Car Wont start, I smell gas

JOSHT442

MEMBER
1987 PONTIAC FIREBIRD
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
78 MILES

Hi,

I recently purchased a 1987 Firebird 5.7 Liter as-is. Car only has 75K miles on it.
I put a new battery in and turned the key. It barely ran and then stalled out. I checked the fuel gauge and it said I had a quarter tank. I thought the fuel pump was bad so I replaced it and also found out that there was no gas in the tank to begin with. The only thing in there was what looked like injector cleaner. That most likely explains why it smoked so much when I started it.

So I installed the new pump and sending unit and filled with gas. Tryed to turn over, but nothing. After a while the starter began to click and I realized the vehicle was Hydro Locking, from an overload of gas in the system.

In that time period I have replaced the Coil, Ignition box (on the distributor), fuel pressure regulator, Coolant sensor and Bosch +4 spark plugs.I have a nice fat spark.

I partially took out the fuel rails with the injectors and turned the key for one click. Each injector shot out about 1/4 of a bottle of water into the engine. I now have a ton of gas in my oil and still have a lockup problem.

I don't know what's wrong and am getting ****ed off. Is it a bad ecm?

Also, I have a check engine light. When I hook up the two terminals on the OBD1 I get the error code 12. No other numbers, I don't know why. Also the cooling fans for the radiator randomly turn on???

I just took out all the spark plugs, unplugged the injectors. I turned the key for a few seconds and there was some gas that blew out onto the manifold. However the injectors are not leaking. I also just changed the oil and it had at least 2 quarts of gas that mixed with it.

I wouldn't know what to diagnose. I know that I have spark and the injectors are not leaking. Somethings telling the computer to give more gas??? I was told by a mechanic to test the temperature coolant sensor, and I just replaced it.

I just cleaned out the cylinders, put new oil in and disconnected the injector wires and it started right up. Well then it died, so I reconnected the injector wires and I caught the underside of the car on fire. I was video taping it. Maybe this can be helpful in solving the problem. Could the MAF sensor be causing this problem. Heres the video. -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1dwvEqrkJA

Any help would be appreciated,
thanks

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,700 POSTS

I watched the video. Wow. Have you checked fuel pump pressure? Is the regulator working properly? If you have and everything is working properly, either you have a bad MAF or the PCM is causing the injectors to dump too much fuel. Pull the fuse for the fuel pump, pull the car outside and get a new fire extinguishier, and see if you can get the thing to run with starting fluid alone. If you can, the fuel pressure regulator, MAF, or the PCM itself is the problem. NOTE: Were the injectors ever replaced? Make sure they are the correct ones for the engine. I've seen people install corvette injectors in these vehicles and have similar problems. They dumped fuel. The fire looks like the exhaust manifolds were full of fuel. Be Careful!

Let me know what happens