new guy with a car that wont start
- Thread starter scott lucas
- Start date
Now why would you steer him to a POS MAF from O'reilly's ... and he should check over the basics before he just throws parts at it... like checking plugs / wires / seeing how much rust is built up on the coil towers where the plug wires attach .. vacuum leaks from dry hoses ... GOOD FUEL with good fuel pressure ... start with basics
H
Heisenberg
Guest
Because, a shitty running idle or flat out stumbling around sounds like MAF to me.
And of course, a hundred other things as well.
They don't charge an arm and a leg for a MAF, and it sure does sound like a air flow / fueling / stumbling MAF related problem.
You gotta have some way or some thing to be able to eliminate MAF issues.
And I think I made it clear that an O'Reilly's MAF is a crap shoot at best - but a reasonable crap shoot.
To have told him to immediately upgrade to a LT1 MAF would have been a pretty big leap.
You can't go tightening bolts, and cleaning intercoolers forever.
Eventually - you gotta start the process of elimination
However, you could have simply said:
"Personally speaking, before I started swapping parts - I would check A, B & C"
Instead of picking at me. This ain't a contest - I was only giving my opinion -which on any given day - is questionable at best
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H
Heisenberg
Guest
He stated he checked his hoses. He also stated his gas is probably shit, although I didn't comment on the Stabil scheme.
I let that slide.
I should have told him to manually drive the fuel pump and get that out.
But it sounds like the quality or quantity of his fuel is not his issue. He states he smells plenty of gas. And as nasty as it sounds, I've seen more than few engines start up and run OK with 5 or 10 year old gas.
It starts and runs - albeit like a wounded dog.
H
Heisenberg
Guest
He is not. He is trying to tune on the latest fuel - corn syrup!
It takes about an hour to drop that tank, clean it out, and reinstall.
Or - you can run the stuff thru the lines by taking the feed line loose, and manually driving the FP with the test lead near the driver's side valve cover.
Or other easy ways
Wouldn't fresh fuel be a logical start ? I'm with you on the STABIL I would never add that to my fuel .... SEAFOAM all the way .... sounds like the car has been sitting .. he smells plenty of gas from probably flooring the throttle to keep it running ( which I probably would keep to a minimum so he doesn't wash the rings if its that bad .) ... it could be running on 3 cylinders after a few plugs are fouled.. it could be the maf true ...
but if his stock MAf is jazzed putting on a junk POS local auto parts maf might contribute to those symptoms and he would want a LT1 / LS1 maf anyway !
typically just unplugging the maf would allow the car to idle ( as was mentioned) .
I was just saying he should start with just the basics and seeing what turns up...
I'll say it one more time,unplug the MAF and see if it runs somewhat better.Normally if it's bad enough it will run better with it unpluged.My first and third GN's I bought were bought cheap because of a bad MAF and would hardly run,unpluged the MAF and actually drove one home when I bought it.It is a easy check without a scan tool.
scott lucas
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2013
Removed all of the old gas out of it, added fresh fuel and I didn't go the stabil route I decided to just drain it like the guy said no point in trying to get it to run on old gas when the tank was over half full was just going to lead to more problems, I unplugged te MAF didn't change the way it idled at all removed all plugs they looked somewhat new, tomorrow I'm gonna check for spark have a good friend that's in from California (I live in ky) we're gonna enjoy some beers before he has to leave, and I think the TPS is good while I was keepin it running the electric tach on the dash was working and seemed to be where it needed to be as i was going about 1/4 throttle and it was reading around 2krpms, I did notice today that the brainiac that put the CAI on didn't put a IAT sensor back on it so I will be acquiring one of those tomorrow as well
scott lucas
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2013
well i cant figure nothing out ive replaced the coil packs with acdelco units and new plugs and wires replaced cam and crank sensor, so i decided to track down the 2 previous owners of the car and talk to them the original said the computer was bad when he sold it to the man i got it from (would've been nice to know) and ive decided to go with a holley efi unit being that i live about 20mins from there head quarters and know several people that work there i am able to get a discount on it....thanks for the help and ill be doing a write up on the ecu swap process i have a good friend of mine that runs it on his ls swapped 67 camaro and he loves it!!!
scott lucas
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2013
why would i be kidding?
Keep us posted on that Holley EFI swap. You may be starting a new trend!!!
I'll have pity on you because you're new. I don't know for sure, but I don't think many guys are running a Holley ecu in our cars. I think most guys on here would tell you that if you're not going to run the stock ecu, the way to go is fast xfi. Why not try a known working stock ecu before going and swapping all around? The stock ecu's are still readily available, relatively cheap, and can take you to the 10's (probably faster). The Holley efi sounds like a bad idea to me because your buddy has an ls motor, which is light years from our turbo v6's. Unless you have an ls converted GN, in which case I'm sure it would work fine. Let us know what you have.
A lot of guys tend to shy away from "thinking outside the box" with these cars because they're finicky. Thinking outside the box got us e85 monsters and fast xfi, but there's no reason to re-invent the wheel.
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I'm not sure why you changed that list of stuff, but if you want to keep troubleshooting, there is lots of help here.
when changing the cam sensor, it needs to be timed, or the ignition will sync to the wrong cylinder.
the chip in the ecm needs to be matched to the injectors, can you check what chip is in the ecm, and what injectors are installed?
pics will help some, since the crowd on here knows the engine bay really well.
Bob
H
Heisenberg
Guest
This could turn out one of two ways. If you can follow the directions and good advice freely offered here, success can be within your grasp. If not, the initials DJ come to mind. Good luck, and keep us posted.
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
Do a search on "Holley EFI" on this site.
Then do a search on "Holley EFI for V6 Turbo Buick" on the internet.
The sheer volume of success stories will tell you it's the right thing to do............ or not..................
Then do a search on "Holley EFI for V6 Turbo Buick" on the internet.
The sheer volume of success stories will tell you it's the right thing to do............ or not..................
