Starting Problems

[Scorp965]

I was driving my car today (carb'd turbo buick v6) when it died on me in a parking lot. I figured I had stalled the car, but when I hit my push button it didn't start up again. I could give it gas and when holding the button it would turn over, I could even get the motor started once or twice by giving it a lot of gas, but it would only fire once, and it wouldn't keep running.

I had the car towed home and hooked it up to my caravan for a jump, it started but it was kind of an effort to get it started (again lots of gas pedal and a few seconds of holding in the starter button). The car shows +12.5V turned off with no jumper cables attached, yet all of the sudden it takes a huge effort to get it started (especially w/o flooding it), where as yesterday it would fire right up with the push button. The fact that the car died on me while running makes me think bad alternator, and I intend to take more volt meter readings tomorrow (I didn't have anyone to gas the car while I read the volt meter today), but what concerns me is this:

If the car is still turning over and the starter can start the engine doesn't it have enough juice to keep running, even if I had a bad alternator? The most power-consuming thing on a car is the starter, if this works multiple times in a row the car should be able to keep itself running, no?

Any other thoughts on what might be causing this issue? The engine also sounds like a diesel truck and has very little pickup, items that are secondary to getting the car running & reliable (a bit of a project car) - the hotair setup is out of a 1980 Buick.

 

[Scorp965]

I got the car started today and after driving 1.2 miles it died on me again, completly died - still had power to the accessories, still could crank the engine, could still start the engine with a great deal of gas pedal and starter (although it would sputter & die in a second or two) - I checked all the voltages this morning and while a little on the low side they were still fine - I checked the electronic choke on my carb, it was getting +12V, when the car died I took the air filter off and manually opened the choke, it still wouldn't start.

Any ideas on what this could be? This was a perfectly running & starting car 48 hours ago, then it just stalled on me in a parking lot & refused to start back up. I had it towed home ($45), checked all the voltages out thinking possibly a bad alternator, found they were all fine, then gave it a try after letting it sit overnight - it started up on the second try & I started to drive to a friend's house (3 miles away), but didn't get very far. I had the car towed back to my house ($45) and now I am staring at it outside of my window. I am getting ready to tow it to a mechanic ($45 + $xxx), but I would greatly prefer to do this work myself, if anyone has an idea I could check on this car?

It is again a carb'd hotair setup from a 1980 buick, it has power, when it's running it is charging the battery, the starter engages, all accessories work, but the car is VERY hard to start if it has recently been running, it doesn't idle period (it will stall), but if left overnight it starts up a lot easier - the fuel pump is running and the car has a strong gasoline smell, at the same time I am not sure it is flooding itself as unless I am really giving it gas there is no way it will start, even when I give it a ton of gas it stumbles and stalls. The carb is an edelbrock 795cfm performer w/electronic choke, I haven't seen the secondaries open up but again the car should still be running even with them closed.

 

[tc86gn]

I would pull the carb and go through it. Could be some trash in it. Just my opinion.

 

[WarpSpeed]

Sounds fuel related. Have you tried flow testing the pump,,, unhooking at Carb, and letting it flow into a bottle or can or something? Could be a kinked fuel line over the rear axle,, maybe..... Might blow out the fuel line, backwards.
Could be some junk in the carb too.