Go to take The Boy to school this morning and The Precious smells strongly of gas.
This turns out to be a common problem with the C6.
To the point that if it was less than 10 years old or fewer than 120k miles there's a recall.
What happens is there's a 90˚ elbow on the top of the tank where the fuel line exits. It develops a small crack and sprays 60 psi gas up there. There's some suspicion that the problem is from ethanol because it really took off in 2008 when the ethanol mandate hit. Have you punched a corn farmer today?
This elbow is actually part of the fuel-pump/level sender assembly. So instead of a $3 pipe fitting, I need a $250 fuel pump.
Getting the tank dropped is nightmarish, because there's really two tanks and the crossover is difficult to access.
This is the last straw, I think.
I'm fed up with the car and the constant fights with poor design decisions.
A friend of mine in the Corvette club here has a problem with one of his fuel pumps in his C6. Unfortunately you have to drop the exhaust first before you can drop the tank. The book says changing the fuel pump is a 10 hour job because of that. So that's $1200 in labor at a lot of shops to change a $250 part. It is unfortunate because the C6 really is a very nice car to drive.
ReplyDeleteDropping the tank with the exhaust and torque tube out of the way is 1000% easier than just dropping the tank.
DeleteI think this will get fixed when the clutch gets replaced.
A lot of home wrench-turners have replaced their plastic/rubber/MIM parts with stainless fittings.
DeleteHelps to have access to a decent lathe and mill, too.
Good luck. Ethanol has killed just about as many outboards as rocks.
I remember, back when I had a lawn, the beginning of mowing season was started by a complete carb clean and replacement of all fuel lines, and cleaning of fuel tank. All thanks to Ethanol.
What a brilliant idea, require a hydrophilic fuel in a place noted for norms of 70-80% humidity. Stupid idea.
I will take pictures when it's out.
DeleteThe design that came with the car has the exit 90 molded as part of the top of the pump.
The current design has a 90 made from a different plastic there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9e3Md122Mg
If you did sell your C6, what would you replace it with? The Corvette occupies a very small market niche of big powerful 2 seater for less than crazy money and I don't see you buying a Viper.
ReplyDelete