AAZ wont start on its own, Timing issue???

[JayBoots]

Good day all,
First time posting here. So ill start with the history.. Car is a 1980 Rabbit, I rebuilt the whole thing and put an AAZ in it. ran good for about a year when out of the blue it started dumping think dark smoke. asked a couple VW mechanics and they were figuring it was an injector issue.. went to replace injectors and what you know... the threads that hold injector 4 in came out... great, new head time.... so put a new head on, 4 new injectors, took it to a shop for them to time and tune it and sat for 4 months. Got mad and just said screw it and picked it up.... they say they timed it... I never confirmed... anyway, tried last summer to get it running and had no luck what so ever, injector pump just doesn't seem to take fuel in from the tank..

Now onto the problem at hand. Now  that it has been 3 years since it has been running, i slapped a low pressure (4.5-7PSI) pump on this week in between the fuel filter and the injector pump (guess I should try on the return?).. Prime up the whole system, and bam, she fired right up. rough as hell and smoky as hell, just wanting to die, as its in a high idle sounding I unplug the inline pump and it stays running but still rough and zero throttle response. have response from the Choke (cold start lever) but nothing from the gas peddle, it eventually dies about a min later.. so i do the whole thing over, plug in the inline pump, charge the system and it fires up again. let it run then turn off the inline pump and the engine.
This time I completely remove the inline pump so it is back to a normal set up. Sure there is some air in the lines now but only in the top half of the lines.. she starts on her own, still rough as hell, and still no throttle, as im watching the fuel lines i notice that they aren't filling up at all and it eventually becomes full of air at which point the engine dies.
Sorry for writing a novel... anyway,

So question... Is the timing out? is the IP NFG? looking for options, Why isnt the throttle working? Im up at work so wont be able to try the options for a couple of days. Thanks in advance.       

[vanbcguy]

Fuel starvation... you've either got a blockage in your supply line or the vane pump in your IP has gotten sticky.  Do you have air in your return line?

It's super common for the vanes in the lift pump portion of the IP to get stuck in place after the pump has been sitting for a while.

If you have a mityvac or something similar try pulling fuel from your filter, you shouldn't see more than a couple inches of vacuum.  If you can build up several inches and it stays then you've found your problem.  If not then you know your supply side is good.

The vane pump can often be freed up just by running the pump for a while on clean diesel, though a healthy dose of ATF wouldn't hurt at all.  Many folks have had good success filling the IP with ATF and letting it soak overnight - ATF has a lot of detergent and lubricants in it and it won't harm any of the seals or anything.  ATF burns fine too, though it's not exactly ideal for starting the engine.  Obviously use only new clean ATF.

[JayBoots]

Perfect, thanks VanBC, I will try this when I get home