I've been fighting with this for weeks now but the problem has changed. A brief history first.



-1988 GTU with rebuilt engine. Had to tow it for the first startup. Was a little hard to start afterwards and eventually got worse. Made it to the 400 mile mark and then it wouldn't start at all. Had the injectors cleaned and that didn't help. Wired in a fuel cutoff switch to see if that would help. Replaced the plugs, again. Compression is good.



Now it will start when using the fuel cut off switch but its certainly not working properly. Takes about 5-8 seconds of turning it over for the engine to start then it revs to 3000rpm like its suppost to then dies. I press on the accelerator to try and keep it running but its like its not connected. Its almost as if its not getting fire to the plugs.





Any suggestions?

At least from what you say, and I am not the most knowledgeable here by a long shot....you are getting fire to the plugs or it would not start in the first place. You are at least starting. It is dying after it starts so it sounds like a fuel problem. It will start using the cutoff switch and then dies. Do you start the fuel again after you start up the car? If you leave the cutoff switch on so no fuel is getting through then the car is starving of fuel (seems obvious but I don't know).



You may be getting too much fuel after you start duel flow again.



Just throwing out ideas.

What I do to start it is have the cutoff switch in the off position and start cranking the engine. When it sounds like its about to start I switch to the on position and have to keep cranking for another 2-3 seconds then it starts. It will not start every time if I leave the switch in the on position. After it starts I obviously want to leave the swtich in the on position which I do.

Check for vacumm leaks, do you hear any?? Check you timing too, if the cas wasnot installed right, it might be too retarted.



C

I have a similiar problem to yours. I have an 88 convertible, and currently its just not starting. When I first got it it worked fine (a couple months ago), but I havent had a chance to drive it a whole lot cause I'm in college in NYC. Two weekends ago, I started her up and drove her out of the garage to just work on the radio, let her warm up, and then shut her off. After working on the radio (the guy before me had a whole mess of aftermarket wiring in her for subs etc), I took out all the wiring he had for the radio, tried to start the car, and it wouldnt start. All I got was a lot of gas-smell. Had to push it back into the garage.

Came back the next weekend (last weekend) to try to get her started, no luck. Was playing with the fuel-cutoff switch that the previous owner had put in, nothing, disconnected it cause it was run with all the other wires that I had pulled out (i hadnt pulled the fuel-cutoff wires out, but was afraid that I may have damaged them while I was working with the other wires), and still no start. So I removed the plugs, and altho I didnt have a compression gauge, there was compression, judged by my "highly calibrated" finger. So I cleaned the plugs and put them back in, still no starting. Took one of them out (front rotor, trailing plug), had my GF try to start it to see if there was spark, and I got a couple shocks in quick succession, and at least I think I saw a couple sparks on the plug, altho my arm was twitching a little with each spark. The plug wires look good, I havent checked them for resistance yet, but there doesnt seem to be any corrosion. It still puts out a lot of gas-smell whenever I try to start it, so I dont think its a problem in getting the fuel to the engine (i dont see any leaks under the car.... besides a little oil anyway)

When I was working on the radio, I needed to get to the door speaker amp, which is up under the dashboard approx over where the clutch pedal is. To get to it, I needed to remove another box that Im unsure of the purpose of, but its mounted at an angle, and has a big long yellow-ed plug with a bunch of wires sticking out of the narrow side. Would this have been a problem?



As for the history of the car, I really dont know it. I got it for pretty cheap from someone who didnt have the history, but I believe the engine in it is either rebuilt or has been replaced fairly recently, due to crayon-looking markings on the top of it identifying it, and by how clean and non-rusty everything in the engine bay looks. The odometer reads a little under 138 thousand miles.



Thanks for your help, Im gonna have a lot of time to work on it once college lets out, so hopefully with your help Ill be able to get it running for the summer.

check AFM.. might be the problem. not to be a jinx or anything but i had the same problem on my FC, started jumped to 3k then die, check around couldnt find anything turn out to be i was low on fuel, then she start shake real bad that when i found out i have a blown apex seal..:\

Mine won't even start. It just cranks and cranks but no fuel is going to the motor so it won't start. I just can't figure out wtf the problem is. Every wire is hooked up correctly because the **** worked 2 days ago. I turned it back on for a minute while it was still warm and had to re-park it. Next morning, it wouldn't start. You don't hear/see/feel any fuel going into the motor through the lines or anything. And when I hook up the primer, it STILL doesn't send any fuel.

Checked it. According to the FSM its good. I haven't checked the wiring to the ECM yet. It has about an 1/8 of a tank of gas.



It shouldn't be a blown seal as the engine is fairly new and when it does start it sounds pretty good. Early on compression tests were all good.

My problem turned out to be the fuse by the steering collum labeled "Engine" and THAT is your fuel pump relay. With that fuse blown, my fuel pump wouldn't even turn on to send any fuel to the motor unless I had hooked up a wire from the fuel pump wiring directly to a/the battery. Anyways, so after replacing the fuse, the fuel pump turned on when it should, and I eventually got the car started. But since then, I've been having idle issues too. THe idle bounces between 1,500RPM and 1,700RPM even if I tighten the that screw on the passenger side, AND if I loosen the throttle cable, wtf!? :[