In my typical fashion, I did a bunch of stuff to my car at once, and now I can't figure out wtf is wrong with it.

Things I did:
Relocated the Alternator:
Relocated the Battery to the back
Installed Racetronix Fuel pump kit.

I actually did install the racetronix kit first. After the install I drove it about 10 miles to my dad's house to hold it there while I was moving. The car ran great! 2 weeks later I pick up the car and it runs ok, except when I give it some gas, and the car just bogged down really bad (hooked up the fuel pressure guage a couple days ago when the car ran, and the fuel pressure was droping down to 30-32#'s under load)

Next thing I did was relocate the battery and the alternator. Right after I did the install and had it all done, I started the car, and it started fine, ran fine from what I could tell, I didn't drive it or anything but it was fine.

Few days later I go to start the car and the battery is dead, so I jump start it and take it for a spin, (Note when I hooked up the jumper cables, the voltage read where it should when getting jumped.. was really high) the car had a hard time starting, and shut off once.. but I finally got it running and drove it around. It was still losing pressure when I gave it gas though.

Brought it back to the house replaced fuel filter(to hopefully fix the fuel drop off problem)

I then go to start the car and of course the battery was dead again, so I jump it. (except this time the voltage isn't reading nearly as high. It's still reading really low, but now has enough juice to try and start) The car starts right up, I go to the back of the car to remove the jumper cables, and the car shuts off. I then keep trying to start it and it wont start at all. So I figure it must me the battery is bad and isn't holding a charge.

So today I go and buy a Red top oltima battery or whatever it is, and install that. I go to start the car and it wont start, same thing. Just keeps trying to crank over and wont start. I have the fuel pressure gauge on the windshild, and the fuel pressure is holding steady as I try to start it. I look at the voltage and it's really low. It's just BARELY over the line. So I go ahead and throw on the jumper cables, and while the car cranked over faster.. It still didn't start.. I pull the spark plugs and they are really black, and soaked, so I go ahead and replace all 8 of them. Go to start the car and it still wont start. I got it to start for about 15 seconds, but it ran really really rough, wasn't really responding to me pushing the gas pedal down, and it shut off.

So that's where I am.
Problems I need to figure out:
1. why the Voltage isn't reading higher, or where it should be atleast. Even when the jumper cables are on it, the voltage reads low. ---Only thing I can think is maybe the alternatory 10gauge wire is fried or something???--
2. Why is the fuel pressure droping off when I give it gas? Now the fuel filter may have fixed this, but I haven't been able to start the car to find out.

Thanks in advance!
Jason

 

Ok, dont know if this is/was related. But there were two ground wires that had broken off at the front of the motor(they come from the wiring harness, and connect to the side of the Coil.

So I gound them out, and go to start the car, it takes a few cranks but the car starts, and is now responding to me pushing down the gas pedal. The car still doesn't really want to stay running, and when I try to hold it at 2k rpms, I get some loud poping. (I'm assuming this is back fires). Could this just be caused by built up fuel from me trying to start this car for the last 2 days?

--Oh and I think this fixed my low reading on the voltage. Becuase it's reading a lot higher now--

I can't drive it around the block right now, because I'm watching the kids, but will do so when the wife gets home.

Jason

 

Check the Fuel pressure regulator, pull of the vacuum tube going to it and make sure there isn't any gas in it, jsut have to rub your finger over the tip of the pull off and you should notice it, do it after you've had the pump on for a few. Might have somehting to do with it, also, is it blowing black smoke? or running really rough like its not getting enough gas and running lean, when it backfires does it backfire though the exhaust or through the throttle body, if its through the T.B. then you are running way way to lean, most fuel injected cars dont get to that point but a lot of carbureted cars do.

 

the ground explains all of your starting problems, I was going to say bad ground or too small AWG wires. I'm not familiar with the racetronix kit, what all does it replace?

 

z28poweredlt1: I dont have an aftermarket AFPR on it, but I did check to see if any gas was leaking through and it is not.

I am getting white smoke coming out the back. It was worse after I first started it a few hours ago, then it is now.

The car starts pretty good now, pending I give it gas while trying to start it. but it wont stay running.

Also, the backfires are coming from the exhaust.

----- The only other change I made that I did not mention before was I actually hooked up the Knock sensor. When I put the motor in last time, I some how managed to pull the sensor off and I didn't know what it was and thought it was a ground wire, so I grounded it. Then I figured out it was the knock wire, but didnt worry about it till a couple days ago.

SVT03:

Alternator Relocation

 

Dave Feerst:
It's a nice kit, it doesn't replace anything, other then the factory pump. But what it does, is gives more AMPs to the new walbro pump which allows it to flow more.

I'm not sure how the ground wires broke, but that was definitly causing the starting problems. Now to figure out why it wont stay running.

 

white smoke is coolant, white/light blue is oil. and fuel is normaly black but somtimes grey. Stand behind the car and se if it smells sweet (coolant) or if it smells like fuel.

 

Ok, looks like the smoke has stoped coming out now. So I'm guessing if it was coolant (do have copperseal gaskets) or gas, that it's all out now. But the car still isn't wanting to stay running. I'm gonna try to talk a friend into coming over this weekend to run a scan on it, see if that tells me anything.

 

Any updaes on this? I've been having the same problems...

 

You said two graound wires that go into the side of the coil were not hooked up right. Get a spark tester and see if you are getting spark off the coil. My car did the same thing as yours so give that a try and lmk. Oh, and my coil was the problem.

Johs

 

I'm not any closer then what I was a few months ago. I did make another post about it too. I checked the spark and it seems ok. I'm getting a whiteish spark from both the coil and the opti. Though I could have sworn the first time I checked it the coil was white and the opti was redish. But when I had my wife look at it she said they were both white. and I checked again and they both looked white.

That and if it was the opti, I think it would just not allow the car to start at all? Don't think it would let it start, run for 10 seconds or so, then die. But who knows. Any other way to check a Opti?

 

I pulled the number one spark plug, and it's BLACK. So all the plugs are fouled I'm sure. But I can't tell if they are fouled by me pushing up and down on the gas trying to start it or because it's actually getting too much fuel.

These are brand new plugs that I put in a few months ago when I first had this problem, and from my memory the old plug were not that bad. Looked like they should. These new ones are caked, and you can smell the fuel.

I'm buying some type of program and a cable for my lap top this week, to do a scan on it. Hopefully I'll be able to post what codes it's getting by the end of the week.

Jason

 

What kind of plugs did you have origionaly and what plugs did you replace them with.
Josh

 

I had the correct plugs for AFR heads before I replaced them w/ some chepy Autolite plugs. Though I had good luck w/ Autolites on my old LT1 Car with nitrous. Though I was having this problem both before and after the spark plug change.

I'm almost leaning towards the O2 Sensors. I replaced my AC Delco ones with Bouch's and I've read about those being junk, so I'm wondering if thats my problem. I had 2 AC Delco's in last year (orginal 100k ones) and I replaced one w/ a Bouch and like 50 miles later it was scanning really off, so I put the old AC Delco back in and it was better.. but then later, I replaced both at the same time thinking maybe thats why the first one went bad. So when I get the scanner cable on Tuesday, I'm gonna do a scan on it and figure out what's going wrong.