Have a 87 Camaro 305 tpi. I bought it for 500 bucks. It kinda ran when I got it. Was told the intake needed gaskets. Tore top half of motor down. Got the intake off. Cleaned everything and reinstalled. I checked all I could check before putting it back together. I put new gaskets everywhere. Replaced the vac lines and made sure they were all (hopefully) to the right spots. I try starting the car and I get nothing.
So I check for spark. It’s getting it. Fuel. Also getting it. I’m at a loss with this car. I cannot figure it out. I tried timing it and it didn’t work. Don’t wanna start throwing parts at it yet but I’m open to any ideas. Thank you.

 

What’s your fuel pressure at ?
do you have injector pulse ?

 

This^^^^ will be the next place to check if you've already determined you have spark at the plugs and adequate fuel pressure at the injectors.

 

so I’m getting 42 on the rail. Decided to check fuel before the rail was getting 56lbs. Also rented some noid lights. The injectors are getting pulse.

 

since you state you have fuel, injector pulse and spark, if you pulled the entire intake off, and therefore removed the distributor you might have the timing way off. if so it will not start. i would confirm the timing

 

The timing is confirmed. Definitely at tdc on compression stroke of cylinder number one. I Installed the distributor to were the rotor would spin on way in and land pointing at number one.
So went ahead and bought msd coil pack,distributor cap and rotor cause I was getting weak spark from a couple wires. Now I get blue spark all around.
So I figured I’d test the fuel. Hooked up tester by the brake booster and got 60psi there. Rail still has 42.
Unhooked the vac line from fuel pressure regulator and no gas in it. But I did remember when I bought the car it had been sitting for a long time not moving. I had added 5 gallons of fresh fuel and an octane booster to the tank. Then I thought hey maybe bad gas anyways. So I drained the tank. The fuel color was brownish yellow....not good??? Maybe it damaged the injectors??? Is there anyway to test the spray from each of them???

 

So yeah, try fresh gas first. If that fails...

You may have one or more failed injectors. These are batch fire engines. One bad (in the electrical sense, not clogged) injector can short the circuit and cause all the injectors to not fire. A quick test is to pull the injector electrical connector off one at a time and try to start the car(this only works if you have one bad injector) . A more in-depth test is to ohm out the injectors with a multi meter.

 

So ohm rested the injectors. 14.6 at every one except cold start injector. Also used noid light on each harness. All seems well.
Rented a compression tester today. Going to give that a shot.
Pulled plug #1 wet with fuel. Pulled the rest. All wet with fuel. Cleaned dried and here they are.broken one is from cylinder #6.

 

I got her started today!!!!! Had her idle for about 25 min. shot timing light where I was supposed to but I don’t think my mark was big enough or something cause really didn’t see anything. Anyways ran diagnostic check on it. Got 33, 36, and 42. 42 was because I was disconnected at est. the other two are for the maf sensor??? Relays maybe??? Also had like hollow clunks or pops coming from the top. Really when you pulled the throttle it did it.

 

What did you do to get her running? I’m in the same boat with an 88 Iroc that I bought not running. It will run on starter fluid but not fuel. New fuel pump, filter, regulator checked fine, injector pulse good.

 

If you have good fuel pressure, spark and timing is correct.
your injectors are varnished and stuck closed.

 

If I remove the injectors will I see where they are varnished? Is there a way to soak them to free them up? Would like to at least get it running somewhat to make sure it isn’t another problem. Then I can buy new injectors. Also plan on checking their resistance tomorrow. Thanks

 

You might be able to shock them open with 12v applied for a split second.
you can remove the rail but keep the fuel lines hooked up and crank to see if they spray.
once you remove the injectors you might see varnish in the filter baskets.

 

Apply the 12v to one side only? The baskets are on the end of the injector? When I crank the engine over, it will pop off for a split second but not run. I figured that was residual drops?

 

Ground one side and apply 12v to the other. Polarity doesn’t matter.
you will not see the injector being stuck the pintle will just not move.

 

Thanks for the help, I thought it was an electrical problem with the injector circuit until I used the noid light today.

 

Yeah i got her running but that’s all she wants to do. Sit there and idle al day and night. Hit the throttle and pow. Nothing. Just wants to stall out. Thinking maybe the injectors are bad, but the engine light still showing for maf sensor.

 

I’m dealing with similar issues on my 91 L98. I was originally getting to run for a few minutes (20 mins one time), then it dies. Now, it will go with the help of starter fluid for about 30 seconds and then 10 second bursts with starter fluid. Same thing, good fuel pressure, spark, injector pulse, fresh fuel (after draining and purging 2 yr old fuel), wet plug when I pulled #1. Timing is fine, newer distributor, newer coil, newer AIC, TPS and brandy new ICM.

The comments about batch firing of the injectors has me interested to look at that more closely. Ultimately, the car is destined for an LS swap but I’d love to drive it this spring while I’m getting all the swap components sourced.

