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Yanked out the fuel pump relay today from the center console, as well as two other relays whose contacts I cleaned. I opened up the fuel pump relay and resolved all the connections. Some appeared to be weak, so I was feeling pretty confident at this point that this would solve my problems.

I replaced all the relays and fired up the brick. Started up just fine, but the fuel pressure reading stayed exactly where it used to be.

I pinched off the return line after the FPR, and the pressure spiked up quickly to 60+ PSI. I released the pinch because some drops of fuel were coming out from where where the clamps were holding the rubber return hose onto the metal fuel railing.

Will be replacing the fuel filter soon if I get a chance, as that may be due.

I'm starting to think that the gauge might be off and what I'm perceiving as hesitation really isn't hesitation at all, but rather an old car performing as it should. Again, at idle it's about 30PSI, and with the vacuum hose off the FPR, it's about 40PSI. If you adjust it 5PSI upwards, then it's performing exactly as it should.

Someone suggested that there may be an air bubble in the gauge, but that gauge has been in there for nearly 5 years. I'll crack open the hoses later a tiny bit and 'bleed' it out. I suppose the gauge could be off too. It's a Summit Auto 100 PSI gauge I believe.

Edit: HMM this is interesting! I went back into my Volvo diary/journal to when I installed the gauge.

July 2002

July 17, 2002:

Went over to the Volvo, popped the splicer barbs off, and put the fitting in with the gauge and all. Started up the car, and the gauge was working and reading only about 38 PSI at idle. I don't know if this is normal. I revved the engine a bit and it went up to 44PSI, which is what it's supposed to be at. Go figure.

Unfortunately, there was a tiny leak, a very very VERY tiny leak which I'm sure did not affect the pressure reading by more than 0.5 PSI. I mean, this leak was tiny, about a drop every minute, but still, can't have fuel leaking under your hood. So I removed the whole thing again, and was going to use a vice grip to tighten the whole thing (I think it was leaking from the gauge joint, not the barbed ends) but instead, it slipped out of my hands.

The car had plenty of time to warm up today, as I had driven it a good 40 miles. The pressure at idle was barely 30 PSI. I revved up the engine, and it spiked to about 40 PSI, but quickly dropped back down to 30 PSI even as I held the engine revving at 3KRPM. This can't be right. I'm currently waiting for a response back from the Brickboarders.