car not starting is it old gas???

[WexysWE4]

I don't get it. It hasn't been started in over 6 mos...I get it shipped to my new address...take it off the trailor....look under the hood and find that a plug wire came off....put that on and it starts right up. Idles really high and rough. It ran for about 5 minutes and just died.. now it won't even try to start. I came home from work today and tried..it started for about half a second and after that sputter nothing. just cranks and cranks. I checked all the wires...got the vacuum hoses int he right place with the help of this board. but now nothing.
I wonder if its bad gas and clogged fuel lines. or electrical? where should I start? If I can get it running I'm going to take it somewhere like Pepboys or other so they can run a diagnostic

 

[turboc87gn]

well all engines have one thing in common they need fuel air and spark at the right time to run...can you hear you fuel pump run when you put the key in the on position? try some starting fluid see if it tries to start you can always pull a plug wire and stick a screwdriver in it and hold it near some grounded metal to see if you got a spark dont take the car to a zone or pep boys they are a bunch of rookies at best and wont know what to do..If you wanna read codes and take a paper clip and bridge the two prongs in the upper right hand corner of your diagnostic port and turn the key on, the check engine light will flash the codes are 2 digits for instance if the light blinks 5 times and pauses then blinks 3 times that is code 53 it will flash each code 2 or 3 times if you are using a haynes manual then the codes are in section 6 of the book(emissions) I doubt its bad gas my car sat 2 years and i added a splash of 94 octane before i started it but it fired up as soon as i touched the key it smelled bad but it ran smooth hope this helps...

 

[Underboost]

Do you hear the pump energize for 5sec when you turn the ignition on?
Have you checked for spark?
Why was the plug wire off do you think the transport company drove it?
Check the oil and make sure its not milky.

Where do you live?

Please don't take it to Pep Boys.

 

[WexysWE4]

I don't know what the pump sounds like to be honest. It's new, I bought a walbro 340 and an acufab regulator. they were installed a while ago but hardly drove it since. it ran great last i remember.
I live in southern California...in Palm Springs so I have lost touch with all my buick friends. I have forgotten soo much about tuning and my car

 

[Underboost]

I don't know what the pump sounds like to be honest. It's new, I bought a walbro 340 and an acufab regulator. they were installed a while ago but hardly drove it since. it ran great last i remember.
I live in southern California...in Palm Springs so I have lost touch with all my buick friends. I have forgotten soo much about tuning and my car

Have you gone in the SW section? There are guys from your area in that section. Your not that far from Lou Czarnota. Map quest zip 92630 and see how far he is. Just a thought.

 

[WexysWE4]

Thanks, I'm going to look him up here soon. I do have spark, I just checked. I also heard the fuel pump too. This morning I tried starting it and the first crank it fired, then died. That has to be a fuel prb right? If I used starting fluid, where do I spray it? Can I just go right into the throttle body?
Could this also be a fuel filter prb since the car was a filthy mess and sat for so long? It was in SC and spring there has a ton of pollen and the red clay gets everywhere.

 

[TURBOV8R]

Would start by at least jumping the fuel pump and get some fuel into a separate container.That will at least tell you that the pump is in fact working. If you didn't put any type of stabilizer in it and if the gas looks yellow to a caramel color and smells raunchy that may be the problem.Regardless,would be a good place to start,then move onto spark,etc.

 

[WexysWE4]

what do you mean by "and get some fuel into a separate containor"?

 

[WexysWE4]

Ok I took the air filter off...sprayed starting fluid directly into the MAF and it started. It will stay running if I keep spraying with starting fluid but that's it. I tried revving the car up while spraying and it sounds right...but once the fluid runs out it dies. I also put some fluid stabilizer in the gas, I have about a half tank of old gas left.
Still won't start...It's just strange that it ran for 5 minutes on the first try and now nothing

 

[TURBOV8R]

Remove the fuel line connected to the fuel rail,prime the pump and let it purge into a gas can.......Wear glasses!!
Check the fuel pressure if you can while it's"running"..don't go crazy with that starting fluid,ether's not really formulated to run a motor..

