Ol' Blue won't start

i suppose, its not like ol' blue has never burned a little oil
 
A couple of problems I have found that may cause the symptoms you cite are a lack of fuel pressure or the timing is way off. You need a fuel pressure gauge to check the first. For the second crank the car while looking down the throttle body. If it is blowing air back at you the timing is all messed up. Timing chains can jump on their sprockets - or gears can strip (some are fiber). Both happen to well-used engines. Good luck.

Dave
 
I know nothing about trucks other than the fact that a friend of mine had an old truck with a similar-sounding problem. After trying many things it ended up being what a mechanic referred to as a "brain box" which I think meant the electronic ignition.
 
I would check for a jumped timing chain. With that many miles this would be my guess.
 
Timing chain is a possibility. So is the fact it's not a Ford.

I'm with Jesse on your future purchase decisions.

But in the mean time, we have a bet to settle. ;)
 
I don't know if this has any relevance at all, but it’s something you might look at.

I bought a Chevy truck a year ago (sold my Ford) at an auction. It started up fine at the auction, and I drove it home. One I got it home, it wouldn’t start. I did all the things you did, and the best I could get was a fitful start and very poor running if at all.

At first I thought it was just bad gas, but fresh gas with dry gas added did not fix the problem. It turned out it was the fuel pump.

Since you have throttle body fuel injection, you may be able to tell if this is the problem. Take the top off the air cleaner and have another person crank the engine. Look at the fuel as it flows from the injector. It should spray out is a fine spray cone. On my truck, it looked like a baby boy urinating.

Replacing the fuel pump did the trick.
 
will definitely check that. i really really really hope its NOT the fuel pump. In July 2011 the factory original fuel pump died at the Goodland, KS airport after I had flown my glider 235 miles and a friend had chased after me. It was nice that it didn't die on him on the road and extra nice that I landed at an airport instead of the truck being dead in a field somewhere. We replaced the fuel pump the next day in 105 degree heat in the shade of a hangar. It was a pain in the ass to replace and I really don't want to have to do it again.
 
I got lucky. In my case, the auction was at our Joint Vocational School, where they were selling off vehicles that had been donated to them. I call the JVS, and even though the truck was purchased "as is, where is," they told me if I could get it back there, and bought the pump they’d have the students install it.

I was glad to do it, as I believe you have to take the bed off the truck to get to the fuel pump.
 
either that or drop the tank. we dropped the tank
 
They do make a fuel pump tester. Do not thow parts at this. I am amazed at people who throw parts at something and do not get out the correct testers and test stuff.

If you do not have a fuel tester go barrow one from the auto parts store. I still bet the timing jumped.

But when fuel pumps do go bad they do act like this. It was running and shut it off now it won't start. I had this happen to me, put a tetster on it and the tank came out. I too had a full tank of gas.

Do some test and get back with us.
 
1600vw said:
They do make a fuel pump tester. Do not thow parts at this. I am amazed at people who throw parts at something and do not get out the correct testers and test stuff.

If you do not have a fuel tester go barrow one from the auto parts store. I still bet the timing jumped.

But when fuel pumps do go bad they do act like this. It was running and shut it off now it won't start. I had this happen to me, put a tetster on it and the tank came out. I too had a full tank of gas.

Do some test and get back with us.
Click to expand...

If you've read the thread you know a lot of us agree. The Chevy TBI's don't have a schrader valve (the Vortec's do), so hooking up a fuel pressure gauge is takes an adapter or a rubber line "T" just upwind of the fuel filter. It will take a little doing so that's why we have asked to pour some fuel in the throttle body.


Also, the TBI's go through a key on prime where you will hear the fuel pump run for up to 10 seconds. Is that happening Tony?
 
yes i can hear the fuel pump running and as i said before, fuel is definitely getting to the throttle body at an unknown psi.

in my defense...i don't feel like i'm throwing parts at this. i replaced the plug wires because i broke one and replaced the cap and rotor because they were looking worn, not because i really thought they were the cause of the problem. any other parts replacements have only been hypothesized in this thread and not acted upon, yet.
 
In my case, you didn't need the tester. You could see the injector weakly dribbling fuel. The only problem I had was that I didn't know what is was supposed to look like because I had only had the truck a few hours. After it was fixed, I looked at it again, and it was an atomized "cone" of fuel.
 
KRyan said:
In my case, you didn't need the tester. You could see the injector weakly dribbling fuel. The only problem I had was that I didn't know what is was supposed to look like because I had only had the truck a few hours. After it was fixed, I looked at it again, and it was an atomized "cone" of fuel.
Click to expand...

