Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and I'm looking for a little help with my RS. I inherited the car years ago from my grandparents so it's sat in a garage for many years (9 to be exact). The car is a 1988 Camaro RS, 2.8L V6 engine, automatic transmission, 28,900 original miles.

Some time ago (about 3 years ago), I got the car out and started driving it every few days. Everything was great for about a week then it started acting up. I was driving it one night and it started sputtering and wanting to die. It also had a severe lack of power. Upon limping it back to my house, I started the diagnosis.

Initially, I thought it was a clogged fuel filter. I replaced that but the problem still persisted. It almost acted like it had a miss so I did some electrical diagnosis. Made sure all the injectors were getting power with a noid light (all 6 had power as they should) so I moved on to the ECU. I noticed there was a burned ground so I replaced the whole ECU and switched over the PROM. Just to make sure, I also switched the spark plugs and checked to make sure each plug was getting spark (all of that checked out flawlessly). Also changed the MAF sensor.

After these replacements, the car actually ran decent but had a slight miss to it still. I noticed that I could fill the car up and then the fuel gauge would slowly trickle down back to E even if the car was 7/8 full (gauge was on E and took it to station to fill up and it held 2.1 gallons). So obviously I know the gauge sending unit is bad.

Later on, I had it pulled out of my garage to let it idle and all of a sudden it just died and wouldn't start. Still to this day (about 6 months later) the car will not start. The only thing it will do is turn over but never actually fire. I can start it and the car will run on starting fluid at idle for 5-10 seconds and die again. As soon as I try to give the car throttle when idling on starting fluid, it will die. My next guess is that it needs a fuel pump but I can hear it running whenever I bump the key.

Can anyone chime in on this subject and lead me in which direction to go?

So far, I've replaced all spark plugs, fuel filter, MAF sensor and ECU. I've checked injector pulse, making sure spark plugs are getting spark and made sure there are no loose/corroded grounds.

Thank you for your help! I'm new to this stuff and I want to get this old car up and running again!

 

Nice a car with under 30K miles! That's pretty cool. Welcome to TGO.


I had my car sitting for about 4 years at one time and I had some major fuel problems.

After all was said and done the injectors were clogged up. So I had to replace them with new ones. But before that I changed the fuel pump, the filter, and regulator not knowing any better as I was no mechanic or was on this forum for help.

The moral to that rant is, you need to check your fuel pressure on the rail and see what it is.

There is a test port at the rear of your fuel rail next to the fire wall. Its a schrader valve and looks like a tire schrader valve that you would add air into your tire. It will have a cap on it unless some one took it off and lost it. You should check that with a fuel guage and see what the pressure is when your cranking the car. Make sure that you have a solid 38-46psi when you turn the ignition key forward and the engine is off, you should hear the fuel pump prime before you try to start it, that is a time when you want to check it, do it just while its primed. Then get someone to help and check it while you cranking the car. If the car was running youd like to see arround 40psi also but 42 is about perfect. You can get one of those test fuel guages from autozone or a place like that. Some of the places just lend it out with a deposit.

Let us know what the fuel pressure is and if it has any. But just from my experience in with a car that has sat for a bit..... I think it may be your fuel injectors and that they are clogged up. But if you dont have any fuel pressure then it may be another issue. Such as the fuel pump or even the fuel pressure regulator. But check the fuel pressure first. Then you can go from there.

If for some reason you do need to get injectors and can prove that those are the issue, do yourself a huge favor and look up southbay on here for fuel injectors. They are a great place to buy from. They will cost you a fraction of what it would at autozone or a place such as that. I just had to put it out there because back before I was a member on here I got stock replacement injectors for 4 times the cost of the current 48lbs injectors I have now. I got my current ones from southbay and they work great.

 

Thank you for the reply!

How would I go about testing the injectors to see if they are clogged?

I know the valve you're talking about because I've tested the fuel pressure before but I don't believe my gauge is accurate. It was an old R-12 AC gauge that read up to 300 PSI and it barely moved (to around 20psi I believe) so I'll get my hands on a gauge that reads a lot lower towards what I want to see.

 

You can first check the resistance of each injector before removing them but really if they are the originals just replace them anyway.

 

I would still check your fuel pressure though.

 

Thanks for the thumbs up fasteddie.
12v_classic when you check the resistance on your injectors try to do it when they are hot and cold. Anything below 12ohms is an indication of coil failure.

 

GM spec is 10.4 for the 2.8... Easiest way to check the injector resistance is to unplug the front injector harness connector and probe terminals 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 with the multimeter. Should come out to 4 ohms or somewhere near it, but NOT 6+.

