Basically every part has been replaced on this car. It will start, but not idle. New IAC valves, wires, plugs, dist cap, rotor button.
Fuel pump runs, jets seem to be spraying plenty of gas. about to give up and switch to a carb. Any ideas before I spend more on this pos than it cost?

 

This car has been sitting for seven years. All the old fuel has been drained, fuel filter replaced, oil changed, radiator flushed and new antifreeze.
We have pretty much covered the basics, but cannot get the car to idle. It seems like it should be something very simple. We just can't find it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If we opt to convert to Edelbrock 650, what problems are we going to run into with all the computer b.s.?

 

You should remove all of the vacuum caps on the manifold and throttle bodies and replace them with new ones , the old ones can rot and develop holes that wont be noticable. CFI is very sensitive to vacuum leaks. Try advancing the distributor just a little.


If you want to convert to CARB you computer would be useless. , you would need a vacuum advance hei distibutor , the throttle cable from a carb car , the correct TV cable from a carb car ,and a fuel pessure regulator.. You would also have to find a way to lock-up your converter.

 

And why?

 

First things that come to mind are:

1-Have you checked the connection on the Coolent Temp Sensor?The CTS has alot to do with the amount of fuel thats delivered to the TB's.

2-Whats the voltage on your Throttle Position Sensor set at?

3-If your TB's have been removed...were they balance after after they were reinstalled?

Dont give up on the Crossfire just yet,when running right its a good dependable setup!

You can email me at laserred91@aol.com I would be glad to help if I can. Chris

 

Sorry I am such an idiot, I should have known you meant torque converter. I don't know much about cars.

 

I forgot to mention that when the car dies after starting, it backfires through the carbs. What could be causing that?

Used diagnostics and no codes are coming up. Really befuzzled now.

 

you also need yo check your timming.I had the same problem wih my 83 Trans Am.To my surprise though it wasn't my timming like a mechanic said but a lot worse.Computer had gone crazy when it was hooked up and it cost too much at the to replace.I just went and put a carb instead.Then got rid of the car.

 

How long will it run before it dies? Does it back fire while you are cranking it?

I had a similar problem with my car, found that I did not install my distributor on the compression stroke.

 

Mine would for about 5 sec. at the most.When it back fired the the intake I had enough.I even replaced the module and everything.When I bought the car for 5oo bucks it had no plugs,wires ect. I replaced evreything and it ran very strong for about two weeks.One day it idle high and shut off.

 

The basic on a CrossFire means replacing the intake manifold plenum gasket. Big vacuum leaks from there. Also once you get it running, balance TB's. Very important. Have you changed fuel pump? Good idea if not. Use an LT1 pump instead. Also check gaskets on TB's. Pull injectors out and clean them at very least. Otherwise get new ones and clean out IACs. Make sure they work. You can also come onto the CrossFire Forum at www.crossfire.webhop.net for more help.

 

As dumb as this sounds, 2 friends and my self spent 3 days trying to get a '67 camaro running. The kid I bought it from said he parked it one fall and it would not run in the spring. The 3 of us have a decient amount of experance between us (between us we own 8 V8 chevys and 1 F***ing pustang) and it took 3 days of adjusting the timing, pulling plugs backfiring out both ends and just going nuts untill we found that wires 2-7 were all mixed up.
talk about 3 guys going "How could we be so dumb as to not check the plug wires"

Ryan

 

OK, I don't know if there is more info out there since I usually don't pay much attention here, but based on what you've got in this thread, it sounds like you crank it, it sounds like it starts and dies when you reliese the key.

Sounds like you've got fuel, do you have spark at the plugs?

If you do, what happens if you try to pull the engine codes? If you can't or it does something wierd I'd suspect the ecm.

Hook a timing light up to it and have someone crank it while you watch the timing marks. You should be able to see the mark close to the timing tab. If you don't try disconnecting the ESC connector and try it again. If the timing mark isn't even close then your timing is way off.

At this point since you've been dumping fuel and not running you may have ruined the new plugs. Once you wet foul them they're done, I'd pull them occasionally to check them.

Does it make a difference if you give it some throttle while cranking? A little throttle or a lot of throttle?

If none of this makes a difference I'd consider running a compression test. If you're getting fuel and spark(at the right time), it sould at least start and try to run. If not maybe while it was stored it froze...

Give me more details and I can probably figure it out

 

I am going to check the CTS. That seems like a good posiblity. The temp hand stays at the hot mark.

No codes come up that indicate any problems. Everything checks out o.k. on that. The vents on the hood had been stuck, but have now begun to work. I really don't think anything is frozen up. My step-dad is pretty good on carbed motors and would have noticed that right off.

It has to be in the injection system somewhere......surely?

Thanks for all the help and if anyone can think of anything else at all, please let me know. I will let you know if we ever get it running.

BTW, what kind of gas mileage should I expect? Not great I am sure.

 

No matter what people say, if you get it running right it is a good, reliable system.

When it was my only means of transportation and I was taking it on a lot of road trips I was averaging 32-34mpg, and got 35 and 36 once (usually DC to RI, with a big of bad traffic around NYC). It usually got between 16 and 18 city. When I blew up the 3.23 gears and put the 3.42's in from my '97 TA the highway mpg dropped about 1mpg and the city went up about 2 mpg, but the car felt happier at high speeds with the 3.23's on the highway.

BTW, that car also ran 14's with no internal mods whatsoever.

The reason for asking about the codes is that if the ecm isn't working right usually it will have problems spitting out codes, not that you'd have any set if the engine hasn't been running.

Injection/carbs are 2 differnet ways of doing the same things, and you should diagnose them the same. The big difference is that a carb gets its signals from the engine vacuume where FI gets it from a mess of sensors that monitor not only engine vacuum but load, TP...

The only thing inherant to the FI that I could think of that could keep it from running entirely (assuming again the ECM is OK) is if you had a bad O-ring on one of the injectors causing it to dump fuel down one side, that may make it too rich to start, but should start up if you give it some gas while starting it. Otherwize, if you're getting fuel you pretty much need to look somewhere else.

 

I've had several cars with problems idling. Turns out that 2 of the cars had badly clogged cts. I would suggest cutting the pipe to the cat, it will be really loud but it will tell you if the problem is caused by the cat or not.

 

Would you believe it was as simple as the darned fuel pump? It was the last thing that was checked......some of you kindly suggested it, but some people are too hard headed to listen to good advice.

The car still has some bugs to be worked out, but at least I have gotten to hear it idle and drive it down the driveway!

Thanks for everyone's advice and help!

Jeremy Ross