GAS at a gas city race pump... said it backfired and wouldnt restart... turns out they put 11gallons of KEROSENE in it.. we spent a week trying to clean it all out.. had to remove the tank, all the fuel lines, fuel rails and injectors, and new fuel pump... all because they put kerosene in the 110 pump..

[VNMOUS1]

Yeah...I've bought from these guys in years past, but no longer!! The pump says "race fuel". I remember asking one day if it was leaded because it said 110, to which he said, no it's unleaded 110. I made a (vain) attempt to correct him, but he showed me the receipt. I'll be damned if it didn't say 110 unleaded. Not sure who was lying and how they managed to get it in there in Illinois, but it certainly said that. Who knows what it really was.

My take away from all this....run her as dry as possible before I get to the track and bend over once I'm there. Torco in a pinch.

Kerosene. Jesus.

bj

[Dana]

For many years, Gas City would use the race gas pumps to dispense kerosene during the winter months.
I have no idea what the procedure was to make the change-over from kerosene to race fuel and then back.
I usually wouldn't buy from them until mid-summer and only when I had to do so.

[SBTerminator]

Wow, that's crazy. Glad to hear it worked out in the end and they didn't bend you over !!

[SVT SPEED 04]

I'm glad to hear you got it sorted out and in the end not for all too much.

talk to you soon