OP, check your fuel pressure and look under the car for fuel leaks. If you're running through a good portion of the gas in the tank in a very short time, you've probably got a leak. Common area for the leak is just ahead of the rear wheel and around the fuel filter because all of the crap that gets picked up by the tire gets slung onto the lines in that area.

 

I'm going to check the fuel pressure sometime here within the next week.

So, if I'm correct, I want to see 10.4 ohms resistance across each injector?

Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

If you go and measure each individual injector, any injector reading LESS than 10.4 ohms automatically gets thrown in the round file (trash can). If you leave it, you could end up with ECM damage.

Ideally, as Southbay said, you want to see around 12-13 ohms per injector. I usually see an average of about 12.6 for the V6 injectors.

When you get the fuel pressure gauge, put it on the test port under the vacuum T at the back of the upper plenum. You do NOT want to see a pressure reading under 37 PSI. 37-47 PSI is GM spec. And you do NOT want to see more than 1 PSI lost in 20 minutes of waiting after the fuel system is primed.

 

Ok everyone, here's an update.

I've taken the upper intake plenum off and tested the resistance of each injector. The numbers are as follows per cylinder:

#1 = 16.0 ohms
#2 = 15.9 ohms
#3 = 16.1 ohms
#4 = 16.0 ohms
#5 = 15.9 ohms
#6 = 16.1 ohms

I am still yet to check the fuel pressure I tried using an old A/C gauge set but I'm almost positive they are broken. Didn't even get a reading with them with the valves all the way open.

BUT, one thing I did do kind of caught my attention. Before I took off the intake, I pushed down the pin in the fuel rail test port to see if any fuel would come out. And to my surprise, not a single drop came out! When I pushed it, I heard a "glugging" sound back at the tank but no fuel came out.

So I figured I would go back in the car and prime the pump. I bumped the key for 3 full cycles of the pump (from the time I heard it go on until it went off, then I did that again for 3 times). Upon checking the test port again, I got a little fuel this time (just enough to basically wet the threads of the test port) but still nothing what I thought I would see.

Well, that's all I've found out today. I'm still asking around friends and family to find a fuel pressure gauge before I go spend the money on one.

Thanks for the help everyone! This is by far one of the most responsive and helpful forums I am a part of!

 

If u prime they system and it has no pressure at the test port at all you definitly need to look at items before the fuel rail. You did say you can hear tye pump prime? And you are sure of that? If you are not sure you will need a friend to help you so you can be sure you fuel pump is getting power.

 

Do you have an air compressor or access to one? If so, take the big fuel line out of the fuel rail and hook a blow gun into it. Disconnect the fuel line at the filter outlet (I hope you realize that the filter only goes one way!) and blow out the line from the engine to the filter. You will need to get an o-ring kit for the fuel lines, BTW... And you might want to do the same to the small line at the engine as well.

If that doesn't help, your problem is either between the fuel pump and the filter or inside the fuel tank.

 

Yes I'm 110% sure that the fuel pump is running. I can sit in the driver seat and prime the pump (bump the key) and hear a motorized hum coming from the rear of the car. Sometimes it even sounds like the tone of the hum changes as the pump primes.

 

Yeah I going to try that soon as I get a chance. I have access to an automotive lift and commercial air compressor so it's all about getting the car to their location.

And yes, I am aware the fuel filter only goes one way

 

There is a small rubber hose (3" maybe?) that connects your fuel pump to a hard line on the sending unit. This hose is prone to splitting, especially when the car has sat for a long time THEN gets fresh gas and pressure. you'll still hear the pump run but the pressure could be leaking out that hose. I had this problem on an 88 firebird that sat for years and a 92 camaro that sat for a year and i bet this is the cause of many "bad fuel pump" problems.

 

Update! I finally got a fuel pressure gauge and checked the pressure. Not good.

After priming and getting the car to run off of starting fluid, the max the gauge ever got to was right at 8-9psi.

Without the car running, I ran the pump through 3 prime cycles (3 bumps of the key until I heard the pump go off each time) and only got the gauge to a max of 5psi.

So is it safe to say that the culprit is a bad fuel pump?

 

Not yet. You need to make sure the lines are all clear too. There could be a blockage somewhere.

 

I'm having the same issue w my 86 2.8 camaro. I've changed fuel pump, the sending unit, relays fuel rail and regulator, injectors ECU, timing chain and gears. It would start and idol but when I tried to drive it I got about 100ft and it died and won't start now its getting fuel to the check valve and its getting fire just won't start..... HELP!!!!!!