Hey everyone i have a 1991 camaro with a 305 TPI and as of a few months ago my car just stalls in the middle of the intersection, and it wont start back up for a few hours until the engine is cooled down. When i drive the car normally it takes awhile to stall but when i drive the car hard it will shut off a lot quicker. It only shuts off when im at idle at a light or when i let off the gas and start braking, when i put it into neutral and hit it at a higher RPM than idle its fine. I've had many friends check it out that have been working with engines and chevys for quite awhile and they found that my alternator was bad so i replaced it and the stalling still occures. They also plugged it up to a computer and no codes came up and it said everything was running properly, im out of ideas. Would anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong?

 

Try checking out your IAC valve. I hear that sometimes that doesnt throw a code when it goes out. Its located just below your throttle body with a 4 pin pigtail running to it. Just pop it out and try cleaning it up with some carb cleaner.

Maybe someone else can give some advice on how to test it.

 

Thanks ill sure try that tomorrow

 

i had the same problem with my old 305. It was my pickup coil in the distributor. when i pulled it apart, it just broke into pieces. Good luck bro

 

Thanks ive heard many people tell me that. Great job on your car by the way

 

try pulling codes. I had a similar problem when my cts went.

 

No codes ever came up, it said everything was working the way it should. The part that makes me wonder that its something electrical is because when i have it running for 2 hours just sitting on idle in the driveway the minute the battery is under 10 volts it hesitates and shuts off because it has no low end power to supply for major parts like the fuel pump, and the minute i have all power running like my A/C and headlights its gone in a matter of seconds, but only when its that low on the battery. And i did replace my alternator already so its getting a charge.

 

Check your connections to the alternator. Corrosion on the positive lead can interfere with charging. Or your battery could be weak and just not holding the charge. Have you replaced it recently?

 

The only part i have replaced was the alternator, the battery probably needs to be replaced because of draining it from trying to start it, and then recharging it back up many times. Its just weird though because i had a friend tell me that my key or crank sensor could be bad because when i go to start the car it just will turn and theres no stopping , it will just turn until the battery is dead. Have you ever heard of that problem?

 

ok i am having the same problem. here is a little history. pickup coil is new it is not my electrical system. just before it happens i will hear a faint howl from the gas tank. after it dies if i cycle the key you can hear that it is the pump making the noise. oh and i will add the fuel pump is new. the car did sit without an engine for nearly three years and didn't do it before it sat, however it did the exact same thing with the old pump after the time it sat.

 

Well now i have fixed the problem, 3 injectors were bad and it was flooding the engine. Now a new problem has occured my whole car shakes like crazy when its in gear but it doesnt stall. I cant find the problem and ive now replaced the distributor, egr valve, spark plugs, and spark plug wires. The car also has no pickup what so ever and it has a very thumpy pickup. If you have any advice please help because im about to just take it to GM for a diagnostic.

 

did u get the firing order correct? put them all in order?

 

maybe the timing is off?

 

im pretty sure its in correct order, just to see whats the order? And to ask what other problems can make a car shake and i mean this car shakes BAD! It seems like the idle drops to low in gear and sometimes when i reverse out the driveway it stalls.

 

the firing order is 18436572.....my car use to just drop in idle in drive alot and die turned out to be my fuel pump was going out and not delivering the right psi.

 

Yea when i found the injector problem i thought it was my fuel pump going but checked it and it was fine. I mean can an O2 sensor cause my problem? I am completely out of ideas and spending 500 dollars on the car to get it running frustrates me because now it just runs like crap. It was weird though because when the car was stalling it never shook or stalled in gear. Do you think anything when doing the injectors can make the car like this if i didnt do something right, also a refurbished distributor was put in from advanced auto.

 

did u put all the injector plugs on the right injector?

 

i took the car to my mechanic to do all that work. I have no idea what he did thats why i ask if there could be anything he messed up. How can i tell what plug goes to its injector?

 

prob fuel injectors. I dont believe their is a code for this.

 

You think more fuel injectors are bad?

 

Sounds like you may have your wires crossed. Check your firing order. Note where number one is on your cap. It is a straight 45 degree line from number one cylinder up front on the driver's side. Check again for codes too.

 

Wait i dont understand what your talking about for number 1, can you explain it again?

 

I was just saying to double check. Ok, on your distributor cap there is no mark telling you which hole is number one. So, if you are standing in front of your car. You would of course look at your number one spark plug/cylinder which is the first one toward the radiator on the driver's side. OK, so then picture an imaginary line that goes diagnal from that cylinder toward you distributor cap. That is number one on your cap.Then I believe the firing order goes clockwise. 1,8 and so on.

 

Did you replace ALL of your injectors at the same time?

 

My bad, firing order goes clockwise.

 

No apparently the guy that did the injector work had the car before me and he said he replaced 4 injectors and now i replaced 3. Only 3 were replaced when my stalling problem was happening. But alright i had a friend come by and he wanted to unplug all the wires and put them in the right order, but i dont know what he was doing and a poping noise i heard twice as he tries staring the car 2 times. Each time was a pretty big pop and i looked over and he got the order mixed up, i redid it and now the car wont start. Did i just blow something?

 

Driver's side should be 1,3,5,7 pass side is 2,4,6,8 if you are standing in front of your car. Are you sure that pop wasn't a misfire? Your injector harnesses should all plug in according to how much the wires have to stretch. Get it? I am not positive if it really matters either. Did you check again for any codes using a paperclip?

 

Get your firing order right. Try disconnecting the battery for a couple of minutes. Then try to restart the car. Make sure everything is plugged in around your distributor. The ignition module connectors and your coil. Verify you have enough juice in your battery too. I bet you have been turning it over like crazy.

