Well, its 7:17am
I got to go to work today...
and yeah..my car wont start..
I turn the key...it stuggles to start.. struggles.. but just dosent start. Theres a heavy smell of gas also, I dont know what the problem is, im just pissed off. What could be the problem?

 

More details Dave...from what you're saying, it's turning over but not catching. Sounds? Slow turning over? Catches but dies right away?

Sounds like it might be the coil though. I'm only guessing here though. If it turns over the battery should be okay, but there's no guarantee. The smell of gas should mean your FP okay and the fuel system is working. So only thing left is ignition.

 

its turning over and everything, it sounds the exact same way that it sounds when I normally go to start it, but it just wont start, I tried several times.. I dont want to drain the battery so I just said screw it.

 

Give me a call tonight if you want. I can't promise I can fix it but I might be able to point you in the right direction.

 

heavt smell of gas would usually indicate you flooded it. let her sit awhile.........then try again and see what happens

 

Its probly not the same case as my beater but check out what I just posted incase it is.
Brad is probly right its just flooded. I would take a few plugs out, put the wires on, ground the arm to something and get someone to turn it over and make sure it sparks then go from there.
greg

 

In another post you said you could smell gas badly. Have you checked for a leak?

 

Do you have the "Coil in cap" design distributor? If so, I had that problem in my old Parisienne, thought it was the coil, and it wasn't... the Distributor was just toast, i think it eas HEI circuit.. I just replaced the whole distributor.

If its like my GTA distributor, where the coil is separate, then it could very well be the coil, and damned me, I had a spare working one and I threw it out on a mad cleaning frenzy

 

IROCKER: sorry I didnt call I just got off work.. (I got a ride and went 2 hours late, oh well)

But yeah.. I dont know what it could be guys, it can be anyone of the things you mentioned.. let me remind you the engine ran Very Rich, yes I probley flooded it, cause I gave it gas while trying to start her up. its been getting harder nad harder to start.. until it just died today.
everything works as normal when I turn the key
but it just wont spark or something..
whatever it is.. its gay and I hate it.

 

It sounds flooded. Hold the pedal right to the floor, and try to start it. If it doesn't start...walk away for a 1/2 an hour and try the same thing again. Cold weather can cause some real problems, even more when it is humid outside. HOpe this helps??

 

its fuel injected...dont pump the gas. sounds liek you flooded it. if it doesnt start after trying it several times, then depress the pedal 1/3 of the way down as you crank it.

 

It really doesn't matter if it is fuel injected or not. You need to allow the engine to get more air into it to pass the high amount of fuel. Holding it to the floor will do just that, but "don't " let it up when cranking. You will just make it worse then. At my shop we run into this all the time when cars sit and are cold. Fuel injected or not, it works for both. Hope this helps.

 

i was telling dave how to start it properly...not how to clear the flood...i have should have made that clear, sorry


as for clearing the flood, if it is a carb, defiently put it right to the boards.......thats for damn sure

as for fuel injection i have always read theat you dont floor it, in fact dont touch the pedal for clearing a flood on an FI car....but you said flooring it works as well?

 

I agree with Kaz there, if its flooded, floor it and start it.. I've had to do that with FI cars... a better way to clear up a flood in a FI engine is to pully the fuel pump fuse, and crank it over... thus not allowing anymore fuel in the engine, and burning off the flood of gas already in the engine

 

Yeap. Like I said. The car lot I work at, we have about 100 cars and trucks. In the winter customers that don't know how to start a cold car flood them all the time. Even if it is fuel injected, hold it right to the floor, it will work, depending how flooded you got it. No need to appologize.

 

cool ....since i dont drive FI cars very oftern i was wondering about that..cause the owners manuals and stuff i have read said not to floor it....but i have always thought flooring it would make more sense...cause it will allow lots of air in...sounds like thats what you guys say too

yet another reason i love my carbed car

 

If its a carb and its flooded you dont need to wait..Get a pen,or a big screwdriver..Stick it in the carb to keep the choke open and crank..it should start..

