Hey everyone havent posted in a while except for the three times i'v tried posted this now so if it's here 4 times just ignore the other three

My firebird quit runni'n while it was in the shop getti'n some minor body work done. I pretty much just let it sit for the winter so i didn't tear it up more. It seemed to be runni'n way too rich and then not at all. I took all the plugs out which were practically brand new and cleaned them and changed the gap from 45mm to 35 and had it going for a few seconds but then it died again and they were filed i guess u'd say (soaked with fuel). Anyone know what might be wrong? it's a 92" 3.1 lit V6, appreciate it.......Andy

 

Sounds like an ignition problem. I had the same problem on my v6, coil was bad.

 

Ah really?, thanx for the input. U or anyone know if there's a way of testing this to see before i go and buy one?......Andy

 

So the car sat for a long time? Any idea as to the age of the gas? After I totalled my Firebird in '96, it sat a month and a half with the gas level near empty. After the frame/windsheild swap, I put the car back together- and it wouldn't start. Turned out that gas died; a few cans of new gas had the car running again.

Otherwise, sounds like Mike's right; glad you checked the plugs to see if they were wet. Dead gas is the only other reason I can think of for plugs getting wet and not "firing" to keep themselves dry.

 

Coil tests are easy...but there's a safe way, and a not so safe way to do it. Safe way, buy an ignition tester at Discount Auto Parts. It has an end on it that looks like a spark plug's connector end, and has a dial-adjustable gap, and an alligator clip to ground it to the chassis. Simply pull a wire off of one of your plugs, connect it to the tester, set the proper gap on the dial, ground it, and crank the car and look for a spark.

The less safe way is to remove the wire and jam it onto the end of a screwdriver. Make sure the screwdriver is a short distance over part of the body, like the fender..somewhere for the spark to ground to...and have a buddy crank the car. But a warning, doing this incorrectly, if your coil DOES work, will cause a maximum of like 35,000 volts to go flying through your arm. If it's your original coil, chances are it's only 25-30,000 I'd say...but still...that's one hell of a bee sting, so BE CAREFUL. Amperage isn't enough to seriously injure you, but you will be in some real pain for a little while.

If there IS spark, look at the color. Color should be white if it's new and operating at peak power. Blue is weak, but acceptable. Anything less than blue warrants immediate replacement.

Like Mike said, I'd bet it's your coil too. Sounds like you're getting no spark. As far as coils go, I'd recommend an MSD Blaster GM HEI direct replacement coil... I believe the Hypertech coil sold on Summit is also a good bet, and opinion varies with the Accel direct replacement unit but most seem to give positive feedback.

 

I'll have to try that, Yea it was pretty low on gas prob a couple notches above E but it stopped runni'n a while back though not real long after i drove it last. It didn't seem to be in peak operating order before that either. I did put prob a couple gallons of fresh gas over top of what was in it and tried starting it numerous times so that the fresh gas would be pumped in and repeated cleaning the plugs also.

The engine's got prob 70k miles on it and the rest of the car was reconstructed a lil while back and it's hard to say because it had 70% damage at one time and has alot of different parts on it so i wouldn't be surprised if the coil's gone bad. I'm at school now but i'll post pics sometime when i'm at home....