Are any of you other Civic racers having major fuel starve problems? This past weekend at the Glen I was getting fuel starve in the hard left-handers as soon as I got down to about 4-5 gallons left in the tank. Is this a fuel pump problem or just something inherant with the mid-90's Civics? Is there a solution other than a fuel cell? How tough is it to put baffles in a stock fuel tank?


Matt

 

hiya matt!

congrats on a well done race weekend! glad you had fun!

my Civic (a 95 DX with stock fuel pump) never, ever, ever starves. I have run it down till it was below the E when sitting on flat ground after a track session; never a single burble....

now my Probe, on the other hand, must be kept above 1/3 tank at ALL times. that **** will shut off completely on you when braking and cornering for 2-3 seconds at a time if it ever gets down below 1/3. i generally put gas in it every track session.

the honda i fill at the beginning of the day and forget about it!

good luck figuring out your problem.

 

Most of my experience is in auto-x situations so I'm not sure if this will help you but on my 00 si I could run it on E with the light on and be fine. I even ran out of gas completely after one auto-x and during my runs had no starvation at all.

In my 89 si its completely different though. I was having fuel starvation at 1/2 tank of gas in the car. I haven't really looked to see if its a problem since I have heard the same thing from a few other people with the older civics.

 

Matt,
It's normal. We all have it. Two weeks ago at Portland, three of us suffered through it in the same corner.

 

do you have a cx/vx?

dx/si tank is larger.

 

I have a '93 Si. That's a good point, because percentage-wise 4 gallons is less in my tank than the CX/VX models.

Matt

 

as long as this thread is still at the top, ill also agree its totally normal. once the fuel pump sucks a bit of air, down goes the fuel pressure all the way up to the injectors.

gotta keep the fuel at least half full and plan on refilling based on that during the day.

 

Matt,

Yack's car can run bone dry with no issues.

BTW- Cx fuel tank.

Good Luck.

 

I've noticed my CRX bobbling with less than 1/2 tank. Not really an issue with me any more because I have to run with it full to make min. weight.

 

I run a turbo charged civic in autocross in a sm class and if im under 1/3 tank it will starve, but on the street or mild cornering im fine to about a 1/8.
Tony
sm 140

 

I've run on next to nothing (filled up 9.8 gallons of the 10-gallon tank) and didn't have any issues. This is pretty interesting, I think we're finding the smaller tanks starve less?

 

I have the same problem. Mine is 92 Si. Last race at thunderhill I had fuel starvation on the last 2 laps on T2, and T9. Had to take it easy.

Maybe the key is to run CX tank?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NSXboy415 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Maybe the key is to run CX tank?</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you're running as an Si then most likely it'd be illegal. If you're running in H1 or something else that's unlimited it may be the way to go. It's really just a guessing game at this point, nobody has any cold-hard data and I doubt anyone ever will.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ryan12321 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">In my 89 si its completely different though. I was having fuel starvation at 1/2 tank of gas in the car. I haven't really looked to see if its a problem since I have heard the same thing from a few other people with the older civics.</TD></TR></TABLE>

this baffles (no pun intended) me. i can run my 91 standard to just about empty (maybe 1.5 gal) at autox and not have a problem. maybe our tanks are differant.

-spenc

 

I expierenced fuel starvation on turn 3a @ PR, with about 1/4 tank. I was actually wondering about some type of baffling system, but I figure a fuel cell would do the trick also.

 

Tood, what rock you been hiding under?????????

Thanks to Eee Pee I have these to play with......

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johng &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Matt,
It's normal. We all have it. Two weeks ago at Portland, three of us suffered through it in the same corner.
</TD></TR></TABLE>


ditto, same here, the slight uphill to T7 at Sears, a cough and jerk from the car as I shifted from 3-4.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mista Bone &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Tood, what rock you been hiding under?????????

</TD></TR></TABLE>

hi bone!

no hiding; been busy with life in general; been doing on average about 1.5 events per month (races mostly, with some DE scattered in there).

honda is running well; last race coming up for it on Nov 1,2 at Summit Point.... wanna come and crew for me??? i am sure you would have a blast!

todd

PS nice looking use slicks; a man after my own heart when it comes to scoring rubber!!!

 

*punching Todd* no hijacking this one!

So it definately seems like this is an issue with the Si. Maybe the larger tank has the fuel pick up a little higher, or maybe it just has a larger flatter bottom which allows for more fuel *sloshing*? Does anybody know how tough it is to remove, modify (baffle), and replace a stock fuel tank? It might be easier to just do a fuel cell. Will a stock fuel gauge work with a fuel cell?


Matt

 

say; out of all of you guys having starving problems (in 92-95 civic hatches); how many are running the stock pump vs. a GSR or aftermarket one? mine is the stock DX unit, and i have not had starve issues whatsoever... perhaps the aftermarket ones (or GSR or type R ones) place the pickup in a different spot???

just a thought.

todd

ps matt, my Super Seven has a fuel cell. the cell is filled with some type of foam, and because of that, i don't see how a fuel gauge would be easily fitted. I am sure that there must be some fuel cells out there with gauges, though.... i have a "special" stick i made up with notches on it to measure how much gas is still in the cell. this of course requires getting out of the car, unbuttoning the boot, opening the cell, and dipping the stick in!!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Todd Reid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">say; out of all of you guys having starving problems (in 92-95 civic hatches); how many are running the stock pump vs. a GSR or aftermarket one? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Mine is also factory DX, and the other cars I mentioned are Si's.

$.02

 

Our car is in H1.

I also tried high vol pump with no success.

Andrie Hartanto
#23 H1

 

The word at the local Auto-X was that the DX tank does not have baffles..
while the SI tank does.. 88-91 CRX's..I am not sure if this is fact or fiction.

but my Si's have not had a problem with fuel starvation until I have only 2-1 gallons left, while my buddy with a DX gets fuel starvation at less 1/2 a tank.


Also some went to a HF tank since it was small, and for some reason would be less likely to find high-g fuel starvation.

 

I have a 99Si and it has this problem too. I don't let my fuel go below 1/4 tank, because my car would stall on long left handers. Sucks really bad!

 

My 89 STD hatch will starve in long corners if I start the day with less than 5/8 of a tank. Now with the extra stick I'm getting from 15x8.5 Kodiaks and 225/45-15 A3S03s (thanks Rodney!) I find I starve with 5/8s of a tank.





Last Sunday there was a 7-8 cone high speed slalom that I was taking at pretty much full throttle (motor doesn't have much power) and by the last 1-2 cones, the thing was starving at appreciably more than 5/8s of a tank.

Maybe I need to change to the Si tank, or baffle my STD tank.



Modified by Jaker at 8:22 PM 10/23/2003