I agree anodized aluminum would be OK, but the OP mentioned that the FPR was caked white inside, so I was assuming that there was possibly some bare aluminum.

So I took apart my FPR last night and found that it wasn't corroded like I thought it would be. I was thinking that since I couldn't get my fuel pressure to go below ~45psi, that the FPR was bad. I was focused on it and wasn't thinking that I did hammer in the pressure relief valve on the Walbro in it, and with the engine running, I could get the fuel pressure to go up, but no lower than 45psi. Looks like 45psi is where I will base everything from, at least until I get my Full blown system in the car. So for now, it looks like the single walbro is just simply not up to the task of providing enough fuel for 30+ psi of boost, and a base idle fuel pressure of 45psi. I also included one of the pictures I took trying to look down inside one of the injector bosses on the manifold to see if there was any gunk buildup in there was well..

Also, about the filter plugging, I did not see any evidence of it at all. The sock on the walbro looked as clean as the new ones on my Fullblown pumps. Inside of the tank was squeeky clean as I poked in there with a flashlight to look around to check the inside condition, and I did not see any evidence of any corrosion/rust/gunk etc.. It will be nice to get the fullblown set-up I have in the car because of the external Fuel Lab filter I have. It will be easy to change out from time to time now.

I am going to convert the car back to gasoline today, and I think I am going to dump a can of seafoam in the tank too prior to my drive to NY in hopes that if there is any gunk on the tops of the valves it will get rid of it. I might buy another can too for my next tank as I will use 3+ tank fulls of gas on my trip prior to getting there. I am not too worried about stady state crusing with that seafoam in my tank.

And now for some teaser pictures....

Tom, if you want to take one for the team....:D But I guess I should preface that with, it could be dangerous so maybe you shouldn't!! :lol:

Seriously, it makes me wonder as some have alluded to, whether or not it's more of an additive that's added to the fuel by the manufacturer. I've never taken my injectors out, but now you have me curious since we're in the same region I wonder if I might have a similar issue.

In another thread it was also speculated that this gunk people are seeing might be the result of the station the E85 was sourced from. The tanks storing the E85 may have previously been used for 87-93 octane and the gunk is the result of the E85 cleaning those storage tanks.

This definately could be the case as the station that I am buying from, if it wasn't the fact that they are the ONLY one in the area, I would most definately be buying from somewhere else. This is the type of gas station that looks like Jay & Silent Bob should be hanging out at. :D

I apologize in advance if someone said this, but the gunk is likely residue from the gasoline you used to run. E85 is predominantly ethanol and ethanol is both more corrosive and a better cleaning agent than straight gasoline. This gunk is actually a result of you running a cleaner fuel. There is a chance that the fuel is tainted, that could happen. But in general, ethanol fuel will run cleaner and its cleaning up that dirty gasoline! The gunk should go away assuming you continue to run E85. Enjoy being corn fed! I wish I was!

VVVV My bad

^^^^ He's been on E85 a long time, it should be clean by now...


Good luck with the Full-Blown assembly, I'll be interested to see what you find while hooking it up. You'll be running new fuel lines so that might help a little, but I was unable to get the fuel pressure down at idle with both pumps running. It sat at 55 psi with my FPR backed all the way down. This was after I drilled out the return fitting as others have talked about.

With AN lines you will be able to remove the hoses from the assembly easily and remove the assembly without too much effort - that's nice. With the stock lines and the barbed fittings it's really hard to remove the lines and remove the unit. I was going to try and increase the return fitting hole size some more but couldn't get the lines off!

Just FYI my pump sock looked clean but the fuel filter was dirty and clogged. I'm still running the original sock, but with a new oem fuel filter. The fuel filter is inside the pump assembly (the white plastic unit)

There's another thread about this on a Colorado DSM site where Jack brought this up. They actually analyzed the gunk.

http://www.codsm.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3965

That's a great thread. Should be linked to in all of these injector gunk threads.

That thread is very useful and kinda scary for those looking to switch.

Well, here is what I did just so everyone is clear. I filled a 40mL vial with E85 and blew it dry with nitrogen gas and mild heating (about 150*F). After there was no fuel left, I placed it under high vacuum to remove any remaining volatiles for about an hour. I was left with a clear sticky residue that smelled bad - like nasty frying oil. I dissolved this sample in the NMR solvent and analyzed it and it IS the same goo that was on the injector. There was smaller amounts of some other stuff in it as well, but the same peaks I saw in the black goo were in this residue. The black goo IS coming from the E85. It isn't naturally black, though. I suspect it just has soot mixed in with it that is giving it the color.

So the next challenge is figuring out why is this crap in our fuel, and if it is in everyone's fuel (particularly people who aren't having this problem).


Now this was an interesting read. Long, but interesting. I cut this out from the CO thread posted above...there's even more info posted in the thread.

Yipes, that's a really good thread right there... Great reading...

Where you able to buy just the filter? my dealer said I had to buy whole pump assembly?

You have to buy the whole pump housing assembly......the filter is part of it, no separate fuel filter for the evo.