I was thinking maybe the fuel pressure regulator but even pinching off the return line does no better. What about the AIT sensor under the plenum? Not sure how much that plays a role. What else? There’s no MAF and so is this a speed density setup. My apologies as I’m not deeply understanding this engine and it’s in part because it’s temporary. Just want to get it running, do burnouts and swap it out without throwing money at it.

 

I'm in the same boat here. 350TPI that will start and die, 45lbs PSI at the fuel rail. It will run sorta on starting fluid.
From my reading, this is the injectors going bad. I pulled some 5.3 LM7 truck injectors but they are much shorter and the connector doesnt fit yet. Temped to cut down the fuel rail stands on the intake if I can get the wiring connector to work.

This problems seems very common to this TPI fuel system, lots of cars having identical problems. Hoping I don't have to pay for brand new injectors and wait for them to arrive. My gasket surfaces are cleaned and I'm ready to install the intake and fire this thing.

 

You can buy injector connector adapters. The real problem is the flow rating and voltage offsets of the ls injectors. You would need to tune for them. Why not buy the correct injectors ?

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...dkw=ev1+to+ev6

 

^ Nice info
I went back to the junkyard and got some Northstar injectors, put it together, it fired but didnt' stay running. My battery is shot so might just need a bettery charge, it quit pretty fast on me. Dang, that intake/vacuum setup is tough. Hope I don't have to do that again

 

Yeah I’m pretty sure injectors are toast. 127,xxx miles and they are original. Plus been sitting with bad fuel and not drove in about 8 years. So my plan as of now.

So reworking this entire motor has opened my eyes about what I really want. I want newer fuel injection and a 350. So was gonna do junkyard swap. It’s about $800 for motor (6.0) tranny(4L80) and the computer. So what I’m going to do this winter is pull the computer and wiring out. Take all of it out clean as possible, and see if anyone would be interested in the tpi or any of the old components. I got videos of it running and probably get it fixed with injectors and the maf sensor. But I don’t wanna go down the road of just keep fixing things until eventually the bottom end lets loose and down goes Frazier. I’ll sell to someone that wants to use it. But the body and everything underneath is gonna be checked cleaned painted or whatever before I put the new stuff in. Brakes and suspension will get the upgrade also.

I was like you a few weeks ago, just get her running before winter and do some burnouts and shut er down. Unfortunately I just lost my grandma and things have really been all over the place. I’m all the way tapped out now. But I need to get this done over the winter because she loved the car and I wanna make it special for her.

Well if anyone is interested in the 305 motor and tpi setup hit me up. Let me know what you want and we can try and make it happen. Thanks everyone for all the help.

 

Definitely a common theme here. IDK, maybe I’ll buy a set of cheap ebay EV1 injectors and see what happens. For me, I’m having a difficult time understanding how I got it to run for about 20-30 minutes and now can’t get it to go even 1 single minute before 10 second starter fluid starts. Although, it did run terribly bad for that 20-30 minutes and would sound like it was missing if any throttle was applied.

 

So when mine wouldn’t start eventually I remembered the IAC looked funny when I had it out. It looked like whatever was supposed to be inside that spring and around the rod was broken. I hoped it would be ok when I put it back but after doing everything else I done I knew it wasn’t right. Took it out again and decided to pull the rod and spring to get down in it maybe get it working again, Nope. Spring flew away into never gonna see that again for a year or so land and got a new IAC sensor. Installed it and reset it to the car (thanks third gen forum and YouTube). And POW! Starts right up and just purrs away. Until you hit the gas. There was a heavy tapping. Real bad. Couldn’t figure it out. And when you pulled the throttle it made a super scary noise up in the top.

Turned out it was a rocker super loose and turned itself sideways and was making all that tapping and banging through the intake.

After I fixed that it pretty much started up every time I hit the key. And would idle and idle and idle. Didn’t leak, except the exhaust and it didn’t smoke. It smelled fine and sounded good. But now anytime you give it throttle it just wants to shut down. And tried driving down the street and itgets to about 2,000 rpm and nothing. So I’m going maf first then injectors. After that it still don’t wanna go. Then it’s all gonna go. The whole tpi, and everything. I just wanted the car to begin with. But thought it was a 350 until I really looked at it. But I always planned on the 6.0L swap out cause I wanna run turbo on one and it’s really fun to ride in them. So I do want to get this right before I do that. That way I know the next person with the stuff will have a properly running and working power train. Also I had never did this before and it would be nice to finish it especially when I’m so close. The money is killing me. I really don’t got the money for the injectors. And it probably won’t be for a min. Like I have to finish this tpi. I need it to be right. So I got until my birthday in December to get the parts and install them.

 

Hey I'd pull off the exhaust and see if the muffler or cat converter are plugged up. Happened to me on a boat LT1 engine last summer

 

About to put my intake back together and see if I fixed my problem. Injectors weren't getting power to one bank. Think the ECU plug wasn't installed all the way or the pins needed scraped. Looked like there was some corrosion on the pins for the injector wires. Cleaned them and plugged it back in and presto, power to all injectors now. I should have checked this first

 

Condolences on the passing of your grandma.

 

Thank you I appreciate it.

 

Hopefully you got it handled with the injectors.