Ok so I own a 87 gxl and until last night had never ran into this issue. Driving home and car was running perfectly. Driving on the highway and the car started feeling sluggish and bogging/choking out (Felt as though I was losing HP). So I get off the highway and once I slowed down to stop for a light the car shut off. All the dash lights were on and beeped a few times(Cant remember how many beeps). Tried to start back up and nothing. The car wants to turn over but doesn't. I tried to turn her on today and she did the first two times but was idled was rough and kept dropping then shutting off. When the car was on there was like grey smoke coming out the exhaust. Nothing is leaking too so I don't know whats going on. Car only has 76K on her. Could it be the fuel filter? Or something else?

 

Could be fuel related which involves the fuel sock, fuel filter, fuel pump, pulsation damper or out of gas.

 

Yea I'm going to have to check these areas cause I replaced the plugs and wires and she still isnt turning over. Now she doesn't want to turn over at all. Hopefully its just the fuel filter and not something major.

 

Turning over means the engine rotates when starting the car which is different from the engine actually starting. Which one is it?

 

Right now with the new plugs and wires the engine is turning over but not starting.

 

If you have some starting fluid then a quick shot (no more than two seconds) into the intake is all it takes and then try to start the car. If it starts it should quickly die out, but if it starts, then your likely problem is fuel related as opposed to spark.

 

Did some more searching on the forums and majority of threads related to my own were fuel related so I bought a fuel filter since its a cheap fix and changed it but sadly still not starting. Going to remove the cat just to see if its that then the fuel pump and other fuel related stuff.

 

Have you checked the 15 amp Engine fuse. And the starter fluid will help you identify whether you have a fuel or spark issue in a matter of a few seconds.

 

Ok back at this again. I checked the 15 amp Engine fuse and fuse is good. Checked all vacuum hoses and they're all good. Did the error code gadget to read the codes from the green connector and no codes came up. Also did the starter fluid method and it didn't start (unless I did it wrong). Shot the fluid into the throttle body, with it opened, for two secs as mentioned and nothing. I'm totally stumped.

 

You can try the starter spray into the air intake. Have you tried to confirm spark? Does the Black/Yellow wire at the lead coil have battery voltage w/key to on? Does the B/W wire at the four wire Green check connector near the leading coil have battery voltage as well w/key to on?

 

Spark, Fuel, Compression.

Do you have spark while cranking?
Use an old spark plug on front and rear by pulling off the engine side of a plug wire, plug in your extra plug, ground (set it on metal part of engine) it to the engine somewhere and crank. You should see a spark. Hard to see in bright daylight from inside the car, easy to see in a dark garage. Assistants rock for this.

Do you have fuel pressure while cranking?
Best to use a test guage but you can just confirm the fuel pump is running while cranking and pull a line to see if it has pressure. (DANGER!)

Do you have adequate compression?
Pull front plug, crank, listen, Put front plug back in, pull rear plug, crank, listen. Repeat untill you come to a conclusion. You dont need a compression tester to know if seals are toast. You should have a continous beat, if you have (ffut, ffut, weak, ffut, ffut, weak) instead of (ffut, ffut, ffut, futt....) you found your problem.

 

Car has spark and I'm getting fuel to the fuel rail. I ended up pulling the secondary fuel rail with injectors connected and cranked car to see if injectors would squirt but they didn't. So I'm assuming that they are clogged but still didn't check the primaries yet.

 

The secondary injectors will nor purge fuel until after 3800 rpm over half throttle. You need to pull the primary's to do this test.