 

Yea i have it seems like it wants to start but then turns over, and the pop seemed like it came from the distributor. That poping noise was pretty loud, and what do you mean paperclip?

 

That popping noise is because your firing order was wrong. I doubt you hurt anything. What i meant by a paperclip is , you can insert a paperclip shaped like a u into the a and b terminals of your diagnostic port under the dash on the driver's side. That will then flash your service engine light in a certain sequence, alerting you of any codes. However, it will flash a code 12 three times. That is normal. Basically a flash, pause then flash,flash is code 12.

 

Hey, i know this sounds like a long shot , but try getting a jump from someone too.

 

I just did that and code 12 came up, What is code 12? But no other codes came up and the light for some reason now is staying on, before the light would go on when i start the car and turn off in 2 sec. But i think all cars do that.

 

Yeah like i said it should flash code 12 three times. Then after that it will flash any stored codes you have. Did you remember to remove the paperclip? Just checking. You could have a bad ecu. I wouldn't rule that out either. Let me ask you this. When you checked for codes did you hear your fan come on too? Secondary fan should come on. That is if you have the dual fan setup. Check the grounds on the back of your heads too. Make sure they are connected well. Check all of your fuses in your fuse box too. There is ecm fuse, and several fuel injector fuses in there. Also, there is a fuse under your dash on the driver's side called the starter enable fuse. It should look like any other fuse that would be in the fuse box. It will be in it's own little fuse holder attatched to a harness under the dash. Let me know how it goes.

 

I will recheck the codes again, and yes my fans did come on. The jumpstarting did not work, its still not starting it just keeps turning but it sounds like it wants to start. I also have noticed a knocking noise. When i put my ear directly above the manifold it knocks and then when i shut the car off it slowly stops. My buddy said it was a push rod that was cracked or something like that i cant remember. But ill check back in a few min.

 

Be 100% sure of your firing order

 

No codes came up just 12 was flashing a bunch of times, and all the fuses were working the only one i could ger a light from was the one on the right hand side of the drivers, it was a plastic square white on i dont know what that went to. This was the one i was following, and 8 was the one i put directing in front facing at the nose of the car. Is that right?

 

So you checked the fuses under the dash inside the car right? The regular fuse box. Number 1 on your cap is more toward the drivers side if you are standing in front of your car.

 

look at that http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/u...ring_order.gif

 

Alright im going to redo them real quick, why am i looking at a cam?

 

I just redid them and the car is just turning, could i have blew something in my distributor when that pop happened?

 

sorry, http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/u...ring_order.gif

 

Yea i have them hooked up like that. But since i kept my old spark plugs i just wanted to test to see how much spark. cylinders 8, 6, and 7 didnt seem like any spark at all the rest i did see it but not those

 

Not sure if anyone has suggested this yet so sorry if I'm repeating what someone may have said...This first thing that comes to mind is the distributor. The next is injectors. You can test the injectors using a multimeter. I believe they are measured in ohms. take off the plug to one injector at a time after the car is warmed up (or after it dies whichever happens first). Put each pin of the multimeter up to a prong inside the injector where the plug came from. I dont remember the exact reading you should get from a good one, but should be in the teens like between 12 and 16 i think... but if you get something like in the low single digits then its a bad injector. Be sure to unplug just one at a time and plug each one back when you are done with it. My 89 TPI had the same issues and no codes and finally after we replaced all kinds of stuff, we discovered it was just an injector - thanks to a guy here on this site who was very helpful. I think you can test the distributor with the multimeter too but I've never done it so I'm not positive how. Before spending money on parts like I did, test these things I have mentioned with a multimeter. Dont go adjusting the throttle position or the TPS either until you check for any bad parts. I made that mistake too, lol.

 

Actually the car wont even start now. After my buddy thought the wires werent in the correct firing order he did them and a big pop happened right when he tried starting it, so when i got them in the right order it just now keeps turning. It does make the coughing noise when i first try starting it but then it just keeps turning. Are you saying if its not in the teens its a bad injector or bad connector? Its just weird because before i had a stalling problem where id be sitting at an intersection and the car just dies and doesnt start back up, so i found that 3 injectors were open flooding the engine. I replaced them and the car ran fine for the hour of driving and then it just got shakey. It sometimes stalls in reverse when im idleing out of gear it seems fine but in gear the rpms are way to low. Before when it was stalling i never had this shaking problem, could i have done somthing or not done something when i put the new injectors in to make it shake like this?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/injectorswap

 

injectors should come out to like 0.012 to 0.017 ohms. if you have one at 0.003 it is bad

 

you always replace all of the injectors,when you have even one bad one.

 

Do you really think its the injectors again? earlier yesterday i wanted to check how much spark i had and i did 1 by 1 i saw spark on all of them except 8, 7, and 6. I didnt see any spark on them but maybe there was. Any way i dont know if the spark should be strong and fast clicking like when you ignite a gas grill. When i did it they were very slow at giving spark like only a few sprks i saw out of a crank. Is it sopposed to be like that?

 

Also i forgot to mention when i had the car on the other day i was messing around with it and for some reason i though the idle sounded better when i unplugged the throttle body vacuum line. It connects to some black cylinder that on the front drivers side, its for the idle speed.

 

yes your spark should be fast and strong like you said and you should hear click, click, click while holding the boot about an inch from you plugs. Verify those wires are good or switch them out one by one with a known "good" wire first. I still think you should have changed all eight of those fuel injectors at the same time. After you verify your wires are good or which are bad and you fix that,then try unplugging each injector one by one and see what happens. See if runs any better. Did you get a multimeter and test each injector with the key on and the engine off?