vertig0

Hello all,

Intro: (feel free to skip this part)

This isnt your typical "no start" problem here. About a month ago I raced some guy who lost quite a bit of money to me. I guess his revenge for the finiancial loss was to take his anger out on my freaking car. He took the oil cap off, and duct-taped it to my radiator. He also took some wires off etc... Nothing that would prevent the car from running over the next few days without me noticing.

Problem:

While driving down the highway after about 45 minutes of normal use with no noticable trouble, the car started bogging down. My rpms were about 500 or less... I had to keep it floored in neutral just to keep it from dying in third gear or below. After about 5 miles(me trying to get back to my house) it just died. It wouldnt start after that...

There was almost no oil what so ever. Coolant was low in reserver, but fine in radiator. Engine wasnt hot or locked up. I put the oil cap back on after putting about 3 quarts in. The car turns over fine, and sputters every once in a while while starting, but it never actually fires and runs.

My next step was to check the basics... I have spark, no fuel. The fuel pump turned on and primed itself. After doing some research I read about a shutoff switch for the fuel system if the oil pressure drops too low. I decided to reset the computer and check the lines... after I reset the computer I now have gas going through the lines, however the injectors to spray when the accel is held down. I checked both the INJ1-INJ2 fuses... they are fine. If I use starting fluid and or gas put in manually, it will sputter on but doesnt really get all of the cylinders to fire. I changed all of the spark plugs for the hell of it, and put a new air filter on it(needed one badly)

So....
1988 Camaro 350 V8 5.7L
with new plugs(getting spark)
Working fuel pump(line squirts before injectors)
Fuses all in order
Reset computer
Injectors not spraying, but fuel is entering them(clogged? if so how do I clean them)
Fuel filter is less than 4 months old, I checked it anyways and got a bath of fuel
Turns over fine, doesnt fire. Spent forever cranking the hell out of it, just little spats now and again. No unusual sounds or indication that the 7 mile drive with very low oil pressure did any noticable damage to the engine.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated, as I have researched this and did trial and error work for 2 weeks straight now.

Vertigo

camaro9225th

THE DRIVER SIDE PANEL. NEXT TO THE BRAKE PEDAL. <KICK PANEL> TAKE IT OFF AND UNDER THE BLACK SAFTEY CRAP THERE WILL BE A RELAY.. ITS A SECURITY RELAY. IF IT HAS ONE REPLACE IT. MY 92 DID JUST ABOUT THE SAME CRAP..

vertig0

Thanks for the advice... but being that the car is a 1988 model I doubt there are any security relays or any other anti-theft devices. Whatever happen has an 80% chance of being caused by this guy that screwed with my car... or he could have just moved the oil cap in hopes that I would burn up my engine, and thats all he did. It could just be coinsidence that the car wont start now. Regardless I think its related to the drop off of almost all oil pressure, and the injectors shutting off. Could I have put too much oil in and have to high of pressure now? With everything set aside there is fuel at suffecient psi running to the front side of the car. Just not after the injectors.... Would a relay for security or whatever you said effect the injectors functionality???

Still at a loss,
Vertigo

camaro9225th

WHEN IT HAPPENED TO MINE THE CAR WOULDNT START UNLESS I SPRAYED STARTING FLUID AND THEN IT WOULD RUN BAD FOR LIKE 5 SEC AND THEN STOP NAD WOULDNT START ON ITS OWN

vertig0

In all honesty I think the car still has a stock oil pump. If this were to go out due to whatever that guy did to my car... would that cause a lack of oil pressure, enough to turn that switch off that controls the fuel intake etc?

Black6SpdTA

If you're oil pump went out.... Your motor would be toast. My OPS (Oil Pressure Sender) went out last week and read as low as 15PSI. No problems with any "security relay." Mine is a '92.

The only way to clean the injectors I know of is some "Fuel Injector Cleaner" oil treatment thing. Like the stuff STP makes. But if you're car isn't running, geuss you can't run that stuff through.

Before I get too technical, are you running TPI or TBI? I know TPI was stock on a 350 '88 Camaro, but just double checking.

vertig0

TPI...

If my engine were toast would it turn over normally without actually firing... dispite the fact that it doesnt turn on, it still sounds like its trying to start just fine. Its freaking cold here, my first guess was that the fuel line froze up, but now that I have fuel flowing fine before the injection system, well I donno.

I know that it was very very dangerously low on oil, but all signs point to the fact that the pressure switch or whatever killed the fuel pump just in time. Now with oil in it and after the restart, it just sounds like its trying to start without any fuel(I know that is the problem here I think)...

So test methods for the injectors other cleaning methods?

Any other ideas?

Man, my baby is dead and it hurts to think about never driving her again.

Vertigo

maniacc

You need to check the fuel pressure with a gauge, even 5 psi will spray all over, but you need around 40 psi in the system, your so-called friend could have put debris in the tank causing pump failure, filter or injectors being clogged.

later
larry

aklim

Run a compression test to make sure it is fine before we proceed. Also check fuel pressure. If you hold the accelerator all the way down it will shut off fuel.

vertig0

Check the compression... by removing a spark plug and doing a basic test... or for every cylinder?

Vertigo

aklim

You want every cylinder. It doesn't matter if 5 cylinders are 170 psi and the other 3 are 50 psi. You want them all to be no more than 10% of each other. You are looking for evenness and also suitable pressure. You want to crank it till the pressure stops rising and record it. Remove it and squirt some oil into the cylinder and see if the pressure comes up. If it does, you probably have shot rings.

lordmetalz28

the chevy 350 and 305 motor can run sufficiently on 3psi of oil pressure not ideal but it can. i ran my car in the spring when i would stop and idle in drive shed drop down to about just before the red line but as the summer went on with a new ops and lucas oil it went up

lordmetalz28

and second kill the mother f@#% put rat poision in his cola he killed your baby kill him either that or put tal strip in a super soaker and do a drive by on his car soak the car in tal strip.

vertig0

someone on a different forum said to replace the Ignition Control Module... where is that located at? They said that it controls spark timing and sends a signal to the Injectors...

Just a thought,
Vertigo

aklim

Look inside the distributor for the ignition module.

First thing first. Check fuel pressure and spark presence. Also check compression.