I have an 88 firebird w/ a TBI 305.

The car will crank and start but will die right away. It only does this early in the morning. I can give it gas and it acts like it want's to stay running but will run like crap and will die anyway.

I'll usually try to start it at 6 am on so i can go to work and it will start then die right away....sometimes before dying it will rev up then down once or twice before it dies. I'll let it sit then come back at 3pm after work and it will fire right up and stay running. It will run just fine. I don't get any service engine lights when it does not start.

It is very consistent.....it does not want to start during the morning. I replaced the IAT valve thinking that might have been it but it wasn't. The door in the air filter housing stays closed when the car is cold but it will open when it's hot. The car will not start even with the air filter cover off so it's not lacking air. The egr valve is not stuck open. There are no busted vacuume lines, when it does run fuel delivery is good. It's hard to trouble shoot since it only does it in the morning.......i can't even get it to a diagnostic computer because they need the car in the morning but the damn thing won't start.

 

whens the last time it had a good tune-up ?
plugwires , sparkplugs , cap and rotor ?

 

Hey, nice car. Did you try to drop the car off at night so the shop would have it first thing in the am. On the positive side you could work second shift.

 

Yeah i'd work the 2nd shift but i aready did for 3 years and it sucks.

The car has had the wires/plugs/cap/rotor/entire distibutor replaced about 4000 miles ago.

The car does not get driven very often....as it already has 160k miles on the clock.

If it was that wouldn't it do it all the time.

It will not run ONly in the morning.

 

Try a compression check, 160K is a lot of miles.

 

Sounds like moisture is getting in the ignition system or one of the
connections for the EFI wireing.
Put a heat lamp under the hood and try it in the morning.
If it starts ok then thats your problem. Then you'll have to figure out what exactly is being affected by the moisture from the morning dew.

 

I had the same problem with an old bronco that I had, the coil was getting the morning moisture on it and wouldnt' send a good spark.

Hope this helps,

Ben