I was attempting to return to work after a delightfull philly steak sandwich, when to my suprise my engine gave up the desire to continue on. The tach did give a warning, it dropped and bounced around wildly, in sequence with the engine cutting out. After being relinquished to the roadside, in obliterating humiliation, It cranked with no-start. After about 3mins of 20 second blasts of cranking, it still didn't start. After alot of futile attempts it finally ran half-assed enough to make it the last 3/4 mile to work. Coasting about half of the way. It was trying to die and cutting out during the coasting session.

The victim, besides me, is a 1989 Camaro 5.7 TPI Auto
It has 45 lbs of fuel pressure at initial prime and 38-41 during cranking so I dont think fuel pump. No check engine light, so no codes. I think its losing ignition signal because of the tachs action. Anyone care to comment?

 

espirocz,
I have had similar things happen to me in the past...

A dirty IAC (Idle Air Control) sensor can cause the car to surge and/or die.
However, since yours didn't restart right away, I would look at the control module in the distributor. I'm sure there is a way to test it, but sorry I don't know how. The good news is a new distributor control module is around $30 at your local parts store such as Autozone. While $30 is a little pricy, its not too bad for a TPI part

Hope this helps.

Best of luck!

 

I'm going to go for a drive tonight to see if I can get it to act up again. This time I will have diagnostic tools with me. With tools in hand it probably wont break down though.

 

Isn't that always the way it goes. My tranny was acting up the other day, so I took the car to GM. The tech rode with me for miles and it ran perfectly!

FYI-
When my control module went out, the car would not start again at all.
I had to have it towed home. So just friendly advice... I wouldn't go too far on your drive tonight just in case

 

I'll just have to throw the mountain bike in the back. It almost seems like it is intermittent with heat involved. This morning it ran flawlessly. Started great at lunch then stalled while under hard cornering load, and I coasted into a spot at the restaurant 1/4 mile away. It's really starting to annoy me. And might wind up on the auction block soon.

 

It happened to me when my HEI module failed.

If it happens again, see if you have spark. If not, check the module and the coil and interconnecting wires.

 

Same with me on the HEI module. Just got off the freeway and it sputtered to a stop. Cranked and cranked got it going again only to make it 1 block at a time. After waiting for the tow truck, it cooled off and didn't have a problem till the next day. Replaced the module but only lasted a couple months.

 

Only problem i had where the car just shut off out of no where while i was driving was the wire that went to the oil pressure switch burned out and shorted and poped my fuse and shut power off to the computer so tha the car wouldnt start after wards. Repaired the wire and put in a new fuse and was good to go afterwards. But that doesnt seem to be your prob. Figured id throw that out there

 

Have had this happen a couple of times - once was the hei module - would run fine when cool but die when hot - then fine again once things had cooled down for 15 mins or so.

The other time the motor just died suddenly while driving, kaput. Restarted ok. Then ran happily a few days, then died again. This went on for a couple of weeks till it quit altogether and wouldnt start again. Turned out to be the dist pick-up coil - either the coil itself, or the crimp connectors, or the wires from the coil, never did nut it out. After mucking about with soldering irons and multimeters for a while with mixed but unsatifactory results, I just gave up and bought a nice shiny new cheap replacement dist - no probs since.

 

Try this on for size.

Spark across the spark tester is bright blue, and brighter than the flashlight i was using.

It has compression, because it runs intermittently.

Put a noid light on injector connector, after cranking for 6 seconds noid dimmly started blinking, it fired up and ran, noid got real bright then went dim, like turning a flashlight off. Engine of course died a split second later.
The G.M. service manual I have points to either a bad ECM, or an injector harness shorting, or a short to voltage down stream of the injectors.

So it turns out it is a lack of fuel problem. Either the quad driver in the ECM is refusing to ground or there is a shorting problem.

Happy hunting for me.

 

Thats kinda what happend to me when i diagnoised my car for needing a new ECM. I would have plenty of spark but had no injector pulse. Means i have a good crank sensor since the injectors and the spark run off of the sensor but connect thru the ECM. Put the new ECM in the car and works good now.