Daz

 

yeah guys I dont think any of that is going to work.
My car usally starts up like no problem.. never have I had a problem, it could be -30 outside and it still worked. So weather wise it has nothing to do with it. Its something mechanical.. and I dont think that holding the pedal down is doing anything, its only flooding it over more and more, casue ive tried that just like pedal to the floor and starting, nothing, I left it alone, than came back and tried everything all over agian, no pedal, with pedal, with half pedal, NOTHING dudes

 

Well, I would cjeck for spark... take an easy spark plug out, ground it to the exhaust manifold. I bet its a bad coil or distributor

 

whatever it is..
it sucks!

 

I know you said it smells like it is flooded but I had the same type of problem and it did smell like gas. Turns out it was the fuel pump relay. All I did was tap the fuel pump relay a few times and try it again and it started right up. A couple of taps on the relay won't take you too long it might be a long shot but give it a try

Ric

 

Fuel Relay..?

wanna show me a picture, so I dont bang on the wrong thing.


thanks for your help!

 

Not to repeat what others are saying, but I too had this problem with an 88 Jeep Cherokee (Fuel injected 4.0L) I once owned. Took me a week, 6 new plugs, wires, coil pack and other stupid things, just to find out it was flooding. A buddy of mine came over looked over everything thing.

His theory was, pull a plug, check for spark. Got spark. Can smell gas too. Check the compression by putting his thumb over the plug hole. So we got the three basics for combustion, air-fuel-spark.

He put the plug back in. Hopped in the Jeep, floored it, cranked it for about 15 seconds, sounded like it wanted to start. Stopped for a few seconds to let the starter cool down, then did it again. Coughed a couple times, ran for a couple seconds, then died. The third time, fired up stayed running. Each turn of the ignition key was met with the gas pedal to the floor.

I messed for a week (and spent too much money) trying to start this pig, he spends ten minutes here and gets it running.

Oh and having a dual-battery set up helped tons, No Jumping required LOL

 

Dave that is probably why it still won't start. Just hold it right to the loor . You can't hold it down, then half way, then not at all. You are flooding it worse. As Daz even said, since it is carb. put a big flat screwdriver or something to hold the choke wide open, and hold her to the floor. Don't let the throttle pedal up though...HOLD IT DOWN! It should start. If this still doesn't work? First check one plug for spark, if it has sprark, Remove all your spark plugs and crank the engine over for about 30 seconds 4 or 5 different times. This should clear the flood in the cylinders. Put the pugs back in and it should start. Hope this works for you?

That's sucks when that happens, Dave you don't want this to happen to you too. I still say it is flooded by what info you are giving us. But I am only human so I could be wrong, but I don't think I am in this case.

 

Carb was eliminated by GM in Camaros in 88.

He's running a TBI.

If it's flooded, best bet is to let it air out, I mean really air it out.

Take the air cleaner off, use a vice grip to keep the throttle blades open and leave it for a 30 mins.

The stock air cleaner will not allow proper or quick ventilation of the engine so getting it to clear will take a good amount of time.

Before starting, take off the vice grip, no air cleaner cover on and pedal to the floor and try cranking it. Provided its not as flooded as before give at least 30 sec intervals between attempts with the the pedal to the floor letting the new fuel addition evaporate a bit.

A TBI is not really designed to flood as bad as a carb would, the spray is very light on crank because with the throttle blades closed the air is coming through the idle air control tubes so the injectors spray light to promote better fuel atomization.

 

And after you do get it running. Get an oil change. Smell your dipstick, it'll smell like gas. It just reduces the oil's ability to lubricated properly after the excess fuel leaks down...

 

I have and 86 v6 firebird and it does the same thing.
I get ready to start it and it won't start. It cranks and turns off.

It did it for a while and we thought it was the battery acting up. Checked the battery and it's good.

Then it stopped for at least 4 months.

Then I went on a date and when i dropped him off. It would not start. Then the guy left to do his laundry and it started up.... would you guys leave a girl stranded like that?

Even if it had not started i knew another guy up the road from where i was.

but back to the point. my dad and i were fixing the heater on my car, which i now have....yeah!!!, and it did it again. he was really mad at my car . but it did start.

so any ideas????

please help me :-*

 

ok homies im going to go try it agian, since your quite sure this is the problem, ill also open the air filter and do that step also, see what happens.. I just got off work earlier today so after dinner ill give it a shot.

