Hi all, new to this board and looking for help. I have a 86 sport coupe that I bought when I was 17. Drove it for a few years and had to replace engine with factory replacement. Drove it everyday for a few more years and had no issues and finally parked the car in a friends shop. It has been there for the last 5 years and only been started a few times. I now have a 15 year old that wants this car. We went to pick it up and couldn't get it to start. Replaced the battery and it would start with starter fluid but not stay running. Assume the gas is bad so added a can of "sea foam" to the gas tank and put 5 gallons of hi octane gas in it with no luck. Changed the fuel filter and still no luck. Fuel pump was replaced not too long before I parked the car. Any other ideas would be helpful to someone with limited mechanical knowledge, LOL. Thanks.

 

Since it wanted to start with starting fluid...I would first get your hands on a fuel pressure guage and check the fuel line pressure. Some autoplaces have them you can just give them a deposit, then when you bring it back they give you your money back(autozone is one arround here)

To check the pressure you have to hook the guage onto the shreader fitting(looks like a tire valve steam). Its on the back side of the motor, near the firewall, dead center behind your intake manifold. You want it to read about 43.5 PSI when you turn the ignition on but dont start the car. Then when the car is started it should only fall to about 33.5 PSI, if i remember correct. That is the first thing I would check! Before looking elsewhere.

Heres a picture of my engine, between the shiney black intake manifold and the blue firewall, dead center in the middle you will find the valve, it "should" have a gray cap on it.

And welcome to thirdgen.org!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I had a similar problem on a Corvette, we kept chasing fuel issues. It turned out that water had gotten into the distributor and rusted it out. If the car has sat a long time, I'd certainly be looking at things like that too.