Ok so I gotta stop throwing money at this problem and actually figure out what it is before I spend more cash on trial-an-error replacements.

Here is the symptoms in no particular order; It is easy to start cold and once running it has a very erratic idol from 1500-500 rpm, very lopey as though it has a huge cam. Very poor throttle response which occassionally causes the car to stall and almost always backfires upon inital accelleration. Rough runnning while driving at any speed, surging, pulsing... still poor throttle response. Once the car is warm the idol will stay nearly steady, but it is higher then normal, around 1200rpm. When the car is warmed up, it will not start, period. The starter will crank and it will start to reek like fuel, but the engine will not stay running. It will catch and run really rough at or below 500 rpm before stalling, touching the gas pedal makes it die. Also the rad fan turns on as soon as the key is turned on, and it stays on until the key if off, reguardless of temp... something that it didn't do before. The check engine light is not on, as a matter of fact, it has never been on since I've owned the car.. not even when you turn the key to on before starting when all the other dash lights go on.

Now I tried some trouble shooting of my own without specialized tools (like a vacuum gauge or fuel pressure gauge) and didn't resolve any issues. I drove it to a mechanic who looked at it however could not get it started (because the car was warmed up by just driving it there). He attempted to connect a scan tool but his machine said there was no data from the ALDL port. He also tried to jump the pins to read codes, nothing... light wouldn't even go on. Bulb is good and has power.

He said my ECM and chip were hooped and needed to be replaced before anything else. Also he mentioned that he could almost guarentte the MAF was bad because my car has the same symptoms his once had. I tried tapping the MAF when the car was running like he suggested, no change.

Ok so I've replaced the ECM, coolant temp sensor, fuel pump was done about 18 months ago (not that it hasn't gone bad since) What else can I do, or where should I start might be a better question? EGR, wiring, Any ideas..??

Most recently I replaced the ECM and found absolulty no change what-so-ever... all the wires and connections appear to be good. The car ran like a top before I parked it for the winter. When I took it out this spring its ran like crap, and I have not done any changes what-so-ever.

Help!

 

You've got a lot of problems there..

There are two things that come to mind immediately.
1) Make sure you have no vacuum leaks. If you can get the car running cold and spray some propane or carb cleaner around the intake and ducting and see no change in idle, you are probably safe. It's just that your first huge paragraph of symptoms would be caused and confounded by a vacuum leak.

2) Check all of your spark plug wires and ignition coil, distributor wires to see if they are arcing anywhere. I once had a similar ECM problem and it was being caused by a grounded wire on cylinder 7. Also make sure all of the engine grounds on the back of your cylinder heads are in tact, these can cause similar problems.
Watch for arcing in the dark if you don't find anything.

The only thing that will cause your fans to stay on is if your fan switch is permanently grounded. This also may be a wiring problem, possibly a melted wire.

Good luck. You need to get your ALDL working so you can see if any codes are being stored. Check the lightbulb if you have to.

 

this problem has been resolved; https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...39#post2388139