I have a 1992 F-150 that I owned many years ago. I sold it and now 3 years later I bought it back. It has dual fuel tanks and has not had fresh gas in it for over a year or more. I started right up at the guys house and I drove it to a fuel station where I filled up the front tank. When I pulled the gas cap off the tanks the front one had a leaf inside it.

Well, the truck ran fine for about 15 miles. Since it has sat for so long I went to get new tires. While at the tire shop I went to start it back up and move it from in front of the bay. It would not start. It turned over but did not seem to be getting any fuel. You could hear the fuel pump come on when you turned the key. After several attempts I called the guy I got it back from and he told me the following. Oh, it did that to me once before. I pulled the senser off the throttle body at the end of the air intake hoses. I cleaned it with carb. cleaner and it ran good after that.

He recommended I put the pedal to the floor and hold it while I try to start it. I did and after a few attempts it cranked up. I drove away to charge the battery up and while I let it idle as I washed it, it shut back off.

I had to hold the pedal to the floor a few more times to get it running. I then went the 30 miles back home. Since then I have had issues starting it.

At one point I was driving and I pushed the pedal to the floor and it hesitated, sputtered, and never went into overdrive. I switched to the rear tank and it started hauling "you know what". I switced back to the fornt tank and it ran okay for a while.

The rear tank is reading as empty but I can't get it to take gas from a can. It backs up and comes back out the neck.

Okay folks, anyone have a thought as to what may be the problem?

I am thinking I may need to pull both tanks.

If so, is that hard to do, as I have only had to pull one fuel tank in my life and it was on a Saturn.

 

Also, I found that if I get it started it will run okay until I put it in gear and then it shuts off.

 

I would start off replacing the fuel filter and I would get some fuel stabilizer. Old fuel and debris in the tank clogged the filter I bet..

 

I'll be doing that first thing this morning when the sun comes up.

I'll post the results after running it today.

 

Yeah, that year old fuel tends to turn to varnish.

 

Starts up on first try when cold but after getting to runnng temp. it still won't start the first time. I have to hold the gas peddle to the floor and try to start it. I do this five or six times before it will catch. When it does, it is really rough until it levels out. Then I am fine as long as I don't cut the engine off.

 

JETHAT, it's not the fuel filter ... you stated the truck runs great on the rear tank ... the tanks share a common filter ... the filter does not know which tank the fuel is coming from ... if the filter was clogged it would run like crap on both tanks ...

 

I checked two sensors that appear to be going to the throttle body. Only one will give me voltage from the harness. I have posted images of the two on another thread because they are not in the location or description given by Haynes.

 

That sounds like you have injectors leaking gas into the cylinders after the engine is shut off. What happens if you get it up to running temperature and shut it off and immediately try to start it again? If you try to restart it immediately after shutting it off that wouldn't give the injectors much time to leak gas into the cylinders. If you haven't tried this, that would be a good troubleshooting step.

 

I will try that today. I think that I did it once and it started right up.

 

I ended up taking my truck into my mechanic. Turns out the coolant sensor is bad and is causing the following;

It always shows the engine is cold.
This causes the computer to dump fuel all the time.
This is why it was also running extremly rich. I was burning 1/4 tank of fuel to go 30 miles. It caused gas to be in the oil.

So, he is replacing the sensor, doing an oil change, changing the oil filter.

Hopefully, this will take care of it.

I will post more Sunday if there is anything else to the problem.

 

Problem solved.

Now, I have to get,

Egr Valve
New Tires
New Windsheild
New floor covering
New dash mat
New Radio
Paint Job

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