Troubleshooting: 2.0 won't stay running Options

[Nate]

Hey everyone! Hope you are all preparing for a nice thanksgiving.

Wanted to see what ideas you guys had about my original FI 2.0 from 73. Some of you may have seen a few other threads of mine but I'll give a little synopsis. I rebuild the motor in my garage. New Pistons and cylinders, all new bearings, lifters. Ground crank and cam. Heads rebuilt by a reputable shop. For the rest of the car. New fuel lines, cleaned and coated fuel tank. New fuel filter. Cleaned and flow matched fuel injectors. Rebuilt distributor. Tuned dwell angle and set static timing.

So I've done all of that and the car won't stay running. It'll start and run for 20 seconds with a high idle (approximately 2500 rpm's) and then it will die even if I'm feathering the throttle.

I'm looking for ideas as to what and how to troubleshoot the car. IF this car was a person I'd strangle it to relieve my frustration.

P.S. I went through the ecu harness and ohm'd everything out and there are no shorts in the wiring and the grounds are solid. I also replaced the throttle position switch and have that set up according to the book and have messed with the idle mixture knob a bit.
Anyone have any ideas on where I should go from here?

Thanks and I wish everyone a good safe holiday.

[Nate]

I'm not sure what the fuel psi is right before it stalls. I haven't been able to start it today. I will try to check that out though. There are no kinks in the lines between the fuel rails and injectors either. I'm not sure if the pump is original or replacement. It appears original. When I say the pump falls to zero, what I mean is that after the fuel pump stops running the psi immediately drops to 20 and then it takes another 45 minutes or so for it to slowly drop from 20 to 0. I know that the pump has a check valve that holds pressure after the pump shuts off but I have read that the chances of that effecting anything as long as the pump is running are minimal. But I guess at this point I'm down to the less common problems...

[Bartlett 914]

I'm not sure what the fuel psi is right before it stalls. I haven't been able to start it today. I will try to check that out though. There are no kinks in the lines between the fuel rails and injectors either. I'm not sure if the pump is original or replacement. It appears original. When I say the pump falls to zero, what I mean is that after the fuel pump stops running the psi immediately drops to 20 and then it takes another 45 minutes or so for it to slowly drop from 20 to 0. I know that the pump has a check valve that holds pressure after the pump shuts off but I have read that the chances of that effecting anything as long as the pump is running are minimal. But I guess at this point I'm down to the less common problems...

The Fuel pump has a check valve in it. The fuel is leaking back into the tank past this valve. This amount of pressure drop after the pump shuts off is pretty common and not a real problem