My '87 dodge 2500 van will run and then die. It is a 318 2bbl carb motor. I can sometimes drive a mile sometimes farther or less and it will die! It will start right back up and idle are rev up but it wont drive but a few feet and it will die over and over. It did this once before and I put it in the shop after I had changed fuel pump and filter. The shop put another fuel pump on and all new filters too. but to know avail. They finally put a fuel regulator in line by the carb and it worked fine[ 650.00 dollars later ]. Now it is doing the same thing again about 2 years later. Any body got any ideas what this is?

 

If they put in an aftermarket pump instead of an OEM one from a dealer it could be failing. People have reported short lifespans from aftermarket pumps. The other possibility is your crankshaft position sensor is bad. First thing you need to do is to check the fuel pressure and then go from there.

 

The other thing it could be is the float in the carb sticking. I'd suggest running a botle of carb cleaner concentrated into 1-2 a of gas though it. you have to monkey with the lines, but if you hook a set of lines before the pump and the returnline off of the filter into a spare tank, then just fill that with gas, pour in the bottle which says it is good for generally 14-21 gallons and just let it work through the system - idle and then some revs and some more idle. If that fixes it, you have two choices, rebuild/replace the carb or (2) use a bottle with every tank of gas.

You can also try spray carb cleaner in the throat of the carb, but that wont get into the float area, it will just clean the throttle plate up.

EDIT: One additional thing, the regulator should be unecessary, if the proper filter is used right after the pump. That way the excess preasure is routed back to the tank unless there is a problem with that return line. The proper filter has an offtake line which doesnt run through the filter for excess gas to return to the tank. The puralator part number for that part is F20030 and is about $3-$4 . If you don't use the screw down hose clamps and insead use the spring loaded ones you can change out the filter alone in about 5-10 minutes with only a pair of pliers.


Good luck