Hello, I have a 1991 3.1l v6 firebird that won’t start even with starting fluid. We tested all the spark plugs, and they’re all good. Today we tried to start it, and it wouldn’t, but it almost wanted to start if I my hand covering the throttle body intake. The fuel pressure is only at 12-14 psi, but we know the injectors are good because we just tested them and they all read around 12-12.7 ohms. We just changed the fuel pump and relay, and cleaned the tank. Around 2 weeks ago, it ran (not very well) but it did. However now, it doesn’t even want to start. It feels like we replaced everything. I can’t think of anything else that is wrong. Any info is appreciated.

 

UPDATE!!!! We got it running!

So we had changed the spark plugs recently, and there was not a single doubt that those worked. Well, I guess these cars are made to run rich, which can pretty much kill a spark plug quickly. We got new spark plugs today just for grins, and it actually worked. I hope this can help someone with similar problems with this car.

 

They're not made to run rich...

 

If it's still got only 12-14 PSI after replacing the fuel pump (and hopefully the fuel filter along with it), and is still running rich, replacing the sparkplugs has cured a "symptom", rather than the cause. As TL said, no, these cars are NOT "made to run rich", and you still must diagnose/repair the cause of the rich running. Have you checked the fuel pressure regulator?

 

We stopped it from running rich now. Before we changed the fuel pump, for whatever reason it was running rich. After we changed the fuel pump, we noticed it was idling at around 1700rpms, so we figured the computer hasn’t recognized that it doesn’t need to run rich anymore. We reset the Ecm and it fixed it. And yes we changed the regulator and filter. However, the fuel pressure has only gotten to about 20-25psi while running. Not sure if that’s normal. We drove it a little bit, and if I tried to accelerate pretty fast, it would starve itself basically. Any idea why that could happen?

 

Sorry I read somewhere that they were