Chug Chug Chug! I Lose!
 

So I'm lining up against a car I can't possably win against, a first gen DSM with a 18G turbo ported wastegate, the works... this guy knew what he was doing... and we tell my camera man to say go on 3... 3.. 2... 1... GO BAM I charge ahead off the line and then CHUG CHUG CHG my car starts dying and he turns into nothing but a red spot in the horizon. I pull off and I'm cussing and cussing because I think it's my clutch, earlier in the night my clutch fluid had drained down (I still need to get a stainless steal replacement for the peice that is worn) and I had been burning the clutch pretty bad. The guy I raced comes back and I try and start my car. It sounds like it wants to start, but it's not getting enough gas... so I start pumping the gas and she starts up and is smoking a FUCKLOAD of smoke but since we were on a dark highway I couldn't tell what color it was... then it idles down to nothing... we sit around for awhile discussing what it could be when I notice that theres an ear peircing sound comming from the rear of my car, where the fuel pump should be so I go and take my keys out and it goes away... so now we are figuring it's a feul problem but since I don't have money for a tow I can't do jack or shit until I can get a friend to tow me the short distance home in the morning... so the guy with the DSM gives me a ride to the camera mans house where we bunk for the night... and omg his car is totaly fucking KICK ASS :)
Anyways morning comes by I get a friend to give me a ride out there and I bring some gas just in case and I turn her over and she starts, but it's a chug chug chug kind of start... so I keep the revs up and tell my friend to move his truck so I can drive home... I drive her home and it was chuggin all the way.. if I gave it over a quarter throttle it would start to die out like it wasn't getting enough gas.
So now I'm trying to find the fuel filter (for the life of me I can't find that bitch) to check that and from there I'm gonna go through my entire fuel system ending at my injectors.... guess I ain't going to the drag races tonight after all... but the guy with the DSM offered me a job where he works and I've been searching for a job since the beggining of summer so things are looking up out of this whole affair :)

Fuel filter is under the hood on the drivers side frame rail. There is a strainer on the pump in the tank.

i got smoked by a maranello today, i think he was just playing with me. i shouldnt even have tried heheh

I got smoked by a sunfire GT that very same night, if it makes any consolation... a sunfire! for godsake.. *sniff*

Just checked my fuel pump, and as far as the haynes manual has explained to me the fuel pump is fine BUT the system is "probably not pressurizing properly. Check the fuel system pressure"

So I continued on to that section and ran into the Feul Pressure gauge which I don't have... time to raid some friends garages :P

how much gas did you have left in the tank?

Simple test.

Pull a spark plug and crank the engine. (be sure to remove ignition system fuses!)

If a mist of gas and air shoots out, youve got fuel.

Well my gas gauge is really funky but when it died I had just under half a tank...
Now I have just under a quarter tank?!?

Which fuses are the ignition fuses? I removed the EGI and tried to start her and it just made a clicking noise and never turned over.

Edit:
Errr never mind... thats what I get for having my 8 year old sister try and start my car.. next time I tell her to push the clutch down :P
Anyways no gas came out, just air... and the smell of gas but no liquid... should I try on the other rotor or what?

when you pulled the egi fuse i think you shut off the fuel injection. what you need to do is unplug the power to the coils.

Yea. My bad. didnt think about what i was saying. Leave EGI fuses in.

Unplug the coils though.

Each coil has a black/red wire with a white conenctor, just take the nuts off the coils, take them off, and unplug the wires

Just replaced my fuel filter... it starts now but it idles EXTREAMLY rough, too bad to drive, and just dies out alot... so I know my fuel filter wasn't it, even though my old one was quite clogged... i've noticed that I can hear a type of "hissing" sound comming out from my engine bay when I put my key into the on position without starting her... this is anew sound I never heard before... any ideas?

sorry about the bad luck, any vids?

Apex seal?? How's compression?

Hissing sound could be just the additional fuel flowing through that restriction-less filter you've got now.. try feeling the fuel lines, if they are vibrating sorta (the rubber ones) then the noise is almost definately the fuel...

lol... my god people.. these engines ARE NOT THAT BAD!

(hell, I bet I could run out of gas and someone on this forum would tell me that I've blown an apex seal.... wtf...)

Give us more info on the car.........

How long have you own the car?

When was the last time you changed the plugs?

Does it have the stock catalytic converter?

Did you mess with the AFM?

etc

I've owned the car since june or july... been driving it since the beggining of september...
I havn't changed the plugs, which is what im going to do next that and the rest of the ignition system... does anyone know if theres a way to test the plugs definitivly?
I don't know about stock catty... but it does have the hose going to it to open the 5th and 6th ports...
I havn't touched the AFM...

Right now what she's doing is bearly idling, completly dying out if I let off the gas, but at anything over 2k it's fine, althought it does sound kind of funny... could be the extra fuel im getting from getting anew fuel filter...
Could it be that the fuel filter has been pretty clogged for a long time and the previous owner just changed the idle to make up for it before? It has been known to idle funny down low sometimes... only completly idled out once though.

Ahh just went and started her up... and I'm looking at a big puff of blue smoke comming out the back of my car... I did let her sit over night though, but this was abnormaly big... still idles the same funny way... it _ALMOST_ sounds like my friends car that had 0 compression in one of his rotors...
I did a compression test last week and it was 100 all round on the rear rotor, and something like 90-100 on the front rotor...

its a slim chance but you might want to check for a big vacuum leak.

my car flooded one time and while i was trying to fix it i removed a large vacuum hose from under the main intake pipe. it ran the exact same as your car is now. same shitty idle but it would run fine if i would hold the gas.

its a long shot but it might work.