tanager11

This car is causing me some greef again!!!

My no start problem has re-surfaced, and if anyone can provide me with some additional information/help I would certainly appreciate it since I need a car and I dont want to pull my camaro out of storage because of this.

The car seems to die after short trips, it runs fine but it just does not want to start back up after short trips. In the past it usually starts after sitting a couple of hours, but tonight it is spending the night in a home depot parking lot. It cranks, but does not catch.

Here is the low down, Tried using some quick start incase its fuel related and it makes no difference (no sputter or partial catch or anything), so I am sure its getting fuel. I originally thought that it might be a cracked cap or bad coil preventing a good spark, but I swapped those today and no luck either, also I checked to see if each wire was getting a spark thru to the plug and it is, so I dont have a clue as to what it could possibly be.....I need some help/suggestions with this one, any ideas???

Oh ya btw, its a 1985 olds delta 88, 307 and carb.

Thanks,
Dave

Cruzin Kaz

Hey Dave. Sorry to hear your haven trouble again. I had a 81 Cutlass that did the same thing to me....Here is the bad part. It was between the Timing chain and the worn out lobes on the cam. It was a 267. Hopefully in your case this is not the problem, but it just may be. Olds engines were common for bad cams. What's the milage on her???

tanager11

milage is 157,000, on the clock....everything but about the last 25,000 km have been real easy ones, just hwy and driven by an old man.

I hope its not something like that because I seriously do not want to drop any cash into it. All I want out of that puppy is 1 good winter, I have already made up my mind that once I find a new job I am going to pick something newer up, something like a 2000/2001 regal or maybe a new Cav, like I said I just need to get thru the winter. I am going to get it towed home tomorrow, but looks like I am pulling the camaro out of storage if I cant get it going tomorrow since I need wheels!!

zedder 1 9 9 0

Ignition module?

tanager11

Any idea as to how I would check on that to rule it out?

Daz

iTrader: (1)

Fuel=pump work? what pressure?
Spark=spark at the plug wire ends?what color?,spark at the coil end?spark at the coil?is the coil too hot?

Daz

George

If it has quickstart, spark and air it should fire or at least backfire in your face.

Pull one of the plugs to see if the engine has been fouling them then ground the plug and crank it over to see if you've got spark at the plug.

Check the accelerator pump to see it it's squirting fuel although it should have fired with the quickstart even if it was'nt getting fuel.

305LG4Cutlass

Never heard of any cam lobes going bad on 307's. Maybe they had trouble with cam lobs on some earlier olds engines but couldn't be as bad as the late 70/early 80's 305 Chevy's. Cam lobes are the worst thing about small block Chevy's. They got a lot better in the mid 80's though.

tanager11

I am headding up to see if I can get that Bitch started this morning.

George brought up a very good point about the plugs, and them being possibly fouled. I think that might be a definate possibility since I have driven the car just over 25,000 km since I got it and did a full tune up, and it consumes Alot of oil, so I bet those plugs have a bit of crap on them. It ususally goes thru about 3 liters of oil ever tank of gas.....I don't know where it is going but it sucks it back.

As for spark being presnet when the wires were grounded, it was and each wire/cylinder appeared to be getting a spark, but I did not check to see what colour it was, but I believe it was orange, but I am not 100% sure of that, I will check it out today.

Hopefully I can get that thing home today so I can take a better look at it!

Daz

iTrader: (1)

the whiter it is the stronger the spark..like you said maybe you need a tune-op

Daz

Idlehands

might be a long shot but i had an 81 cutlass supreme and it was doing similar things, had fuel/spark...turns out it was a hole in the fuel line and i'm sure it was near the tank might be something to consider if all else fails.

tanager11

No start this morning either, actually I am kinda happy since now this will make it easier for me to trouble shoot it since it is no longer one of those dreaded intermittent problems.

Ya the spark was an orange colour comming off each wire when I tested them.....also I tried this with two different coils and no change in the spark colour, so I think the coil is good.

Here is the plan of attack.....1) swap the plugs/wires with new ones, check to ensure good spark and see if it fires up after that.

2) If that does not work swap out the distributor with an "extra" good one I have kicking arround in my garage, I don't know what the sign of a bad distributor is....but I figure atleast that way I can rule it out.

3) Double check to make sure it is getting fuel (although I am 98% sure it is getting fuel since a) you can smell it, and b) I cant even get it to run off Quickstart.

4) If those dont work....call my buddy, and barter for his services in exchange for Beer!!!!

tanager11

Can anyone tell me what the ignition module controls??? And if it was this woudl the engine still crank, but not catch (what it is doing)?

Thanks,
Dave