I think I may need a new Electric fuel pump...or maybe not

[Fiat88]

Car has been working great with the new DFEV carb I put in with the great advice from the forum,especially mbouse's email to email help. New problem it seems maybe with the pump or maybe not... last friday afternoon when started the car to leave my college parking lot it started fine and idled while warming up, but it cut out on me when I was going in reverse to leave my parking spot. I eventually got home and noticed that the spark plug well closest to the radiator in the engine was covered in about an inch of oil, showed it to my dad who has limited mechanic skills like me, I told him we should suck it out with a turkey baster but I just realized that he pulled the spark plug out and it all went in. He must of thought it was gasoline. . So, how bad will this f*** the engine up? I really just thought about this now as I was typing this. It was running fine for about a week after I think engine oil went into the cylinder, so maybe that's not the problem.

But the fuel pump is also a concern because it usually makes a humming sound that I can hear pretty good now it's not very easy to hear. Going to put a new fuel filter in tomorrow because I don't know when the PO put one in and I had the car since summer 2008 but didn't start driving it into summer 2009. What's the best way to see if the electric pump is faulty. I cleaned the gound and changed the fuse. Tried yesterday and today but can't get the car to stay on.

Thanks for any suggestions.

-John

[So Cal Mark]

electric pumps are usually noisier when they are starved for fuel, so check the integrity of the hoses leading to it. To test the pump you'll need to check pressure and volume. First step to solving your starving problem is to analyze all of the symptoms. If it's a fuel problem, restarting should take awhile since the carb bowl will be empty. If it starts quickly but has trouble idling on its' own then most likely not pump related.
First thing I'd suggest would be to check the gap of the ignition points. Then check for a loose carburetor mounting or vacuum leak.

[kmead]

Where is your electric fuel pump? They work best when back by the gas tank. They tend not to pull well and as a result can starve for fuel and make noise if mounted in the engine compartment.

Certain electric fuel pumps are endemically noisy, the Facet ones in particular have always seemed unduly noisy to me.

As for your start up problem, the majority of fuel in the carb may have evaporated after shut down from the trapped heat under the hood and it may have vaporized the fuel leading to or from the fuel pump. When you went to start up, there may have been enough fuel in the bowl to start but no fuel available in the lines so it couldn't be replenished by the pump until it created enough vacuum to pull the fuel up from the tank.

If it happens again, try just leaving the key in the "On" position for 30 seconds after the car stalls to allow the fuel pump to bring fuel to the carb (without cranking). After doing that turn it to off and then try starting the car.

[Fiat88]

Good news, fuel pump works! I took the fuel line to the carb off and pumped it into a container. Then I changed out the old filter in the trunk with a new in-line metal one. The clear fuel filter in the engine compartment is clean.

We checked the 2 spark plugs which I suspected got oil fouled. The first one closest to the radiator was black fouled up. We cleaned it and soaked it in gasoline for 15 minutes. Put the plugs back in and the car fired up and idled high for about a 2 minutes then went low again. I adjusted idle screw and idles well now. Will check back later. Gonna get 2 new spark plugs just in case.