So, I nab this 2WD 2-door '89 Chevy S10 Blazer with a 4.3 V6 for $350 - dubbed it The Chubby. It ran, but barely. Needed an exhaust from the Y-pipe on back. It would start a little reluctantly, but wouldn't hold idle, and if you gave it any more than about 10% throttle, it would gag. Top speed was 30 MPH for the drive home. People in traffic behind me were not happy.
Based on a prior post on here with the exact same symptom description, and because the dude claimed to have run the thing out of gas, I assumed it was a fuel pump. So, $60 down the toilet for a new pump and strainer, plus some new tank-to-hard-line fuel hoses, and a new fuel filter because the one on there looked ancient. Turns out the fuel tank wasn't even close to empty - rather, it had almost 15 gallons in there, still! So much for the running-out-of-gas and damaged fuel pump theory. So, another $9 wasted for an extra gas jug to pump out 10 gallons of fuel.
New pump's in, ground connection for pump and four others up front are all now clean. Pump switches on, primes, and all that good stuff. Still started up, but same symptoms as before - won't hold idle without help, gags on anything more than just a hair of throttle. I verify that it's getting spark, so that doesn't seem to be the trouble. So, I waste another $30 on a fuel pressure regulator. Bolt that turd in there. No change. Same problem. Grrrrr.
On a whim, and because the symptoms also match those of an ignition module (as per Mr. Chilton Manuals), I took out the ignition module and took it over to Autozone for testing. It failed on 2 items out of about 7. Cool. I blast away another $40 on a new module, and plug the thing in. Now the bastard won't start AT ALL.
Again, verified that it's getting spark. Yup, all good there. I rent some fuel injector noid lights. Yup, the injectors are getting signal to fire, but I don't see any fuel getting squirted at all into the throttle body. Fine, so that means the injectors are dead, right? I go down to the junkyard and snap up a pair of TBI injectors from a '90 S10 pickup with a 4.3 for $50, clean them gently (no chemicals used, just a toothbrush), scrubbed the filter screens off, and stuck in some nice O-rings. I crank it. It fires up for a half-second, because there was some fuel that got dribbled into the TB during the injector swap, but still no start and run. Still no fuel getting squirted, from what I can see, either. AAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!
I'm at a total loss, here. I have spark. I have fuel pressure to the TBI. Every frickin' part of the fuel system has been replaced. I have signal to the injectors. But I have no damned fuel coming out of the TBI unit!
I give up. Help me? Please? Be your best friend? I'm a failure.
Quick list of items cleaned/replaced/checked:
Fuel pump and sock ($60)
Fuel filter ($7)
Fuel pressure regulator ($30)
Fuel injectors ($50)
Fuel hoses ($10)
Ignition module ($40)
Cap'n Rotor (YARRRR! $25)
Battery (had to put one in to get it home ... $80 for the good stuff)
5 gallons of 87 octane goodness ($15 )
Plug wires (FREE ... hehe. Leftovers in my garage.)
Plugs (clean and gapped right, no weird deposits found)
Ground connections cleaned: 1. Battery to block, 2. Battery to frame, 3. Firewall above A/C condeser, 4. Firewall near wiper motor, 5. LF frame rail.
Main problem: No fuel squirting from injectors. Getting spark, getting fuel to TBI, getting signal to injectors, but nothing squirting into the TB.
Based on a prior post on here with the exact same symptom description, and because the dude claimed to have run the thing out of gas, I assumed it was a fuel pump. So, $60 down the toilet for a new pump and strainer, plus some new tank-to-hard-line fuel hoses, and a new fuel filter because the one on there looked ancient. Turns out the fuel tank wasn't even close to empty - rather, it had almost 15 gallons in there, still! So much for the running-out-of-gas and damaged fuel pump theory. So, another $9 wasted for an extra gas jug to pump out 10 gallons of fuel.
New pump's in, ground connection for pump and four others up front are all now clean. Pump switches on, primes, and all that good stuff. Still started up, but same symptoms as before - won't hold idle without help, gags on anything more than just a hair of throttle. I verify that it's getting spark, so that doesn't seem to be the trouble. So, I waste another $30 on a fuel pressure regulator. Bolt that turd in there. No change. Same problem. Grrrrr.
On a whim, and because the symptoms also match those of an ignition module (as per Mr. Chilton Manuals), I took out the ignition module and took it over to Autozone for testing. It failed on 2 items out of about 7. Cool. I blast away another $40 on a new module, and plug the thing in. Now the bastard won't start AT ALL.
Again, verified that it's getting spark. Yup, all good there. I rent some fuel injector noid lights. Yup, the injectors are getting signal to fire, but I don't see any fuel getting squirted at all into the throttle body. Fine, so that means the injectors are dead, right? I go down to the junkyard and snap up a pair of TBI injectors from a '90 S10 pickup with a 4.3 for $50, clean them gently (no chemicals used, just a toothbrush), scrubbed the filter screens off, and stuck in some nice O-rings. I crank it. It fires up for a half-second, because there was some fuel that got dribbled into the TB during the injector swap, but still no start and run. Still no fuel getting squirted, from what I can see, either. AAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!
I'm at a total loss, here. I have spark. I have fuel pressure to the TBI. Every frickin' part of the fuel system has been replaced. I have signal to the injectors. But I have no damned fuel coming out of the TBI unit!
I give up. Help me? Please? Be your best friend? I'm a failure.
Quick list of items cleaned/replaced/checked:
Fuel pump and sock ($60)
Fuel filter ($7)
Fuel pressure regulator ($30)
Fuel injectors ($50)
Fuel hoses ($10)
Ignition module ($40)
Cap'n Rotor (YARRRR! $25)
Battery (had to put one in to get it home ... $80 for the good stuff)
5 gallons of 87 octane goodness ($15 )
Plug wires (FREE ... hehe. Leftovers in my garage.)
Plugs (clean and gapped right, no weird deposits found)
Ground connections cleaned: 1. Battery to block, 2. Battery to frame, 3. Firewall above A/C condeser, 4. Firewall near wiper motor, 5. LF frame rail.
Main problem: No fuel squirting from injectors. Getting spark, getting fuel to TBI, getting signal to injectors, but nothing squirting into the TB.