The beast is running again

[Kleen97]

Hell yeah after buying new spark plugs and distrubutor cap and rotor the beast is running again. Until the next thing goes wrong but hopefully not lmao.

 

[yukondoit]

Its Alive!

Glad you got it running

 

[BigDaddy13440]

My '96 has been doing the same thing. It'll run fine (strong, actually), then out of the clear blue, it just won't start. It'll crank over, sputter once or twice, then continue to crank. I can hear the fuel pump running, so I know it's not that. Been random 6-8 times over the last year, always first thing in the morning, tho. The first few times, just let it sit with the battery charger on it for a few hours, started up easily. Oh, and I just replaced the battery last May, went to a 850cca unit. Also replaced the alternator in August. Have SonicSpark plugs I put in last spring, and the wires still look like new.

About a month ago, she died again. Replaced the stock cap and rotor with an Accel kit, did nothing. Had it towed to the garage, it started up the next morning, no problems. Died again this past Saturday, went to the local Advanced Auto - the kid had me pull off the ECM to bring it in for a test, my original GM one was supposedly bad, so I bought a new one. No luck. So, had it towed to the garage again.

This time, I went with the truck, had the mechanic listen to it as I tried to crank it over. He agreed, no spark. Had to wait until later that day to get it in, he tried the ignition just for the hell of it. Would never guess - it fired right up. He didn't want to start replacing ignition components that worked, said drive it until it dies again, maybe he'd be able to tell more. The only thing he did was replace the fuel filter, which he'd done before when he replaced the fuel pump two years ago.

Oh, and he swapped back in my original ECM, which worked fine. I took the replacement one back to Advanced Auto, said it wasn't the problem. Kid behind the counter said they wouldn't take back electrical components - I said "get me the manager". He threw the ECM on their tester, which read the brand new part as being defective. Gave me my money back, and promised to berate the little pissant after hours.

So, I'm still confused. She's running, starts up fine. For now. Luckily, it's only ever died in my own driveway, not while I'm out running around with my two kids.

 

[AtomicHoe094]

My '96 has been doing the same thing. It'll run fine (strong, actually), then out of the clear blue, it just won't start. It'll crank over, sputter once or twice, then continue to crank. I can hear the fuel pump running, so I know it's not that. Been random 6-8 times over the last year, always first thing in the morning, tho. The first few times, just let it sit with the battery charger on it for a few hours, started up easily. Oh, and I just replaced the battery last May, went to a 850cca unit. Also replaced the alternator in August. Have SonicSpark plugs I put in last spring, and the wires still look like new.

About a month ago, she died again. Replaced the stock cap and rotor with an Accel kit, did nothing. Had it towed to the garage, it started up the next morning, no problems. Died again this past Saturday, went to the local Advanced Auto - the kid had me pull off the ECM to bring it in for a test, my original GM one was supposedly bad, so I bought a new one. No luck. So, had it towed to the garage again.

This time, I went with the truck, had the mechanic listen to it as I tried to crank it over. He agreed, no spark. Had to wait until later that day to get it in, he tried the ignition just for the hell of it. Would never guess - it fired right up. He didn't want to start replacing ignition components that worked, said drive it until it dies again, maybe he'd be able to tell more. The only thing he did was replace the fuel filter, which he'd done before when he replaced the fuel pump two years ago.

Oh, and he swapped back in my original ECM, which worked fine. I took the replacement one back to Advanced Auto, said it wasn't the problem. Kid behind the counter said they wouldn't take back electrical components - I said "get me the manager". He threw the ECM on their tester, which read the brand new part as being defective. Gave me my money back, and promised to berate the little pissant after hours.

So, I'm still confused. She's running, starts up fine. For now. Luckily, it's only ever died in my own driveway, not while I'm out running around with my two kids.

had that happen to me in my 01 formula. I called up a well known mechanic, he put my car on a computer scanning (crazy high priced one) and found out it was my Fan relay! and a couple other relays were going too. its been fine every since, he also told me i have 21,xxxmiles on my car instead of the odometer reading 33,xxxmiles lol i was in heave! taking back 10 thousand miles lol.. but yea idk maybe something to do with relays?

 

[BigDaddy13440]

had that happen to me in my 01 formula. I called up a well known mechanic, he put my car on a computer scanning (crazy high priced one) and found out it was my Fan relay! and a couple other relays were going too. its been fine every since, he also told me i have 21,xxxmiles on my car instead of the odometer reading 33,xxxmiles lol i was in heave! taking back 10 thousand miles lol.. but yea idk maybe something to do with relays?

someone else mentioned that.... guess I'll look into it a bit more.
BTW, are all the relays grouped together, or are they scattered all over the engine bay? For the cost of them (like scrounging in a junkyard....) I wonder if it'd make sense just to replace them all? Are relays pretty much the same, i.e. could I grab some out of a '06-'10 and just swap them in?

 

[clean454]

yea ur relays are under the hood drivers side next to the fender
and they are about 5 bucks each from autozone or whatever

check ur cap is the screw that holds the cap on does it tighten?
or is the cap still alittle loose?
have u replaced ur distributor?
we are gunna replace that soon

 

[BigDaddy13440]

yea ur relays are under the hood drivers side next to the fender
and they are about 5 bucks each from autozone or whatever

check ur cap is the screw that holds the cap on does it tighten?

It did previously, then it stripped out. Used a bit larger-than-stock self-tapping screws, she's down snug.

or is the cap still alittle loose?
have u replaced ur distributor?

IF I keep having problems, I'll likely replace everything with this entire kit: http://www.performancedistributors.com/vortec.htm

we are gunna replace that soon

....

 

[clean454]

if i were u i would just buy everything stock

all that isnt gunna add performance

and dont waist ur money on 8$ plugs factory or OEM is the best thing u can buy

u wont see if a power increase