Lets play "What part is this?" Found something in my AFPR :P

Yea, so a few days ago I drove to school and after class I hopped in my car to move it a little closer to the library between classes and smelled some fuel. Popped the hood and found that something was leaking on or near the AFPR, but I couldn't pinpoint it yet. Soooo...I towed it home and checked it out a day later but couldn't find the leak. Fired the car and it wasn't leaking anymore :/...figured, what the hell, I have two more tows through AAA, so I drove it to school again. Got to school w/o a hitch, but the same thing happened when I got out of class and went to leave. At least this time I was able to pinpoint the leak to being b/w the upper and lower mating surfaces on my AEM AFPR...I ordered a rebuild kit w/o knowing what exactly was wrong, and man am I glad I did it.

Popped the FPR open today and found a little screw in it (WTH?).

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...c/IMAG0453.jpg

Anybody have any idea what this might be from? It's definitely not from my FPR because I'm not missing any set screws in it, and since I found it in the FPR, I am assuming it can only be from something b/w the filter, rails, fpr and back. It is a tiny set screw w/a hole in it to allow something to flow through it (yes...I believe that's why :P).

Anywho, when I took the old diaphragm out from the FPR I didn't see any visible damage to it, but swapped it out anyways because I had a new one (woohoo). Now that I have swapped it out, my fuel pressure builds much more consistently and it holds a much more stable pressure w/o as much "needle bounce" or whatever you want to call it. I will pull a few logs on it sometime next week once I get a new plenum gasket it, but for those who are hesitant of buying that $40 diaphragm from AEM to rebuild an aged FPR, I completely recommend it. Car doesn't take as long to fire up anymore either.

have you checked all the inlets etc? maybe it was a reducer that was screwed into one of them and it slowly came loose?

I didn't see anywhere that it may have come from. Even in AEM's manual it shows a disassembled diagram of the regulator and it was nowhere to be seen on there either. Also, the hole going through the center is extremely small...I think a sewing needle would get stuck in it, but there is a hole through it nonetheless.

Does it look complete? it hasn't had the head broken off or something?

yea, it's the weirdest thing. The screw doesn't look broken off or anything. It has a flat head end on one side to tighten it and the other end is smoothed off - not jagged like a broken piece would be. Car fires up nicely now, though, after swapping out that diaphragm...no more laggy starts due to the fpr being a/m. Guess I will just keep my eyes open for any problems.

Looks just like the small allen screw that adjusts the flow.

that was my first suspicion, but the allen screw is still fully intact...and the one I found has a hole. Still no problems, though. Car fires up quicker and holds/builds pressure better as well. No problems thus far *knocks on wood*