its a 1989 iroc z, has a 350 engine tpi with vats system,
it has good fuel pressure, has good spark, but wont start unless i shot some starting fluid, i have a brand new key on a brand new switch, if the key was the problem i don't have the security light problem,now i just found that the engine has no oil pressure switch installed on it, the top one close to the distributor is plugged but the one over the oil filter has a fitting and is plugged too?why did they removed it? i just bought this car it was like that already,a missing oil pressure switch can cause this cars not to start??

 

The oil pressure switch is the only thing that lets my car start, but thats because my fuel pump relay is bad.

When do you have good fuel pressure? at all times? Just wanting to make sure you checked it during keyon/engineoff, and during cranking.

If it starts with starting fluid, I don't see it being VATS

 

fuel pump relay, fuel pump, ignition unit, MAF Sensors

 

fuel pressure with key on- engine off is about5 48 psi and cranking goes down a lilttle bit, before i tought of vats thats why i installed the new switch and made key with the exact value of the old one

 

i will replace them all if have too i wanna drive this beast already!! but wichone should i try first and next?

 

today after work i will go to the auto parts store and get the oil pressure switch, i heard that if the computer doesn't get any oil pressure at the beginning wont let the injectors open, i don't know but i guess i should start on removing the fitting and installing the switch where it supposed to be plug the connector and see what happens, if no luck after that , i am going to start replacing fuel pump relay, fuel pump, ignition unit, MAF Sensors one by one!! i love this cars this is my third Camaro and my second iroc, i wish i could take it for a spin already specially since those ***** CAR driving kids on the block see my iroc on my driveway all the time and just there, dude every freakin time they pass in front of my house they rev those little engines so hard i am getting tired of it!! i will go make a mean burnout on the street when i get up and running!!!!!

 

Well despite no VATS light and the fact it runs with starting fluid I'm still inclined to believe this may be a vats issue. The reason is vats, by its design, wont kill a running car. So if everything was good and you were driving along on the highway if your vats system were to fail the car wont just shut down on you. You may have issues restarting it though. In this case you get it running with starter fluid which may be acting like a loophole around the vats security system. That being said the only way to know for sure whats going on is to see if you have an injector pulse and well go from there.

 

If it only starts with starting fluid, then there is no fuel getting into the cylinder, the fuel injectors are not opening.
a bad ignition module and or bad pick-up coil. either one will prevent the injectors from firing or maybe the injector driver on the ecm.

 

Follow my advice closely. Unhook 1 of your fuel injectors and try to start the car. If it doesn't start hook the injector back up and disconnect the next injector and try to start the car. Repeat these steps as needed. When your car finealy does start replace the injector thats unhooked.

Use a quality part (hint, if you buy one from AutoZone its not a quality part) when you do.

 

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR ADVISE!, i am going to replace the coil pick up, and ignition module, about the injectors i have another set of them, same size i am gonna replace them all and about the vats i am going to try the vats module from painless wiring, i am planning on doing all this on the weekend if no luck with changing all that, i will come back for more advise from you, well thank you every one again!!

 

Is it you or your parents in this income tax bracket?

 

no need to just throw parts at it, and its an SD car. have you checked the injectors

 

location

 

Lancaster, california

 

[quote=godreject;4781200]no need to just throw parts at it, and its an SD car. have you checked the injectors[/quot

i got a noid test light from autozone and i have no pulse on the injectors and they all have 14.4 ohms, what do you mean by SD car??

 

As I suspected, it seems that VATS has struck again protecting the car even from its own owner. The comment on you have a SD car is in reference to your TPI set up. Though the manifolds are essentially the same one uses a very expensive MAF sensor to measure air flow into the motor while the later TPI systems used a SD (speed density) method to calculate the air flow using a wide array of variables and sensors.

 

okay, its the vats system!!! how do i replace it or fix it?i read about someone replacing it with this VATS Module Painless Wiring 64023, what advise do you guys give me a bout using that, is the vats module from a 90-91-92 comparable to the one on my 89 camaro?

 

Well first let me talk about what it does and then well go over your options. Your VATS module does two things if it detects a problem. One it disables the starter and second it does not send the ECM the everything ok signal which enables the fuel injector pulse. Now the VATS system, unless someones modified the wiring, is not disabling the starter so that means its doing something right. However it seems the everything's ok signal is not being detected by the ECM. This could be a broken wire a bad connection or a vats module just simply not sending it or sending the wrong signal. Even the ECM could be bad (though its unlikely). The point I'm trying to say is we need to do a little more digging to see where the fault actually lies before I could suggest a remedy. First thing I would do is get to the module and using your noid light see if the everything's ok signal is being sent. To get a good look at the schematic to see what wires are what I've included the link below for your review.

https://www.thirdgen.org/vats_passkey_system

Now as to the painless module your referring to, no it wont work. What it does is replicates the everything's ok signal the VATS module would send out to enable the injectors but the everything's ok signal changed after 89 and this one is for the later 90-92 version. I"m sure there exists a similar product but for the earlier version but off hand I do not know where you would find such a thing and that may not even solve the problem.

 

I have the same problem but my car has no vat system needd helppp!