Hi Everyone,
I've been stuffing around with my 1987 305 LG4 4bbl for about 3-4 weeks now, mainly waiting on parts to come from America. On a nice cold damp morning my car crapped out on me on the way to work. It felt like either an ignition coil or a fuel pump as it stuttered farted and died, restarted enought for me to get the 500 metres home but sounded completely out of time and not going above 15km/h (9 mph). Error codes for EST and Rich Exhaust

My spark was super weak when i used the spark tester so i replaced the ignition coil and ignition module. Whilst my spark improved immensely and jumped the widest gap on the tool, i had no firing whatsoever, it would just crank and crank and crank. It wouldnt even fire on starter fluid.

I noticed that the fuel pump wasn't priming during this time either (1987 has the mechanical on the block and the electric in the tank) so following another thread i cut the magic fuel door into the boot which i would thoroughly recommend to anyone having to change one of these bastards of things. After exposing the wiring, i tested the voltage with the multimeter and it was providing power when oil pressure was detected but the pump wasn't functioning. I cut the lines, pulled the pump and found the 1" connector hose as entirely perished and the little sock for the fuel pump completely choccas with crud.

In Australia, if you walk into a shop asking for a Camaro part, they just laugh and tell you to leave. But turns out these thirdgens share a lot of parts with the Australian VN-VR commodores so a pump was sourced easily. I replaced the pump, broke out the pressure gauge and had perfect pressure. still no firing.

I then thought i should probably check the cylinder compression, perfect in all cylinders (really hard to do for the back cylinders btw)

By this time i was starting to get really pissed off. I had everything; timing, spark, compression, fuel WHY WOULD YOU NOT START?!?!?!

Then my dad sends me a text message "have you checked the cat?". So i pulled the flange off before the cat, turned it over - still nothing however it cranked over a lot more freely and i got a fuelly smell. I Pulled one of the plugs, caked in black crap from turning over for 3 weeks so i sprayed some carb cleaner on the 4 front plugs (that i could get at quickly), disconnected the fuel line from the carb and cranked it over with starter fluid - BANG i had ignition! cranked some more starter fluid in, turned it over kept spraying until i got something resembling a shortlived start.

I reconnected the fuel line, sprayed a tad more in there turned it over and it started! it took about 40-60 seconds for the back 4 plugs to clear and fire but away it went - very loudly obviously because there is no exhaust whatsoever.

So moral of the story, Get the codes, check the obvious stuff, if youre going to replace things then make sure theyre cheap and make sense, check the forums regularly, keep in touch with your dad and pretty much listen to anything that Five7Kid says on these forums - judging by the info i got from 6 million posts, he definitely knows his stuff.

Thankyou to all those who indirectly helped me without even being aware!