Trout

Hey all, first let me say hello and thank everyone for their contributions to these boards. This is my first post, but I've been reading them while repairing my bird. Everyone's comments and feedback have been so helpful and I'd like to pass on my experience just in case it can help anyone.

So 10 years ago, yes I said 10 years ago, my firebird started to stall out while driving along the freeway, giving it more gas only further stalled the vehicle but I was able to get it off the freeway where it died and wouldn't start again. At the time, I decided to buy a new vehicle better equipped for commuting the freeway and garaged the old bird until the beginning of this year when I finally decided to see if I could fix it.

Started out by trying the obvious, no it still wouldn't start. Checked the fuel rail, and there was no gas or pressure. After 10 years its not surprising the fuel pump was bad, also evident by the stuck fuel gauge. So bought a new pump assembly and preceded to drop the tank. This was an intimidating task at first, but it looks much worse than it is, even with having to drop the axle. The toughest part of this job was removing the old muffler and then wriggling out the tank from its tight quarters. I did this in my garage with the car up on jack stands, had about 2 feet of clearance underneath in the rear. Both when taking it out and putting it back in just as I was thinking it wasn't going to go in or come out I would twist the tank in such a way that it slipped into place. (Fuel tank also needed a good cleaning)

Ok, that done, turned the key and still no start....hmmm...sprayed some gas down the intake...and oh it almost wants to start...so I'm thinking this thing is still not getting gas. Nonetheless, even though I'm confident it's getting spark, I inspect the distributor and replace the ECM, no start.

Next step, take the plenum off to get to the injectors...don't have a noid light, but I soldered two wires to an old tail light bulb that glowed enough for me to determine the injectors were getting pulse. I then checked the injectors for proper resistance and two of them were reading bad, 5 and 8 Ohms rather than the ~16. Read somewhere on these boards that if one is bad the whole bank doesn't work. So based on recommendations from these boards I ordered a replacement set of injectors from www.southbayfuelinjectors.com, quick delivery and not sure you can beat the prices and I did look.

Got these replacement injectors in and after a couple cranks the old bird was a rising phoenix...man it was nice hearing the engine run after 10 years.

Thanks again everyone for your contributions, you all saved me money, time, and I'm sure many levels of frustration.