Cranks but no start

HEYMAN764

MEMBER
1990 CHEVROLET S-10
4.3L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
147,256 MILES

Hello, first off I would just like to say that I am in no hurry to get the vehicle back on the road as I will be further diagnosing it next week or so. Alright so my brother was driving his 1990 s10 and stopped at a gas station to get food, when he came back the truck would crank over but no fire. I have confirmed it has spark buy spraying starter fluid down the intake, I can keep it running by spraying the can down the intake so I know I have no fuel! I first swapped the A/C compressor relay and fuel pump relay, now the engine will try to start but will not stay running. It will cough over once but that is it. I even cycled the key a few time to try build fuel pressure but no luck. Ended up getting a U-haul trailer to tow it home with my ram. My question is, could this be a fuel pump problem or could it be fuel injector problem? The engine is a TBI (throttle body injection). It was running perfectly fine until he stopped and parked it.
Thanks

4 Replies

ASEMASTER6371

MECHANIC
52,797 POSTS

Good afternoon.

Yes, it could be the pump. The first thing to do is listen for the pump to run with the key on. It will only run for two seconds.

Take a look by the battery and see if there is a red wire there with a connector. If it is, that is a primer wire that goes directly to the fuel pump. Jump it with twelve volts from the battery and see if the pump runs.

Roy

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Sunday, March 18th, 2018 AT 2:56 PM

HEYMAN764

MEMBER
24 POSTS

Alright thanks, I will give it a try and will get back to you as soon as I try it. I will probably either do it tomorrow or next week.

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Sunday, March 18th, 2018 AT 4:18 PM

HEYMAN764

MEMBER
24 POSTS

Alright it looks like the fuel pump was the problem as I installed the new one, replaced the strainer has a new fuel filter, everything is hooked up as it should be, the truck fired right up and ran perfectly. For some reason the new fuel pump has a very loud whine, there’s currently about a half tank of fuel. The old pump was never this loud, is this normal for a new pump to have such a distinctive whine? The noise isn’t so bad inside the truck but outside it’s pretty noticeable. The pump is by carquest btw.
Thanks

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Saturday, March 24th, 2018 AT 7:05 PM

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,496 POSTS

The noise depends a lot on the quality of the pump. Most will have a whine as they are a high speed pump. Normally you can hear it outside the cab if you're close to the tank. If you can hear it inside it is questionable. When it comes to fuel pumps I only use OEM to try and avoid any issues, but even then you can get a dud.

If the noise stays the same it would be your choice as to what to do.

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Tuesday, March 27th, 2018 AT 9:15 AM