 

Well I gave it a shot..
nothing still..

I tried it agian, full pedal all the way .. nothing
let it sit for a while, took off the airfilter and everything, tried it up agian, full pedal.. nothing... let it sit.. went ahead tried it agian.. nothing.. tried it once more and nothing agian.. my battery is getting mighty low now.. its really starting to sound like ****

IROCKER: I would give you a shout, but I dont got your number I forgot where I have it, but I cant find it.

 

Hey, Im a friend of Daves posting here, I just fixed a small ignition problem, and had a few other questions (btw, it was just some loose connections)

-The rebuilder put in a camshaft out of a 350, now i beleive this is causing some un-nessisary flooding because of the loss in vacuum (the MAP sensor detects a loss in manifold vacuum, thinks the throttle is wide open or open more than it should be, hence it adding more gas)
>> is this plausible or does the EPROM (or whatever the computer is) rely on inputs from the TPS and the MAP before adding more fuel?

Any other suggestions as to why it may be idleling rough / flooding are appreciated (asides from the lumpy cam theory)

One more thing, the car is 'putting' at a steady rate throughout the RPM band, no immediate causes other than perhaps bad timing come to mind...so toss out a few suggestions if you can, the puts are probably at 1/3 second intervals at 1000rpm

Thanks

G

 

it might have something to do with the computer, put chances are the cam in there isnt real wild, especially if it is a stock 350 cam...they are pretty weak.......so it shouldnt really be a problem with vacuum.....if there is a loss of vacuum , there is probably a vacuum leak somewhere. making sure the timing, cap/rotor, plugs and wires are all good would be a great start in fixing this problem.

 

seems like our f bods have similar issues.

I am still having that exact issue with my L98. it's freaking insane. right now since it's winter the car is stored but I do check up on her from time to time.

the battery is fully charged. and even when it was the crank would turn and turn and turn and nothing would start that engine.

I had my master mechanic buddy check it out. he drivers an older 305 carbed camaro and he thought it was the timing chain but he also thought it could have been the coil. we could hear fuel running in and out.

so that's gotta be something with spark. but if there's fuel shouldn't it egnite still? something else he thought of was that the fuel was running in or spark was getting there too soon. I still don't have enough money even for the coil so I'm pretty much screwed till next summer. until then I don't know.

as I see it right now his car has all my cars symptoms. it's mechanical for sure. I tried stepping on the pedal for a while too. nothing changed.

the only thing that did differ from our issues is that my car started for 10 full seconds until I stepped on it so the battery wouldn't die. but then the car died and never started again. now it's just a weak crank on a supposedly full battery. also meaning it could be the battery.

some of you guys suggested a volt meter which I guess I'll have to borrow from someone. other than that I guess I can try swapping batteries from the crown victoria to the gta to see if she will start.

if not then I'll get a coil from crappy tire.

other than that I dunno.

sorry about the book I wrote hehe.

simon.

 

and if you find a resolution to this problem send me an e-mail

to


simonriddick@hotmail.com



I'll see if it work for me

 

how much vacuum are you getting at the MAP sensor?bad sensor?If the MAP is getting affected he should be getting codes..Time to spray the suspected leak areas some carb cleaner..If idle change the leaks is found..

Daz

 

My carbed 305 was "putting" as you put it, at the same intervals as you described. I changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor with quality products, and I haven't had a problem since. Nice smooth idle. My coil was good, but you might want to replace it anyways. Good luck...

 

Alright guys after several test we came to our conclusion that its most likely the temp. sensor.

Ill get back to u with more info..

 

Well my buddy gave me a dash of hope last night..
He said he would do my fuel pump and everything for me for 150 dollars at my other friends garage.

Than After he shattered my hopes by saying he couldent do it because he dosent want to do it without a hoist.

Achh

 

I hope my cars fuel pump isn't the problem either. since we've got those similar problems.

I don't really appreciate having to pay some insane amount to have a little fuel pump changed. I guess f bods need the tank to be dropped out and **** huh?

bah!

tell me what you find out. or what happens even.

-simon

 

no problem simon