So I bought a 1989 Pontiac trans am gta 5.7 v8 last year and have been trying to figure out for the past year why it not starting it starts with starting fluid but not by itself what can I do to see what’s going on?

 

Obtain a fuel pressure gauge and measure fuel pressure. Report your findings.

 

After you start the car with the starting fluid does the engine continue to run without spraying more starting fluid into the engine or does it just sputter out and die not long after you quit feeding it starting fluid?

If it sputters out and dies then you need to verify that the fuel pump is running. Since you are 21 I'm going to assume you have good hearing. Turn the key forward to the Key On, Engine Off position, do not turn it forward to the cranking position, and listen for the fuel pump relay to click and turn on the fuel pump and run the fuel pump for 2 seconds. You may or may not be able to hear the fuel pump relay engage but you will be able to hear the fuel pump running for 2 seconds during the priming stage. You can do this several times. Turn the key to the Key Off, Engine Off position, wait a few seconds then turn the key to the Key On, Engine Off position and listen again.

Does your fuel pump run during the priming stage?

If it does run then normally we would check other things such as fuel pressure, resistance of the coil winding of the fuel injectors, check to see if the ECM is firing the fuel injectors with a noid light, and so on.

We going to skip all that stuff and verify that your car doesn't have factory installed Rochester Products Multec fuel injectors. They are retroactively defective by design. Each one of them is a ticking time bomb that will explode or has already exploded. Not literally exploded.

Take pictures of the fuel injectors and upload them here.

Your car also has a Vehicle Anti Theft System called PASSKey. This system will not let you car crank unless someone has bypassed the starter enable relay and then the ECM will not fire the fuel injectors after about 2 seconds if it's not receiving the correct signal from the PASSKey module.

We aren't going to worry about it for now though.

 

This weekend I’ll be able to test it but for one yeah if I want the car to run I’ll have to constantly spray starting fluid secondly i do hear a prime when I turn the key the only thing about vats is me and my bud followed a video by jumping the starter enable relay and it cranks but I don’t think that was necessary because before that it cranked if that makes sense but this weekend I’ll send videos and picture

 

These are the pictures of the fuel injectors I’m gonna check the pressure today