ok. thanks for the reply. specifics as best i can:

1) the car blew the engine in the year 2000. has been sitting garaged since.
2) new engine (383ci w/headers, new throttle body and injectors, pcm tune, 4L60E trans redone, fuel tank removed, drained, cleaned and new fuel pump, filter)
3) FPR? (fuel pressure regulator? not replaced; not even sure where this is). moot point i think, because the fuel pump motor never turns on so there's nothing to create any pressure.

symptoms:

- key turned to ON position, all gages illuminate for self-test, SECURITY lights up and goes out in 3-4 secs (no fuel pump motor heard), meziere electric water pump runs
- key turned to START, faint click coming from what i assume is VATS relay under dash on passenger side, starter does nothing

the fact that i get BOTH no starter AND no fuel pump suggests one common point for both issues, but that's just a guess.

 

*** SOLVED ***

the one irrefutable truth about working on cars is that if you keep at it long enough, you will frequently come to the inescapable conclusion that you are a moron... i am presently basking in the glow of one of those moments.

so when i pulled the old engine (what seems like eon's ago) part of freeing up the wiring harness to go with the engine when i dropped it out the bottom involved disconnecting a handful of connectors in/under the passenger side dash and kick panel. when putting things back together i fished the wiring back through the firewall and had things connected up, but decided to disconnect things to re-route some of the wiring to make things less disorganized and easier to get the wiring tucked back up under the dash. seems i never bothered to finish connecting things. after about 10 minutes (about 5 laughing at myself, and another 5 wriggling under the dash and connecting things) i turned the key and lo and behold, the mouse roared. cranked over, getting fuel, started running...

EAGLE HAS LANDED.

thanks to all of you who took the time to reply and give tips/suggestions. and by all means, please enjoy a laugh at my expense.

 

Sounds like C210 was the culprit……

 

Glad you figgered it out. When I saw your penultimate posting, it was clear you didn't have a fuel system issue; I suspect when the engine was swapped, they also swapped the FPR & everything else--esp. since they yanked the tank and cleaned the system. Sounds like whoever did the work did it up right.

Based on your comments, it def. sounded like an electrical issue, but it's tough to trace down a problem that whacks both the fuel pump & starter. Good that you remembered what you did; otherwise, you'd likely be tracing down wiring & harnesses for some time.