Greetings, first time posting here. We have a 1995 Firehawk. It’s been sitting in a garage in Az for about a year. It was started about 3 months ago & driven down the street & back. I was told it had smoke coming out the exhaust. Now it won’t start at all. Tried to jump battery but it still wouldn’t turn over completely. Would it most likely be bad fuel from sitting for so long? How difficult is it to drain fuel from a car like this? Should I take it to a mech shop? Or attempt it myself? Many thanks in advance!! 😊

 

Okay... Maybe I need to take a minute to further explain WHY I am here asking what could be seen as a “dumb question” or worse a “dumb owner”. The Firehawk has belonged to my mother since 1995. She always has LOVED this car. It’s been taken very good care of. And has CRAZY low miles for its age. My mother has lost a great deal of her vision in the last year or so. So the car has been siting in her garage. Because it’s no longer safe for her to drive it. And with all the other obstacles to overcome when losing your sight... well the car was forgotten mostly. I am her daughter & I’m trying to help her with the things that I can. Her registration is due for renewal...emissions required.... but I can’t get the car to start to take it there. I drive a 2017 Ram 2500 Power Wagon Truck. My knowledge of high performance sport cars & their proper care/upkeep is next to nothing. So I am here HUMBLY asking for assistance on what I should DO for this rare & special car that has meant so much to my mother. I am not intimidated by getting my hands dirty & im willing to do the job myself. If I have the right instructions to follow. In fact I quite enjoy when I GET the chance wrench on my own stuff. But Again I’ve no idea what NEEDS to be done yet. And will gladly take it to a reputable mechanic if that’s needed too. I just would sincerely ...wholeheartedly... appreciate advice from the wise knowledgeable GEAR HEADS here. That know what I should to do for this bad *** little car!! I say that with utmost respect .... and a little grin☺️ Please. & Thank you. 🙏🤷‍♀️

 

From the beginning I am a shade tree mechanic level 2 at best, but I hope this helps in getting you started.

First off, what is the car doing in more detail? Starting and running require 3 things, fuel, spark, and oxygen. More modern cars should be able to sit for a few month and start without issue, run maybe an issue but if there is electricity (battery) it should do one of a few things. Are the lights all normal, do they come on and go off after their standard check, does the Service Engine Soon light come on? Do you know if the keys are the same ones used when the car was last running? The security system (red light on the center dash in the defrost vent) should blink when the security system is on and not activated. If this was tripped it will stop the fuel from the fuel pump and open the ignition ground preventing a start, this is the VATS system and can prevent a start if the key resistor is wrong or other reasons. If you can get access to a code reader it would be good to see if the computer is seeing any error codes.

Do you hear the fuel pump turn on and pressurize the fuel lines? You mentioned it won't turn over completely, does it "try" and can't catch or just keep chugging away without doing much? Do you smell any exhaust after it has been turning over, does it backfire? If it ran 3 months ago and not now I doubt the fuel would be an issue unless it was bad before, and the culprit of the black smoke before. If you can smell any fuel or fuel like smell after trying to start a few times you would need to move down the like to spark or oxygen. If you never hear the fuel pump turn on or the starter is just turning and the engine never "tries to catch" then focus on the fuel system.

As the car hasn't run in a while I would keep the air filter on as this can help prevent issues if there is a backfire. The engine is naturally aspirated so spark is the next thing to check. This could get complex if fuel and spark are present and troubleshooting the computer for oxygen isn't that straight forward unless you have a code reader.

I am not knowledgeable on modern LS engines BUT, for older V8's you could remove 1 spark plug wire and troubleshoot if power is getting to the plug wire and plug. Back in the day this was done with an old spark plug and someone watching while attempting a start to see if any spark was generated, but DO NOT hold it as it has a heck of a jolt! I have done this on all 8, one at a time putting it back together when moving to the next until all 8 were confirmed. If no spark on the first 2 or 3 you can assume this is where the issue is. Otherwise, you can pull each plug and check if they are fouled or not. Electronics should be good with sitting for just 3 months unless they were wet before and started to corrode and this can be a bear to troubleshoot.

There are far more knowledgeable minds on this forum than me but knowing what is and isn't working is the first step in getting your car started and running again. I hope this helps in getting you started. Looking through the past posts in the General Maintenance, New LS1 Owners will help you out a lot too!

 

Take the battery out and get it checked. If it won't turn over completely, that has nothing to do with the fuel pump.

 

I bought a LT1 Vette that sat for a few years. It would start and die out and then not run at all.

1. It needed a new battery but I replaced that as soon as I got the car home.
2. Fuel in the tank tuned to water and goo, it was nasty. I cleaned out the tank and put in a new fuel pump.
3. I replaced the fuel filter as it was 22+ years old.
4. FPR had crapped out as did the injectors. I was "told" the older injectors don't work well with the newer fuel and half of these were clogged. Two were stuck open and leaked fuel into the cylinder and down into the oil.
5. So change the oil. Haha

I hope this helps but it got my car running great.




