Friend of mine has the same 91 RS convertible camaro as mine, And he had it sitting in the back yard for 3 years while he was in japan. We towed it out into the garage and did a full down maintenance on everything (oil, plugs, wires, tranny filter, fuel filter, etc)

Trying to turn the car over, it 'puffs' every once in a while but won't start. Started once for 3 seconds but w/ full throttle and ran horrible and rough. Trying spraying in carb cleaner to start, and it didn't make a difference.....

Anyone got any tips for bringing the beast back to life? Somthing that i should be looking for?

PS- Fuel pump works. And how common is it for a ECM to go out?

 

Did you test the fuel pump to make sure ot was okay. You should be seeing 9 to 12 psi in the feed line. Anything below that will not suffice. Even though you may see fuel come out of the injectors, it won't be enough. I would also put in some fresh gas. 3 year old gas that has sit outside isn't always the prime solution for optimun running conditions.

 

Are you sure the timing is set correctly and that you hooked up the spark plug wires in the correct order?

 

yea, Tripple checked it against the book.

also, we turned the engine over a few times before we got it to the garage, and it was acting the same way before too. and it was running fine the last time it was ran before that.

 

im sure the gas has alot to do with it. my car sat for like 8 months in my garage while i fixed tranny problems but when i got it started it ran pretty bad until i got a full tank of good gas in it and that was just after 8 months not 3 yrs. even after you get it started its gonna run bad for a bit . once its half way rinng good, take it out to a place you can consistantly run it at liek 65 or so . that will help too once the car is started.

good luck

 

How's the battery?

EDIT: Sorry. I mean, what's the condition of the battery? How old is it, do you know how many volts it's holding (it should be around 12 with the engine off), etc.?

 

Battery isn't great, but w/ a charger we can get it to turn over pretty well... it just isn't charged. (probably is charged by now though)

 

You may also want to check all of your wiring. Rodents tend to move in over long storage periods and they gan eat up all sorts of wiring.

 

New Gas isnt a bad idea, my car sat for 3 1/2 yrs while i did an engine/trans swap and the gas was so old it wouldnt burn (lacqoured fuel), i ended up dumping 5 gals of premium(to offset the 3 1/2 yr old fuel) in before it would start. check your wiring too Rodents are bad news, i know i had to replace ignition wiring in my nova because of them.

 

Yea, i know all about the rodents... My first camaro i baught was a 85 Iroc "uned Port" (the "T" had broken off...lol) and i had to wire splice -EVERY- wire comming out of the fire wall. that was not fun.

Anyways, it doesn't look like wire damage.

I've been doing alot of searches and heard somthing like the Cam might be turned 180*, so that the spark plug wires needs shifted over 4 places on the distributor. I don't know how commen or possible that is, sounds plausible to me. but it's easy to check so were going to try that, along checking that all the pushers are pushing, and all the rockers are rocking

 

Will it start?

305 fans remain vigilant.

~C

 

Well, We Tripple checked all the plugs and wires and such and after a few more trys it started turning over... Now, i'm not 100% sure if it was somthing as stupid as a bad plug, but i'm thinking after turning it over so much that the good gas finally started getting pushed through.

So yea, it's running, not great though. Were giving up at this point, and just bringing it to a mechanic we know real well. hate to do it, but we don't know what else to do.

Thanks for Everyones Help!!! :lala:

 

My "bet" woudl be on the gas....if its been in there for 3 years with no stabilizer its bound to be "sub par"........

 

How to go from square one, and get an engine to start.

http://www.t6p.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3626

 

Good Link, Thanks!