my car is a 88 iroc-z with the 350 tpi. the problem im having is it starts very hard. always starts just cranks a while before it will actually fire. and it acts like it wants to die at low speeds or when you barely touch the gas. i know its not the starter because it cranks fine. someone told me it might be the fuel filter but im not really sure. any advice would be appreciated. i dont have alot to spend and really cant just replace everything till it works. also i just gave the car a tune up yesterday so its not that. thanks

as we all know a car need 3 things to start air, fuel, and spark (electricity). air is always there always getting air, well almost all the time but could be something wrong w/ a sensor of some kind like the MAF or speed density. if air is not the problem maybe its fuel. check your schrader valve see if u have fuel pressre or get your hands on a fuel psi guage. you can rent it at autozone id barrow a compression tester check all your cylinders to, cant be to safe and its free. maybe the regulator in the distributor is going out. or the dizzy its self maybe dying. but id place my bet on a loose cable some where could be something as simple as a loose ground wire. timing perhaps is off? theres a number of thing that could be causing your problem. narrow your search threw process of elimination i imagine it wont cost you much to get it right

Im having this problem as well, i just changed the fuel filter and it did not seem to have an affect on the start up just the idle

what did the fuel filter help?? beacuse the main thing that bothers me is it wanting to die when at low speeds or when you barely touch the gas. . .

I think the fuel filter made it worse cause now its running worse then before im thinking it could be some sort of sensor maybe 02 sensor, im still in the process of trouble shooting

i have an 87 gta. it died at low speeds and had a higher idle until i replaced the throttle position sensor then it ran and started up perfect. hopefully i could help out, best of luck

bump for more ideas.

Have you cleaned the idle air control valve and passages?

Check the fuel PSI.
also extending crank times tell me a bit more but check the fuel psi 1st.

5 to 10 seconds of cranking for me. And all of the things named above are new and checked. Maf, tps, iac, fuel filter, icm, distrubutor pick up, coil pack, cap rotor, spark plugs and wires, esc, knock sensor.

to everyone who gave me suggestions thank you. today i changed the throtal position senser and now it runs like a dream. starts right up and idles perfect and no longer acts like it wants to die. thanks again to whomever sugested that

You are aware that if you had pulled the engine codes ,
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...s-dumbies.html

you possibly would have had a TPS fault code showing and that would have directed you to the problem area straight away ?

Kids today, like to do things the hard way...

well i am new at this and this is my first car so im still figuring things out. but thanks for the advice ill know next time.

Mine is a fuel pump I replaced it 2 years ago. I was short on money and got one from autozone big mistake going to get a walbro 255 from south bay.