I had my 455 rebuilt 3 years ago. .040 over, Procomp heads from Bernard Mondello, Lunati roller cam from Mark (cutlassefi), and the other typical hop up parts, Edelbrock intake, Hooker headers, yada, yada, yada.

I also added a 2600 stall converter, a 3.73 rear end and a tach. (the tach will come into play later...)

The car ran fine up to around 4000 rpm. At that point it would start to fall off power wise, and cut out at 5000 under load/driving.
In park, it would rev to 5500-5800 easily.
I checked all that I could, timing, plug wires, carb adjustments, checked for vacuum leaks, etc.
The only thing I couldn't check reliably was fuel pressure, but I had a brand new pump, and it never gave me a problem before the rebuild, so I dismissed a fuel supply problem.

I picked a fuel injection system for the start-up ease, better engine management, etc. I also hoped it would take care of, what I thought was my 750 carb starving the motor at higher rpms.

So over the weekend I put the car up on the hoist and get to looking things over to drop the tank and install my new 'in tank pump' gas tank.

The pics tell the rest of the story....

I have no idea how I missed this kinked line when I had the rear end out back in '13.
I also know why I didn't have the 'cut out' before the rebuild.
With a 2.56 rear end gear, it never revved up high enough on the street, and without a tach, I had no idea what rpm I was turning when I would shift, (apparently not much over 4000...).

It now pulls like a rented mule, if I have traction, up to 5800 easily. Almost too easy. I need a shift light....

It even feels and sounds better at 3000 rpm. To say I'm pretty giddy is an understatement.
Too bad it's late Oct. here and not June.

 

Good cross section shot really shows the reduction in the line.

5800 rpms. yowza.

 

And yet, a cheap aftermarket fuel pressure gauge would have been somewhat less expensive than that EFI system... and considerably less work to install.

 

A fine lesson. Thank you.

- Eric

 

Always replace all the rubber fuel lines with fuel injection hose.


Cheap insurance.

 

I suspect I may have the same issue. Looses power and starts missing badly at high RPM. I have checked most of the usual culprits without success. I noticed the steel fuel supply line has a small kink where it turns to go over the axle. I plan to replace this winter. Hopefully my smile will be as big as yours next spring. Congrats on your detective work.

 

It was an eye opener for sure.
Joe, I did have a friend of mine say all along that he felt it was a fuel issue, and I needed to install a gauge.
In my stubbornness, I resisted. Mainly due to the fact I didn't know how to be able to see the gauge while driving. I knew better than to run it into the car, and if I strapped it to the cowl I was worried about 'something' going wrong and covering the car in fuel.
My imagination can be pretty colorful.... LOL

All of my new lines will be stainless tubing and PTFE lined hose, considering what today's fuel will do to rubber, I don't need another fuel line issue...

In all, I'm hoping my discovery will help someone else to look for the less obvious reason for low fuel supply.

 

Isn't there a way to install a fuel pressure gauge with a remote sending unit? Had not thought about this much until reading this post.

 

Wow ! I am glad you found it.I knew i had a small leak some where but was unable to locate it.The car had plenty of fuel pressure on the gage. The car must have been leaking when car wasn't running because no fuel drips. This had been going on for a year at least. I found it yesterday while prepping the car to go racing this weekend. Three inches of rubber fuel hose had a minor crack. No time to correct it with metal line so i just changed it with a new rubber piece for now. This will get corrected next week after racing. This is for my sons birthday for him to race this car.Car was not active racing for three years. It is legal to use this much rubber per nhra rules.