Hey guys...

Would love to get some insight here. My '91 RS died on me while driving home. Engine just stopped running. It will turn over, but won't start.

Today, I checked for fuel. After cranking it, a little fuel had collected on the butterfly valve. I don't think fuel is the problem, but I replaced the coil, cap and rotor to no avail.

I have yet to check spark on the plugs. I'm going to do that as soon as I can.

Any other ideas?

 

Could be a million things. Start by checking spark and fuel pressure. Some of the things it could be are bad gas (did you fill up recently at a crappy station, this has been happening a lot recently, my 2004 Ram did it because of crappy gas, got gas somewhere else and fixed everything), large vacuum leak (something came loose), no or not enough spark (something died or a wire came loose), timing (distributor slipped). Like I said, you have to narrow it down some more first. Honestly, when it's running good and just dies, usually from my experience something simple just came loose. Most problems have some symptoms before dying completely.

 

It might make sense to elaborate a little on the circumstances of it dying:

I was (and still am) at less than 1/4 tank of fuel. I had been driving home from work and was within 1 mile of home. I had already traveled at least 10 miles from work, and have about 100 miles on this car since I bought it on Jan 1.

It died just as I came to a stop light. It would not start, but at the time, cranking it over got me a vague attempt to hold an idle. It would kick up a few hundred rpm above the starter speed, but never hold it, except for once: I was bouncing the throttle HARD and it just barely stayed "lit" for 5 seconds before dying.

I had a guy in the next car over help me push it. I was able to kick-start it (i have a manual) and busted *** as fast as I could to get home, the engine stumbling the whole time. It finally died for good about 3 blocks short.

Now that it's in the driveway, I get nothing. Does this new information help?

Thanks, P-ROC, for the insight.

BTW - this is a 5.0l TBI.

 

could be weak fuel pressure,foam rubber coupler hose
in the tank might have gotten soft and blown out-
just pour some gas down the TBI and see if it runs
for a moment.
a very badly plugged catalytic converter could also
make it barely run.

 

Now that you said it gave you weak idle after a few seconds I believe it is something with the fuel. Try dumping gas like 8t2 z-chev said. The reason I say that is because for the first few seconds you get extra fuel flow for cold start, then it will settle. Definitely sounds like fuel system now. Lots of things to check still. Injectors, pressure regulator, and fuel filter are the place to start I think. I used to have an 84 Z28 that would vapor lock sometimes and I would take the fuel cap off for 5 minutes or so and it would run great. I never did figure out what was wrong with that thing. Try removing the fuel cap though, see what happens. It's free and easy. If that works you can run without the cap until you figure out the problem.

 

OK - FIGURED IT OUT !!!!

After doing all of that, I tried something I should've done first.

I went and put 5 gal of fresh gas. FIRED RIGHT UP!

Running like a top since then. Not sure what happened. <shrug>

Thanks, everyone, for the input!

 

Sounds like your fuel sending unit is off kilter, giving you a false reading. I'd not let it go below 3/8 full again unless I was carrying a can of gas with me to test the theory. If it runs below 1/4 on this test, then I would seriously consider a new fuel filter.