My car decided to break on me this past Sunday and hasn't started since. See I cleaned under the hood with a rag and spray bottle after I put on some new valvecovers and it worked fine. Then after driving around for a little while I could smell something burning. Turns out a little bit of oil was spraying on my headers in the back of the motor by the number 8 cylinder. I then figured out the oil was there because I didn't put the breather in right on the valvecover so a little bit was getting on the header and burning.

Just to make sure I had solved the oil problem I sprayed the header and area where the oil was and washed it with the hose. I even used it very low so that it wouldn't get to the opti or PCM. Keep in mind I had the car running while I rinsed off the oil plus I was rinsing towards the very back of the block. Anyway it stayed running and when I was done I shut off the water and my brother who was in the car shut off the car thinking we were done. I had him restart it so I could see if oil was coming from anywhere else, it started fine and so I looked around to see if it was leaking still. I saw nothing so I shut the hood and he thought we were done so he shut off the car again. Once again I told him to restart it so I could drive it around and it could dry completely. This is when it didn't start. It would just crank and crank and crank.

So that bring us to today. I was finally off of work so I was pulling plugs and checking for fire. All the plugs fired, the coil fires, and there is fuel pressure. I don't have a gauge for fuel pressure, I just relieved the pressure at the Schrader valve, then turned the key so I could hear the fuel pump prime, once it stopped I went back to the Schrader valve and relieved the pressure again and fuel spurted out. The car just cranks over and over and it sounds like it is on the brink of starting but never does. I have the MSD opti and it has never given me problems! Plus as I mentioned it is firing. What else can I check?

 

The ICM maybe? idk of a good way to check it other than putting a known good one on there.

 

Is it low on gas? It's pretty stupid but I had this problem and the car was just out of gas. Funny because it did have fuel pressure like you said but still wouldn't start. Stupid gauge said it had an 1/8 of a tank so I didn't even consider that till I checked everything else. Put gas in it and it ran LOL.

Another time it wouldn't start and it was because my coil wire was arcing. New coil wire and voila. Take this as ideas, entertainment, whatever. That's my .02 haha

 

i looked at ur vid ur car runs good for full weight man!!

 

Thanks! It had a few issues and could have run better but oh well.

 

If the ICM was bad it wouldn't fire at all. And I know it has gas, I had just put $30 in on the Friday before.

That was a NICE video! What are you mods? Upgraded rear? You shot out the hole every time!

 

Stock 3.42 10 bolt out of a 6 speed car lol. At the time I had LPE heads, way too big 242/248 XFI cam, 3400 stall, and other bolt ons/supporting mods such as LTs, EWP, true duals, MT ET street radials. Sorry about the hijack lol

 

Yea I kinda hijacked my own! Anyway...more help!

 

Try to verify the fuel pressure. Also, could be a bad starter.

Also, check the battery voltage while cranking it, to make sure that is good and check all grounds. It's possible the water may have shorted something electrical.

 

I'm gonna verify fuel pressure today with a gauge on the Schrader. It should be around 40psi right? I don't see how it could be the starter, it turns over just fine. Also the battery is new too.

 

It just seems like it would have to have something to do with the water thing since that when it stopped working. Can't really think of what that could have affected other than electrical stuff.

 

Ok I still haven't had time to check fuel pressure but tomorrow for sure.

Anyway it started yesterday out of no where! It cranked like 2 times then fired up without hesitation! I drove it around for about 30 minutes without any stumbles. I parked it and went to work in my truck because I didn't want to risk it breaking in the parking lot. Well after work I'm all giddy like a school girl to drive my car again and low and behold it just cranks and cranks. Just like it has been doing all week it just turns over and over. This is sooo frustrating.

 

Pull the vacuum reference hose from the fuel pressure regulator to see if theres fuel in there. If there is, the diaphram is torn and fuel will get past it and into the intake. It will flood and cause the extended cranking, then hours later after it evaporates and all the pressure is relieved from the lines, it will start.
After that, I would check the ignition control module, they can be tricky like that too. Pull it off and take it to a parts store, most of them can test it.
Good luck.

 

i have an almost NEW GM ICM for your car, if you need one let me know. i would be happy to sell it. also check your grounds. there are some that are next to your ICM I believe. I haven't worked on a stock motor in a very long time, lol!!!!

g'luck. i will think about this one as well, see if i can provide any input. sounds like you need to verify f/p still, if i read correctly

 

You can have all of the fuel pressure at the rail in the world, all the spark in the world, and plenty of air, but if the pcm doesn't tell the injectors to pulse, your car won't start at all.

 

Just checked fuel pressure and it stayed a constant 42psi. Which is good. I tried listening to the injectors to see if they are clicking on and off but couldn't hear them over the car cranking. I'm about to take the ICM and coil to get tested just as insurance.

 

I also pulled the vacuum hose from the regulator and it faintly smelled like gas but it is on the regulator. There wasn't any inside the hose and it wasn't very strong smell of gas so that can't be leaking.

 

Got any starter fluid in a spray can? Unhook the iat sensor on the elbow, spray a little in there. Your car WILL fire IF it is getting spark. It will only run for a few seconds but that will rule out whether or not the car is getting adequate spark.

 

Have you checked all of the fuses in the UEC? Perhaps something shorted out when it got wet. Just a thought in case you've tried everything else.

 

Coil and ICM both tested good. I'll try some starter fluid and see where that gets me. I'll look at fuses again too.