 

[novaderrik]

pull a couple of spark plugs and see if it they are soaked with gas.
if they are, take them all out and let them dry. while they are out, crank the motor over a few times to clear it out, and let the motor sit like that for a while.
once it's all dry, put the plugs back in and see if it starts. when doing this, hook up a fuel pressure gauge and see what the pressure is set at.
if the plugs are dry, then it's possible that your fuel pressure is too low.

 

[WexysWE4]

Plugs look like this. I don't have any gauges or tools here to check fuel pressure. All I can tell you guys is that it's an acufab that I bought when I upgraded my fuel pump. Car ran great for a year before setting.

 

[WexysWE4]

pics

 

[WexysWE4]

ttt please

 

[datant69]

get new gas

in my opinion i'd say try to drain the tank and put some fresh gas in it. my bro borrowed my vert 5.0 and put some gas in a station by my mom's house and it would run for 5 mins and then stumble and die. he'd try to restart it and it would crank over and run fine for a few mins or die right back out. it sounds like the same problem. We went to autozone and got a few oct boosters and put them in there and it took roughly 15-20 miles but it started acting right. Let's just say i repo'd the car from him and i won't let him in the pilot seat of my GN. Just my 2 cents, and experiance, if you don't have tools, check some local pawnshops or get some cheap sets to just get you by until you get what you need. You can also get a small pump and run 2 hoses ( 1 in the tank and 1 in a large gas can ) so you can pull as much of the old gas as possible. hope this helps and if anything it's just another opinion to kick around.

 

[Dabigguy]

Drain the fuel, put in fresh fuel, change the fuel filter. It runs with starting fluid, that tells you that you have spark and other things are at least close to being right.

 

[turboc87gn]

Yea you can always use the schrader valve in the fuel rail to drain the pressure the remove the valve totally with a valve tool for tires or ac then find a legnth of hose place this over the outlet and into a gas can then pull the fuel pump relay and bypass it with a jumper wire this will turn the pump on and the you can pump all the gas out that way make sure you hold the end of the hose over the schrader valve outlet or youll have gas shooting everywhere..once its empty get a put it all back get a fuel filter and some sunoco 94 octane...What kind of gas did you leave sitting in it ? Its weird cause with a half tank the gas shouldnt have gone bad mine sat with like 3-4 gallons of premium in it for two summers and i started it up a month ago it ran like a champ i just added a gallon or two of sun 94 before i touched the key your pump may be takin a dump..if you left race gas in it it prolly clogged the fuel filter it dosent take long for that stuff to get nasty when left sitting in small quantities...

 

[WexysWE4]

Thanks guys. I'm going to drain the gas sat after work. The schrader valve is right under the fuel pressure regulator right? IT's all coming back to me! lol. My pump is new though...so it should be fine. I do need to know where the fuel pump relay is.....my guess is.......argh...i forgot!

 

[WexysWE4]

Ok update....I have been cranking it over everday after work and all I get at the first couple cranks is it fires once and thats it. After that, nothing. I have changed the plugs, cleaned the posts on the coil pack, cranked it over a few without the plugs in it like mentioned on here, cleaned out the throttle body, and still nothing.
After I put everything back it fired a bit at first and now its back to the same. gas spurts out of the schrader valve and it is a bit carmel colored..but smells ok. My walbro 340 pump is still newer and the acufab is really the same...about 2000 miles on them. I have a bulldog chip that and stock injectors and have tried cranking it with the original chip as well.
BTW, thanks Reggie for the advice. I'm still needing some more from you guys though! I feel I'm close to getting it started, I can feel it! J

 

[WexysWE4]

Here are a couple pics of the old plugs. The broken one was the passenger side closest to the firewall (can't remember the order). It was prb broken when it was installed..not when I took it out. but it came out looking like that with hardly a gap. Looks like it was bent maybe going in?