Need some advice. I have this '87 GTA 5.7L that you have to crank over for some time before it will start. Tapping the gas pedal helps. When It starts some smoke comes out the tail pipe. Once it fires up runs great. My other vehicles turn the key and they fire right up. WHy Does my TA have to crank so long. I suspect an injector loseing prime. If this is the case how do I figure out which one???

Thanks

 

hey man I have the same car as you! and I had the same problem as you. I changed my spark plugs ant that helped. however it still doesn't start like it should. I think I"m gonna do new wires,coil,cap,rotor and module and hopefully that will help it. but changing my plugs made me from cranking for like 10 sec. to about 6sec or so. like I said still not like it should be but alot better.

 

I love your car! I have one just like it in the garage right now. Didn't think of plugs. Has new wires, cap and coil so I figured the plugs were fairly new but maybe they aren't. Don't want to hear this! Have heard what a nightmare changing plugs are. All day... half from top and half under. I guess I need to pull a couple and see what they looks like.

Thats for the reply. Does yours have the digital dash?

 

yup it does. and I hate to tell ya this but the plugs are a BITCH to change :-) I don't know what a shop (that has a hoist) would charge for it, but in my opinion it would almost be worth to pay em $30-$40 to have them put them in. make sure you get some good ones while your at it to, like some bosch platinum ones. I didn't put super good ones in my car when I chaged them beacause I'd getting headers in a week or to, so I figured just normal plugs would last for a couple of months. also do you have anypics of you car?

 

what kind of coil and wires did you get? if you got a good name brand like MSD you can gap your plugs a little bit more than they say to. like .040 unsted of .035, it'll ignite your fuel better then.

 

I too have the same car, and I also had the same problem. WHile changing the plugs is definitely a good thing to do (but a major PITA), my problem was leaky injectors. When the car was started for the first time in the day it would fire right up, but any other time during that day - even if it sat for 8 hours - it would crank for many seconds, and puching the gas pedal did help.

The problem was that the injectors were leaking gas into several cylinders and the system would pressure down, and of course the cylinders would flood. That is why hold the gas helps clear the cylinders, and also why you get the black smoke when it finally fires.

I puled all my injectors and had them rebuilt (much cheaper than new ones) and it works great now. In order to determine which injectors were bad, and to confirm that this really was the problem, I did this (it's kind of a pain, but necessary, and if you care gonna rebuild one, you are gonna (better) replace all!)...

The REaders Digest version look like this:

- Pull the plenum and runners
- pop the entire fuel rail assembly - leave everything connected (injectors in rail, electrical on injectors). I propped mine up on some small pieces of wood so that all the injectors are "floating".
- put some small pieces of paper under each injector
- turn the key on - DON NOT START- to pressurize the system

The pieces of paper should remain dry - no gas should come out of any of the injectors. On mine, I had 7 of eight seep fuel, with a couple of them actually drop a pool of gas on the paper. AFter I had them rebuilt I did it again and no leaks.

I know that there aren't a whole lot of details, but go for it!

Feel free to email me of you want more info, or I could post it.

Have fun


Eric

 

I didn't even think of that, it could be that too.

 

I would put money on that being your problem. I went thru this last year. I found one leaking bad. I replaced them with Accel 23# and it fires up great now.

Bob

 

would leaky injectors make you loose power too?

 

Yes they would. As far as changing plugs pulling the starter helps alot on the #6 and #8 plugs.

 

Has anyone thought of checking/replacing the fuel pump? Depending on the amount of miles on the car, it could be going bad, therefore having a lack of power and hard starting. Also, the smoke could be the typical third-gen valve seals. Just a thought.

 

50K miles on it. Plenty of power. I think it is leaky injectors now. I'am going to put a fuel pressure gauge on it this weekend. Don't want to hear valve seals. Only smokes when you first fire it up. Smoke is for a second. I think it is gas that leaked past ingectors.

I'll need to take some pictures of it so I post them.

My fuel pumps sounds fine when you turn the key.

 

You requested pictures. Well I don't have good ones. My camera is a cheapy but here is a couple...

 

hey my car never has black smoke, i've never seen it have blacks smoke. the first start of the day has blue smoke (because of the valve seals). I was wokring on my car today and found out that I had a bad coil wire. that made a big differnece in it, it still takes awhile for it to start though. I'm betting now the coil,cap and rotor. because I've never once had black smoke.