94 Caprice 4.3 V8 car starts and dies

DRIVEOLDCARS

MEMBER
1994 CHEVROLET CAPRICE
240,000 MILES

I have good spark for the few seconds that the car runs. The fuel pump relay and the fuse are good. The fuel goes to 40psi when the key is turned on. If I unplug the coil wire and crank it over the fuel pressure holds 40psi. I removed the water pump to make sure the water pump drive turns when the engine is turned over to rule out the timing chain. Timing chain and gears were replaced at 150,000. The water pump is not leaking on the lt1 distributor. Passkey fuses are hot and stay hot when cranking. A new complete lt1 distributor was installed recently. The car would miss and sometimes die when it got hot. I was told that the module in the distributor was going bad so I installed the new distributor. I am out of ideas hope you can help. Thanks

4 Replies

WRENCHTECH

MECHANIC
20,761 POSTS

So, you are saying that the spark is cutting out? Have you somehow confirmed that?
It sounds like you don't have enough fuel pressure. This thing should be hitting high 40s without vacuum.

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Saturday, September 21st, 2013 AT 9:44 AM

DRIVEOLDCARS

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I do not think I am loosing spark, it has good spark until the car dies. I forgot to mention that I did install a new fuel filter, it didn't change the fuel pressure. The fuel pump was replaced around 150,000 miles, with a aftermarket pump (not GM parts). When I replaced the original fuel pump the fuel pressure was at 0. I was not aware the fuel should be in the high 40s, I could not find a spec on it.