lt1 hawk

iTrader: (2)

Ok, I need some help here. I was driving my 95 LT1 Z28 today, and at first, taking off in first felt like taking off in 3rd, no power. I was noticing that I had very little power, and she didn't sound quite right. Then it started sputtering, and I was begining to feel like a geo metro would make a better time in the 1/4 mile than me. There a chance this is the fuel pump? Or that the filter or something else is clogged? It just felt like I was losing power last night, and today, it is really bad. what about a distributor cap? I have heard horror stories about the opti, but since I have not even broken 60,000 miles on the car, it seems kind of early for that. Is the fuel pump internal or external? Oh yeah, I do not think it is the sparks or wires, I just replaced all those a couple of thousand miles ago, so that takes care of one of the three things it usually is (air, fuel, and spark, though almost never air...).
HELP!

lt1 hawk

iTrader: (2)

anyone know anything about this? I am pretty sure it is a fuel pump though.

Red1996SS1519

iTrader: (7)

Hmmmm,
1- 60k isn't early for our LT1 opti and my first guess would be the opti from the way ur describing the issue, I believe that not only me, but many have been through this before.

2- Clugged fuel filter isn't good. Plus, it takes 10-15 minutes to replace it if ur a first timer, and if it wasn't the issue then you've got nothing to really lose, it cost 10 bucks to buy, get underneath ur Z and replace it, that way you can narrow down your guesses in my opinion and again, if it wasn't the problem, then you got urself a brand new filter that won't hurt anything.

3- The fuel pump is on top of the fuel tank (Inside the tank and can be accessed from the top of the tank) which if you want to follow the book you need to drop the tank, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm and that's a REAL bitch and a lot of time. Many guys including myself have cut a square hole underneath the carpet in your hatch area to be able to access the pump without going through the whole stupid GM way to replace it. Fuel pumps aren't cheap but again, if you replace it it won't hurt anything (That's the way I always look at it and if the part that was replaced wasn't the problem, I keep the old one for a back up) at 60k everything is possible.

4- It could be many other things as well, go to advance auto parts and ask them to scan your computer, they do that for free (Not sure if they can on earlier than 96 OBDII cars), see if it shows any code and take it from there.

Fastbird93

iTrader: (10)

Spend $40 on a fuel pressure gauge, connect it to the schraeder valve, tape gauge to windshield, take for drive. If pressure is dropping, time for a fuel pump. If not, chase issues elsewhere.

lt1 hawk

iTrader: (2)

went to autozone... they said it would not tell them anything unless it was showing a check engine light. I am guessing though that it could not because it is OBD1 though.... I am going to look into the O2 as well.
I am just really hoping it is not the opti, especially since it has the vented opti. Cutting the hole is what we already decided to do, and I might as well put a better fuel pump in it. I am going to change the fuel filter first, because that is really easy to do.

jb442

iTrader: (4)

I would check fuel pressure - this way you can quickly eliminate the pump being the problem. Can you hear the fuel pump prime when you turn the key on? How old is the fuel filter? When my pump was going out, I couldn't even hear the pump prime because it was very weak... and it eventually went out. Red1996SS1519 is correct, it's very time consuming to replace the pump by dropping the tank (that's the way I did it). Mine went out just before 100K miles.

Edit: Came in a couple minutes too late! ... I agree with what Fastbird93 said, but check the fuel filter as well.

lt1 hawk

iTrader: (2)

This is my next move.

lt1 hawk

iTrader: (2)

it is priming. not sure how old the fuel filter is, but I am going to replace it anyway.

NorthernZ

There is a spot in your wiring that will jog the pump. I can't remember exactly where it is because it's been a while since I did it. It is a small black rectangle at the end of a wire under the hood on the passenger side (I belive). The rectagle looks like a male pug, it has no prongs on it but instead has a slot with a white pice of plastic in it.
What you do is disconect your feed line in to your fuel rail and attach a preasure test gage to your line. Then you push on the white tab in the slot of the black tab and it will give you a reading on your fuel preassure. If your preasure is off you know it's your pump. Like another guy said in a previous coment, the pump will still work but might not be at full potential. I think mine was out by like 5 pounds when I changed the pump. I got the spec for normal fuel preasure in a manual and location of the test "button" if you wanna call it that.
Of course this is assuming you have no problems in your fuel delivery route, filter, cloged or bent/busted line, ect. After having done the pump change to say I would never cut a hole in my floor is not imposiable but I just don't like the thought of cutting a hole in my car. Bought it new, walked to work when it rained or snowed (2/3rds of the weather where I live), before I could afford another car. It's my baby.
Anyway try it. I'm on a 24 hr shift a the fire hall right now, I'll look at my book and car tomorow night and post a some info on location and specs on preassure.

squeals99

iTrader: (8)

the connector that ^^^ is talking about is on the passenger side... just to verify that... i had to use it to make sure my pump wasnt priming when it went out... unless we are talking about different connectors, the one i hooked a test light up to was like a direct power so the fuel pump would prime when 12v was sent through that connector, and the line passed all the relays and such

ben77

iTrader: (1)

Had the exact same thing happen to me, then later in the day the fuel pump went out. But like people have said, it can be a number of other things.

lt1 hawk

iTrader: (2)

Ok, I figured it out. It was the cats, and I checked the fuel pressure, it is good. We are still going to do a few other things, and I will explain that in a moment. For all of you that were sure it was the cats, you win. They weren't just clogged, they were FUCKED. That is right, they were MELTED. We were doing the "broomstick mod", only using a pry bar. We were slamming the hell out of it with the pry bar, and ARC00TA was reaching in there and taking it out. When we pulled out the first compartment (closest to the rear end) I was getting worried because they looked nice and clean, so I was afraid it was the fuel or something else even worse. Then when we got to the other one, it was REALLY clogged, then we found that some fuel had probably gotten in there and they had caught fire. Check out the pictures. I left some of the parts on the workbench at the hobby shop, and it elicited some suprised people. We got some funny looks shoving the hose of a shop vac in the empty shell of my cat. End state, it is running a LOT better, but I am planning on getting together with SS Bowtie this weekend and doing some more things to it. New water pump is in the works. It is running fine, but there is a tiny hairline crack in it. (I will post some pictures of that as soon as I can figure out how to load them from my ancient camera) Now I need to sea foam it to clean out some of that stuff. Another full day at the hobby shop, which is cool. Decided to do some other things to it that day too... details to come...