ASTRO van stalling ahhhhhhhh!!

I have an 88 astro van 4.3 liter V6, my boss gave it to me stating that the engine might ne to be overhauled soon.It was smoking a little and was stalling left anright. I took it to a Mechanic and he told me to go ahead and overhaul it cause it sounded pretty bad.I took the engine out myself and got it rebuilt than installed everything back on and the same problem was happening although there was no smoke it was still stalling. I thought it might be the vacume line but it all seems to be intact I also thought it might be the fuel pump so i squeezed the return line on the fuel line and the engine Idles high but at the same time it has never idled so good(sounds like a new car).before i go ahead and change the pump i want to knoe If anyone knows what the hell is going on.Might it be a sensor or something.

Well if pinching the return fuel line made it run better, I'd check the fuel pressure regulator. I'd guess the spring in there has broken and is giving you drastically reduced fuel pressure....

THanks i will try it out.One more thing ,what about the smell of gas what could that mean

A leak or running waaayyy rich.

My suspicion is the EGR system. The fuel smell is from the miss causing HC emissions to go way up. The improvement from restricting the return line is from the enrichment overcoming the dilution from the EGR. Only a guess... Ray