I'm pretty sure my fuel pump died
 

I was driving home from work, was about 5 minutes from my house..the check engine light started coming on and going off and my car started to die. This happened twice in short intervals, drove about another 50 feet and it did it again, but pretty bad, so I pulled over and shut it down. Before I shut it down I noticed the volt guage was low, I thought maybe i snapped a belt and the alt. was dead. Pop the hood, belts fine. Go to start the car and it just cranks, cranks fast and my lights and radio worked..so I did not lose any power. When I turned the key on I didn't hear the fuel pump, so I checked the fuse for the fuel pump under the hood and it was fine. Again, car cranks the same, just doesn't kick and no fuel pump priming...is it safe to say its the fuel pump? or could it possibly be the ECM or something? My only reason for thinking ECM is becauase I read its the ECM that actually does the 2 seconds of priming the pump when you turn the key. So if it is the pump, do I go and replaace it AC delco OE pump, or do I step it up? Some people have said go 255 and others said it will mess up the stock regulator. In the future I will be doing good upgrades, but little by little and in the future. What do you guys think?

~Ted

Hrm, actualy it sounds like a bad alt. You said your voltmeter in your car was down? Were your lights dim? Did you have a low idle? Did they seem to come back on if you gunned the gas?
If you can pull the code from the computer, I have the code book, as well as a break down to figure out wtf is going on.

if it was a bad alternator, then how come it would crank but not start? if the starter has enough power, then theres enough to fire the plugs/injectors too. i still think its the fuel pump

a higher volume pump won't mess up the stock regulator. you may see an extra pund or two of pressure at idle, but with TPI that is no big deal.
the pump has a prime cycle, so you have to wait a bit before you will hear it try to prime again normally. only a few minutes.
if it was cranking at regular speed and just not catching i woudl say you were on the trail of the fuel pump.

Thanks guys. The car is safe and sound back in the garage. I think maybe I'll get a 190 fuel pump, what do you think? I plan on getting a tune in the spring along with minor mods, maybe some roller rockers and simple crap. Eventually I hope to swap in a 400 small block with a holley stealth ram intake, so I imagine a 190 will be good for that and not be overkill for my current, pretty much stock setup.

~Ted

if you plan to step up the engine anyway you may as well jsut get the 255lph now. no reason to get what may work when you can install what will work in the first place.

step up!!!

if it was my car, which it isnt, but if it was...
id maybe take off the main fuel line and put the key to run and see if any fuel comes out. if it doesnt, then id check the pump via the bypass wire. then see if the pump turns.............


im finished typing, im tiard, if ya need help, hit me up PM/AIM/Email

Best of luck!

mike

if its not the fuel pump, it also sounds like it could be the ignition module in the distributor, just an idea. when the one in my iroc died, the car just stalled and that was it, would crank and crank and crank but not start, that was carbed but i'm sure with a tpi setup, that would set its own trouble code, whereas i dont think the pump could set an engien code.

very smart conclusion, maybe I'll try that before I bother dropping my rear and changing the pump. When I did the heads I had trouble getting it to start and I thought it was the igniiton module on the distributor, so I've already replaced it lol (but put the stock back on when I realized it wasn't the problem). Turns out that that time I had two plugs crossed. GM had 2 different plugs that do two totally different things the same color and have the same fitment :roll:

EDIT: This would also further explain my car cutting out and all my **** going crazy, Thats why I thought just MAYBE it was the fuel pump but wasn't entirely sure.


~Ted