I learned that lesson the hard way too. In my case the fuel pump was working - but not providing the necessary pressure. The gauge answered that question. The reason was that the pump (inside the tank) had a short section of rubber hose in between metal fuel lines. I presume they do that to avoid fractures from vibration. Anyway, this section of hose had developed a crack and was spraying fuel back into the tank - thus the reduced pressure. The pressure gauge was the only way to tell, since you can't see or hear (due to the noise of the pump) what is going on inside the tank.

Dave
 
Tony, after reading this thread and the new Corvette thread as well, it's obvious to me that GM simply sells into a higher-class and better-informed market segment than the other manufacturers.
 
wabower said:
Tony, after reading this thread and the new Corvette thread as well, it's obvious to me that GM simply sells into a higher-class and better-informed market segment than the other manufacturers.
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"My pappy had a Chevy, his pappy had a Chevy, his pappy had a Chevy, and his pappy had a horse." ;)
 
my friend in western KS is a big ford guy. i give him non-stop **** and he does the same. i enjoy several similar relationships with other friends and family members. I think Ed would give me even more **** if i showed up with a Ford.

I'm sure they make very nice vehicles. My uncle just bought a new Ford pickup. He's never owned a ford and has always been a GM guy, like his dad, my grandpa. But he was very impressed with the truck so he did the logical thing and bought it.

It is fun to pick on friends, in all reality there probably isn't much difference between any of the major manufacturers.
 
I've always thought the most interesting part of Ford owner gatherings is counting the number of incestuous stares.:rofl:

tonycondon said:
my friend in western KS is a big ford guy. i give him non-stop **** and he does the same. i enjoy several similar relationships with other friends and family members. I think Ed would give me even more **** if i showed up with a Ford.

I'm sure they make very nice vehicles. My uncle just bought a new Ford pickup. He's never owned a ford and has always been a GM guy, like his dad, my grandpa. But he was very impressed with the truck so he did the logical thing and bought it.

It is fun to pick on friends, in all reality there probably isn't much difference between any of the major manufacturers.
Click to expand...
 
tonycondon said:
It is fun to pick on friends, in all reality there probably isn't much difference between any of the major manufacturers.
Click to expand...
Very true. All the interiors come from Bostron or from Johnsn Control's subsidiary. All the brakes come from Bendix. etc etc.

Except one is government owned.
 
wabower said:
I've always thought the most interesting part of Ford owner gatherings is counting the number of incestuous stares.:rofl:
Click to expand...

I see you've made it to one of my family reunions.
 
N801BH said:
:confused::(
Click to expand...

Half joking, but most of my relatives buy Fords, and we do have two cousins who married eachother.

I avoid my family reunions.
 
bbchien said:
Very true. All the interiors come from Bostron or from Johnsn Control's subsidiary. All the brakes come from Bendix. etc etc.

Except one is government owned.
Click to expand...

not anymore I thought I heard. Plus I don't think GM is seeing much benefit from me driving my 1994 Sierra with 283K miles. Autozone, O'reilly's etc. seem to get all of my money.
 
wabower said:
As Foxworthy said "If your family tree has nofork . . . :D
Click to expand...


My mother, being the black sheep of the family, was forced to look outside of the immediately available gene pool. Lucky for me, she ended up mating with some guy who lives in California and was smart enough to invent a few things that were pretty difficult to invent and have a bunch of buildings named after him if you go to the right part of town.

All he's ever done for me is buy me lunch twice and dinner once, but I guess I made off with at least half a dozen brain cells from his side.
 
My family takes the fifth regarding any discussions about such cells.

Ted DuPuis said:
My mother, being the black sheep of the family, was forced to look outside of the immediately available gene pool. Lucky for me, she ended up mating with some guy who lives in California and was smart enough to invent a few things that were pretty difficult to invent and have a bunch of buildings named after him if you go to the right part of town.

All he's ever done for me is buy me lunch twice and dinner once, but I guess I made off with at least half a dozen brain cells from his side.
Click to expand...
 
you guys are going to love this...just for something to do i decided to switch the spark plug wires back to the way that Matt had labeled them and see if it would start. and it did! it caught on the first crank and then died. some more cranking and it sounded a bit flooded so i floored the gas to clear it and it fired up. it idled a little rough at first, required a little gas to help it go for a few seconds but then it idled relatively smoothly on its own. so, possibilities:

the timing was off and the eyeball timing adjustment i made happened to get it back into running range.

ignition module may have been having a bad week, or possibly affected by humidity or something.

magic.

either way i guess i'll see if it will start in the morning and then will have to get a timing light and go through that procedure to get the timing set right.
 
Ignition modules don't usually have a bad week, so sounds like you had the wires plugged in wrong. :)
 
Don't forget the distributor drive gear. Lots of them are phenolic.
 
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