Hey y’all, need some assistance with my Bird. I’ve got a 1988 Firebird Formula 350 with a Chevy L98 in it. I’ve unfortunately currently have an issue with her firing up that started today. Earlier today I was able to crank her up, fire her up, and she would work like normal. Drove her around town, ran some errands then returned home. About 2 hours I was going to go back out, I tried to fire her up. She was cranking (the starter motor was engaged and turning the flywheel) but she would not fire up. I smelled fuel in the engine bay. I waited 30 minutes, then tried again, and the same result occurred. I decided to run some diagnostics with my code reader, and I got codes 33 and 36. Are these possibly related to her refusing to fire up? What other causes could there be? And any recommendations to get this fixed?

 

Probably not.

An engine only needs 3 things to "run": air/fuel in reasonable proportions, spark at a reasonable time, and compression.

Figure out which one of The Big Three went away all the sudden. Not that hard, really. Odds are, you can rule out compression as the Missing Ingredient; other than timing set failure, it doesn't just "go away" at the snap of a finger. That leaves air/fuel, and spark. Air is normally available on this planet at most elevations; not likely that's missing. You say you smell fuel, so that's encouraging. If you smell it in the tailpipe (yes, go check) after turning the ign off, waihing a few seconds, turning the ign back on for 5 seconds or so and letting the pump prime and cranking it for a couple of seconds, repeat a few times, then ... you have fuel. You might have TOO MUCH fuel; I can't recall for sure what those codes are in that year, butt I think they have to do with the MAF, so they might cause a run-like-crap problem, butt not a no-start. A CTS problem might cause a no-start, by reporting an engine temp near absolute zero, at which point the ECM will try to dump in as much fuel as it possibly can, which might make it so rich as to be enough to prevent starting, butt it doesn't sound like that. At that point, move on to spark. Odds are, from your description, that that's where you'll end up, although you need to go through the exercise and not just Jump To The Conclusion. If it's spark, try a cap & rotor, then an ignition module, then a pickup coil. Problem there is, you have to tear the dist down to get to the pickup coil, and that might lead to other problems, the cure for which would be a new dist; in which case you've wasted money on the module. It's kind of a judgment call as to which way to go if you find it's a spark problem and cap & rotor doesn't fix it.

 

Update: I checked my fuel rails and noticed that I had no fuel pressure, so I dived into that issue. I replaced the fuel filter, and now I am getting fuel pressure. I checked my ignition system, im getting sparks on all of my spark plugs (I checked each individually) and I am still unable to get her to fire up. I am stuck, I don't know what to do from here.

 

How much?

Was anything else disturbed during all this, such as "timing"?

Will it start up on starting fluid or gasoline squirted into the throttles?

 

I am getting about 42/44 PSI, I haven't tried starter fluid or spray gas yet.

 

So here is an update: I ended up having to replace the fuel pump and fuel filter. Turns out my fuel pressure gauge was faulty and the needle was stuck. After buying a new gauge, I was able to see I had no pressure on my rails. I replaced both the fuel pump and the fuel filter. After doing that, she fired right up. But now, there is a whole other set of issues that I am struggling to diagnose. After putting the new fuel pump and fuel filter in, I am getting an error code 54, which if my code book is correct, Is stating that the fuel pump is getting low voltage. My fuel PSI is now way too high, sitting at 60-70 PSI. And when I take my foot off the gas, or if the car sits too long at idle, it will die. I have replaced the fuel pressure regulator valve and re-did all my vacuum lines, but this has not fixed the problem. I am at a loss, and I don't know where to proceed from here. Any suggestions?

 

Another update, my fuel pressure is way too high, it's hovering at 60-70 PSI. Any suggestions?

 

How does the car run?

 

Very very bad, feels like the car is in limp mode. When driving, the second you stop or take your foot off of the gas, the car will die. When Idling in park, the car will idle with a high RPM, then slow down to where it's about to putter out, then go back to idling with a high RPM.

 

Is the fuel return line obstructed? That could have killed your fuel pump and cause the current high pressure.

 

That is a good point, I don't think it is, but I will check.

 

Very very bad, feels like the car is in limp mode. When driving, the second you stop or take your foot off of the gas, the car will die. When Idling in the park, the car will idle with a high RPM, then slow down to where it's about to putter out, then go back to idle with a high RPM.

 

Any codes? What does the exhaust smell like? (soot, oil, raw fuel, normal, etc.) What do the spark plugs look like?

 

I currently getting a code 54. Exhaust smells like fuel. All the spark plugs are working, I've used my spark plug tester on each one.