Date:         Fri, 01 Sep 95 13:00:53 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Running FI engine empty

On Fri, 1 Sep 95 12:34:01 CDT Tobin T. Copley said:
>On Thu, 31 Aug 1995, Harvey Chao wrote:
>>   Running out of gas in a fuel injected engine, gas or diesel is
>> a real "NO-NO".
>
>I've heard this before.  Could someone please explain if this is in fact
>true, and if so, why and what could be damaged?  (Besides one's ego,
>slogging down to road in the rain on foot with a gas can...).

many (not all) of the fuel injection systems use bosch fuel pumps, and these
are "cooled" by the flow of the fuel through the pump. if you run an EFI
system dry, there is NO fuel in the pump ... which can burn up the pump.
also you can get some of the crud that is in the bottom of the fuel tank
sucked into the lines and the pump and possibly the injectors.

it's not that running out once will completely distroy your system ...
it won't. i'm proof of that. but it's not something you want to do every week
or even every month. it' like running your tires with too much (or too little)
air in them: you're gonna ruin the tires sooner or later.

joel