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If it's been sitting I would first make sure the fuel injectors are not gunked up and are working properly...easiest thing to do before trying to drain a gas tank or replace the fuel pump. a little starter fluid shot into the intake manifold can help get it running too, worked for me once after an optio spark change and it wouldn't start....but i hesitate to mention that due to fire risk..check the injectors

 

Greetings again everyone. It’s been a long minute since my original post. My much belated thanks to those who responded is long overdue. I hope my apology will be considered sincere as I explain the reason why I dropped off. I ended up taking the car to a shop. It needed a new fuel pump & also old fuel drained out. Ran like a top after that. I drove it a couple times & then it sat in the garage again until this month. It was shortly after my first post here that we learned my mother had cognitive dementia. It’s been the hardest four years of my life since then. Needless to say I was overwhelmed with it all & I forgot about this post My mother passed away in March. She left the car to me. So I am its new owner. Last week I had the taken to a local shop & the old fuel drained, bought a new battery, & the injectors were cleaned. The mechanic gave her a clean bill of health. She rumbled beautifully as I drove her home. I recalled my forgotten post here while attempting to educate myself more about this car. As I reread it, I cringed with shame that I had flaked like that… I’m truly sorry. If no one responds after this I will understand why. But I will soon be putting this car up for sale. I would greatly appreciate any one that would share what details I will need to know about before I try to sell it? I read the sticky post in the classified forum. I won’t say the car is “mint”. But the car has 57K miles on it, The build is 0641, all original no mods, white with gray leather interior & Ttops. I have the original window sticker to show exactly what the specs are. The only flaw I know of is the passenger side headlight makes a funny noise when it’s closed. But functions otherwise fine. If I should ask about these things in a separate post… I will. But am I dreaming that I might ask in the 25k range? I have had several people just knock on my door to see if I was interested in selling it already. I kept their names/ph# with a promise to call when I decided to sell. I just need to complete my DD & figure out a fair price to shoot for. Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated along with a promise of a better response time, this time. Thank you

 

First off, condolences on your mother passing as that is rough and a hard thing to get through.

No need to apologies on any questions, if you don't know you need to learn somewhere and for the most part I have found this site to be among the best in learning and expanding my knowledge on these cars.

Sorry to hear you won't be keeping the car as I know it holds sentimental value but its not always an option. There is a thread on the site for your valuation question
https://ls1tech.com/forums/what-worth-149/

Basically you will copy/paste much of your car's condition response there but include pictures, as many as you can, of the following:

• Exterior of front, back, driver and passenger sides and "quarter angle" shots from each corner (in good lighting and normal picture taking height)
• Shots of the interior, door panels, dash, seats, back seats, odometer and dash with the key on, just basis to see condition of problem areas
• Shots of the engine bay, 1 maybe 2 will be good
• Each wheel, to show conditions of the rims and tires (hopefully no curb rash)
• Pictures of the trunk area and is the spare, jack, etc. is there.
• Picture of the door jamb showing the RPO codes and the window sticker will be a plus
• If you want pictures of the headlights up and all lights on taken at dawn/dusk so people can see the lights all work

Nice this is these can be used for posting to sites that sell cars too if you want to do that route. Marketplace here, Facebook, Auto trader type sites, etc. The description is pretty solid just add in some additional details and post it on the "What is it worth" link and you'll get a pretty good assessment quickly. Not seeing pictures I would say your price point isn't far off to start with but it would be stronger if the car images show the car with a recent wash/polish and interior cleaned/detailed and you have the receipts of the work done recently. Potential buyers would love a short video of the car starting and running for maybe 1 minute as you walk around describing the condition. Check out some of the online ads selling older cars and you'll see this is a popular thing to highlight the cars in the best ways to bet the best offers.

One thing you will find out is there will be a fair amount of low-ballers that will start off offering 1/2 your asking price. Don't get discouraged with them as they are tire kickers mostly and trying to "get a steal". Once you have a good valuation hold firm to that. Facebook will be the worst for this, just ignore anyone starting off with such a low ball offer. I hope this helps out.

 

As above, condolences on the passing of your mother. I was the primary caregiver for my grandmother for many of her final years, including when she, too, developed dementia. This was a tough road, but when you care for a loved one with this type of incurable disease you realize that there is a fate worse than death, and that quality of life is truly more important than duration of life. With that said, I know it's still tough.

But on to your question...

Also, as posted above, the better section to ask about this (separate from the fueling issues) would be our "What's it Worth" section linked above. With that said, at 57k miles and all original (unrestored), the car is well out of the range of being a #1 condition show vehicle. I know 57k might *seem* like "crazy low" mileage for its age, but as these are special interest cars (with a significant amount having been tucked away), there are still plenty of 4th gen Firehawks with half (or less) of that mileage. It definitely will have some appeal among collectors, being a white Firehawk (rather uncommon), but the earlier LT1 cars (such as yours) don't get the same love and attention as the later LS1 versions (only exception being the ultra-rare LT4 Firehawks from '97). With that in mind, you can certainly *ask* $25k, but I don't see the car actually selling for anything over high teens-$20k in the current market. I think a sale in the upper teens (maybe a bit less depending on exact options, specific condition and presentation, and local market) is probably as good as it would get.

 

My condolences... is it possible for you to send me the vin number so we can add 1995 #641 to our firehawk registry?

http://www.firehawkowners.com/year/1995.html

 

From the Firehawk Association of America's lead historical rep:

I'm not registered on LS1Tech. Please pass along the link . http://www.slpregistry.com/car/10732.html The info is consistent was partial data I have for that car. As to the question of value, $25,000 is too high. More like $15,000 depending on the condition. The desert sun can be very hard on the interior and paint as we all know.