I have a 16 Valve Multiport Fuel injected engine donated from a 1995 Sidekick in my Samy. At one end of the Fuel Rail there is the Pressure Regulator, at the other end is a Pulsation/Snubber where the fuel line comes into the engine.

Yesterday I was looking at a 1996/8 Service manual (I don't have a 1995 manual available)for the Sidekick and found that not all models used the Pulsation/Snubber. Does anybody know what the Pulsation/Snubber does and why it was not neccessary on all models? In the models that did not use the Pulsation/Snubber the injectors were a different part number and the fuel rail was slightly different in the drawings.

I am asking at this time because I believe the Pulsation/Snubber is causing an intermittant starvation of fuel and I am considering eliminating it from the engine. At a cost of close to $90 I believe getting rid of it and replacing it with a non-active component, i.e. less moving parts might be a good thing!

Another thing that could be wrong is the fuel pump is not putting out enough pressure intermittantly to open the valve on the Pulsation/Snubber.

Any ideas out there?

Rick

I think it is just an empty chamber to help smooth out the feul flow thru the pressure regulator. Basically the regulator would flucuate open and closed partally every time an injector fired witout it. Are you shure it is a feul problem. I had a shop diagnose a lean injector turned out to be a bad plug wire. The ristance on them was good just the insulator going into the head was bad.

Ski

During one of my problem times I removed the plug at the front of the fuel rail next to the pressure regulator and turned on the Fuel Pump and nothing came out - at this time I thought the problem was the fuel pump so I replaced it in the field, I carry a spare, although there was no change - no fuel.

So I removed the fuel line from where it enters the engine and turned on the fuel pump and I made a mess - so the fuel pump was working to some degree. I then removed the Pulsation/Snubber and proceeded to abuse the unit by banging it on a hard surface. I put the thing back in and the engine started up and ran just fine for several months.

The Pulsation/Snubber does have a spring laden valve within that operates in some manner. I just don't know what it does or why it is used on some vehicles and not others with the same engine. I believe the Fuel Pump pressure operates the Pulsation/Snubber valve, opening it to the flow of fuel and when the source fuel pump pressure is insufficient the valve closes cutting off the supply of fuel to the engine, but keeping the fuel rail pressurized. If this is the case it would keep enough pressure in the fuel rail to be able to start the engine without the fuel pump working for faster starting? Again the parts manual listed different injectors if the Pulsation/Snubber was used and/or not used.

My engine is a 1995 and the Parts manual I have been able to look at was for the years 1996 - 1998. So I don't know if the 1995 model year was the same.

Rick

The Suzuki Swift GTi (MPI 16V DOHC 1.3L) FSM states:

The fuel pulsation dampener is installed to the delivery pipe. The fuel pressure applied to the injector is regulated to a certain extent by the fuel pressure regulator, but as it is affected when the injector injects fuel, a slight change occurs in it (pulsation of fuel pressure). Then the fuel pulsation dampener absorbs this pulsation.

IT IS NOT DESIGNED TO ACTUALLY CONTROL THE FLOW OF FUEL.

There are no procedures to check/repair/replace the fuel pulsation dampener (welded into end of fuel rail on GTi).

The Chilton's Suzuki Samurai/Kick manual only covers how to remove/replace the fuel pulsation dampener. Doesn't give any clues as to a diagnosis leading one to believe fuel pulsation dampener is faulty.

Don't believe it could cause your problem.

What fuel pump are you using? When I discovered the in-tank pump on my 90 Samurai wasn't working I dropped the tank & found rust on the pump mounting bracket & electrical ground. I would hazard a guess that this is pretty common on 90-95 efi Samurais. Any degree of corrosion on that ground would adversely affect fuel pressure.

The efi Samurai tank has the pump area baffled to the point it's very difficult to siphon all the gas out of the tank. Your post doesn't lead me to believe your fuel starvation is due to gas sloshing away from pump's pick up.

Gas tank is the 15 gal. after market tank by Petroworks.

The aftermarket high pressure fuel pump, as I stated in the original post was replaced with the fuel filter and there was initially no fuel out of the rail until after disturbing the pulsation dampener . The fuel pump is located outside the tank next to the Fuel filter just forward of the tank.

Since my original post I have had the pulsation dampener out to look at it again and have found the spring is very stout. So much so it may be that both of the fuel pumps I have used are not strong enough to open the valve of the pulsation dampener sometimes. They were procured from Trail Tough when I did the 1600 conversion and later when a friend strongly suggested I carry a spare on the trail. They are similar, but slightly different and I drove away with the new one in place.

I have now purchased a fuel pressure gauge setup and intend to find out just what is going on the next time it fails. I'm also looking for a way to get rid of the pulsation dampener with a banjo bolt and banjo.