96 LT1, OBD1 in 89 TA (former TPI) .. swap approx 6 years ago.
OK.. I'm about to lose my mind. Car has been sitting for a month or 2 (running fine prior) .. Now it won't start. It will cough and cough or just crank. I have spark on #1 plug wire.. it looks strong.. I have fuel pressure..
Soo.. I have air, fuel and spark.. why no go? lol
I suspected skunky gas, so I hooked a hose to the schrader valve and bypassed the pump and emptied the car. I then filled it with new 92 octane and ran it until the air was out and put it back together. then I ran the pump to push any left over skunky gas into the return line... No difference. All I get is a few coughs, the odd almost fire cough cough while continuing to crank or I get nothing but starter turning the motor over. Since it's coughing I'm assuming the computer is commanding the injectors to open (whether they are or not).. I checked my electrical connections everywhere to make sure something wasn't unplugged.. I'm at a loss.
Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

At this point I would examine the spark plugs. The symptoms sound a lot like old, fouled plugs

 

thinking the same... funny you should mention that.. while I was picking up a couple oil filters today, I ordered new plugs.. I had one out and it was a little wet and looked like it had run rich, but not what i would consider to be wore... They aren't AC Delco but some are on the way.. It's still funny to happen all of a sudden.

 

Well, I've had a couple cars do that same thing, and it turned out to be the plugs. As I said, the symptoms match bad plugs... and my 88 GTA had the same problem.

It had been sitting for over 3 years. I pulled one or two of the plugs, and they looked almost new, but just a little dirty. The symptoms were exactly like yours. I replaced the plugs, and she fired right off.

 

well. I took the 6 easy plugs out and cleaned them. Put em back in and it fired up. Pretty hesitant but it went. Lucky thing I ordered a new set I guess. The only bummer is that I missed my motor vehicle inspection this afternoon .. Have to let the car sit another couple days now. Hopefully new plugs will be in at the first of the week.
Thanks for the advice, you nailed it!

 

Ain't no thang. This board is the greatest. In fact, I am an old guy (53) and even though I am a computer tech, I just can't seem to get excited by "social networking" sites like facebook... yet I have noticed that I spend as much time here as a lot of folks do on "facebook"... so maybe I just needed the right subject matter...

 

sounds like you might have some leaky injectors causing it to flood out the plug, I fired mine up the other day after sitting for almost a year and it fired right up.

 

quite possible.. The Opti may be getting weak as well.. Everything is fine once it's running. I have a spare fuel rail that is no good, might be worth the effort to build a test bench for the injectors. They should hold back air as well as they do gas.

 

I,m having a simular problem. I parked the car('89 TA) about 3 months ago and now it won't crank. I sprayed a small amount of starter fluid and it cranks for the duation of the starter fluid and then it shuts back off. Whats the deal?

 

obviously not getting fuel. you need to check fuel pressure, pump operation, etc.

The first thing you should do is listen to see if the fuel pump primes when you turn the key to the ON position without cranking. If it does, then check the pressure.