Hope someone here can shed some light on what caused this situation.

The car was running fine yesterday,I have not done anything to it recently,today I got on the freeway and it suddenly sputtered and backfired,I let of the gas and it seemed alright so I got off on the next exit,then as I was accelerating onto the street and the car hit about 40mph it backfired again and then died,I had to coast to the side of the road.It didnt want to start at first,but after waiting a minute it fired right up and I drove it about 8 miles home on side streets and it didnt do it again,but I have not taken it on the freeway again.

It was very hot today for the first time in a while,it was about 95 degrees out,I dont know if that would have any part in this or not,I am just trying to figure out what may be wrong.

If it were the fuel pump,I doubt it would have ran 8 miles home at speeds up to 40 miles per hour and idle fine,but I am not sure. I have never owned a car with fuel injection before. I prefer carburetors,they are easier to work on and the fuel pump can be changed quickly as its mounted on the side of the engine block.

Anyone here whos had this problem and can offer some insight would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I have never checked the time either,and it pings upon acceleration.

 

Tbi's have been known to run on very low fuel pressure(like 7-5 psi) stock spec is 9-13psi. I'd check that.
Check for strong spark too, might have a ignition module failling when it gets warmed up.

 

Thanks for the advice,but how would I go about testing the fuel pressure on this car? What kind of tool would I need? If indeed it is the fuel pump can I somehow install an aftermarket electric fuel pump under the hood so I dont have to go through the ridiculous ordeal of cutting the exhaust down,dropping the rear axle,then wrestling with the tank?

Honestly it pisses me off how unnecessarily complicated cars have become today.I can see no worthwhile advantage to throttle body injection,I have owned 1960's Chrysler products with 318's and two barrel carbs that get the same mileage this thing gets,and if the fuel pump goes out on the side of the road it's a matter of minutes to replace it,just two bolts on the side of the engine block,a line in and a line out. The 1982 and 83 Trans Ams I've owned both had carbs and got the same mileage this thing gets too,so why the need for TBI? I only bought this 90 because I couldn't find an 82 or 83 at the time.

The fact that the GM engineers didnt have the foresight to put an access panel in the hatch floor to make service tolerable baffles and infuriates me. It seems like nothing is designed to be worked on by the owner anymore. You just drive it until it breaks and throw it away or go to the repair shop and bend over and grimace.

Who knows how many countless numbers of these cars wound up in the junkyard because the fuel pump went out and the owner didn't want to shell out to get it repaired. I used to see tons of Firebirds and Camaros with nice bodies in the junkyard that looked like they were on the road just the other day and wonder why they were there.


Anyway,forgive my rant. I love the way these cars look,but I am not a fan of the modern day b.s. that makes working on them a pain.

If anyone here has managed to install an inline electric pump so they didn't have to drop the tank let me know. I'm not going to spend a thousand dollars having a shop replace it.