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on my bone stock 94 LT-1 it takes a while for the engine to start. and when it does you can smell raw unburnt gas from the exhaust and the engine idles around 1000 RPM until you hit the gas peddle. would that be a sign of the fuel pump going bad or fuel pressure regulator. or something else
If you smell gas theory tells me no spark, crank with no smell is no fuel. My optispark acted that way last weekend after 5 days of sitting outside in rainstorms and various levels of humidity. Next day it started and drove it to my shop, that afternoon I got stuck on street with deep puddle and it died and would not restart also smelled gas again. 10 minutes later it started up but ran funny till excess fuel got out of cylinders.
Sounds just like a bad FPR. Check to see if there is fuel in the vacuum hose of the FPR. If there is, it's loading the engine with fuel before the start and you found the problem.
From: Las Vegas - Just stop perpetuating myths please.
Bad fuel pump or leak in one of the lines. U need a fuel press gauge and if u tape it to the windshield to watch it. Once u turn the key u should get 41-43psi and it should hold quite awhile after shut down. If the press cant make 40 psi and stay there its time for a new fuel pump. Now small leaks in line can cause this also but it would be hard to start after a long shut down of like hours - unless its a big leak then u would see fuel spilled.
So my theory is if its difficult to start everytime then its the fuel pump. If hard to start only after a hour or more s/d then a small line leak - it can be in the evap canister lines also (i have proved this on my '94 camaro).
BTW the Hobo Fake fuel press gauges are pretty junky as my first one stuck at mid scale - right where i needed to read it. Second 1 calibrated ok but i suggest a better gauge if u cant calibrate your own.
Good luck and hope this help. Please post your feedback as it helps us all.
throw a pressure gauge on the rail to see if the regulator is somewhat holding pressure. had a similar problem on my 96 - threw on a new FPR -- problem solved .
I replaced the fuel pump today. And it still did the same thing. But I took a closer look at the FPR and noticed gas running out of the vacumn port. Not a good sign. So I replaced it. Now it's working right. And for some reason replacing both parts were very easy with no hiccups. That is very unusual with my car. It always fights back.
So thank you everyone for there suggestions and help.
I don't think I would have figured all this out in such short order as well. And a added bonus for a while now the engine would not idle very well in traffic. Now it stays very smoth in trafic So that must have been slowy going bad.