- Joined
- Oct 2, 2023
- Messages
- 596
- Location
- New Mexico
- Vehicle Details
- 1994 Mercury Cougar XR7, 3.8L, all stock
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Hello!
I recently replaced my fuel rail with one from an identical car from the yard. Many, many years ago I was trying to trace down a problem and stuck a fuel rail from an 89 Continental (3.8l) in to 1994 Mercury Cougar, 3.8l. For the new rail, I bought a new fuel pressure regulator because the original one, to my knowledge, had over 200k on that engine. After I finished and took the car for a test drive, I was smelling fresh fuel. When I put the car in the garage the odor got worse. My wife was screaming at me to do something! Today I removed the upper intake and checked the fuel rail, fuel lines to the rail, lines in the rail (I had to replace the fuel rail line due to rot). Today I took off the upper intake and while checking around, pulled the new pressure regulator. To my amazement, the O-rings had a pinch in one and the other was torn. I wrote to Walker Products about this issue. I used my o-rings from the old pressure regulator with some engine assembly lube.
Anyway, after driving around for 30 minutes, hitting 90 on a straight away, I ran codes and am still getting 173 and 137 (same as I was getting when the car ran like it was flooded) no other codes though. The car is not acting like it is flooding anymore or running rich. The transmission shifts properly now, and the car has much better pick up.
Do I need to drive it for a while (like for a full tank) to clear out the crap in the O2 sensors before the codes go away or do I have some other issues still? Do I need to replace the O2 sensors? I replaced them less than 10k miles ago. I had read in my research to test the fuel rail pressure to make sure it is not over, what... 35psi? Guess I need to order a meter from Amazon.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have some input into my dilemma.
I recently replaced my fuel rail with one from an identical car from the yard. Many, many years ago I was trying to trace down a problem and stuck a fuel rail from an 89 Continental (3.8l) in to 1994 Mercury Cougar, 3.8l. For the new rail, I bought a new fuel pressure regulator because the original one, to my knowledge, had over 200k on that engine. After I finished and took the car for a test drive, I was smelling fresh fuel. When I put the car in the garage the odor got worse. My wife was screaming at me to do something! Today I removed the upper intake and checked the fuel rail, fuel lines to the rail, lines in the rail (I had to replace the fuel rail line due to rot). Today I took off the upper intake and while checking around, pulled the new pressure regulator. To my amazement, the O-rings had a pinch in one and the other was torn. I wrote to Walker Products about this issue. I used my o-rings from the old pressure regulator with some engine assembly lube.
Anyway, after driving around for 30 minutes, hitting 90 on a straight away, I ran codes and am still getting 173 and 137 (same as I was getting when the car ran like it was flooded) no other codes though. The car is not acting like it is flooding anymore or running rich. The transmission shifts properly now, and the car has much better pick up.
Do I need to drive it for a while (like for a full tank) to clear out the crap in the O2 sensors before the codes go away or do I have some other issues still? Do I need to replace the O2 sensors? I replaced them less than 10k miles ago. I had read in my research to test the fuel rail pressure to make sure it is not over, what... 35psi? Guess I need to order a meter from Amazon.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have some input into my dilemma.