I hate to add a question to the many "what's wrong with my car" questions on here, but after towing the car home today, I'd like to know where to start troubleshooting its problems tomorrow.
It's a 1992, 5-speed V8 Camaro RS, TBI, 305.
Lately, it's been hesitating and "coughing" and running fine one minute, and the next it's as if it has no power at all. Several times lately, it's had a problem of stalling out, and only restarting if I give it massive amount of gas and revving it high right after it starts to keep it going until I can actually put it in gear and start driving again.
It's got the "usual" issues of whitish/blue smoke upon start up, that you often see with third gens, but that's been for a while now, and doesn't seem to be related to the more recent issue that's been getting worse for me over the last month or two. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to really look into it - so the car has forced its hand!
Today, when trying to restart it, you could smell fuel, but it was behaving as if it wasn't getting any - the car was turning over fine, but no combustion seemed to be happening. The fuel pump whirred as if it's coming on properly when the key is turned. There was a bit over half a tank of gas, the oil level and pressure is fine, and the battery charge is good. Didn't seem to be a matter of simple flooding either, because after sitting for several hours, it still couldn't be restarted.
I replaced the fuel filter about 2 years ago.
My question is - what are my most likely suspects? Should I start with fuel pressure? do I need to bother checking things like the fuel pump relay, since the fuel pump "whirred" to life upon key turn? Can the fuel pump still be the villian here, even though it "sounds" like it's working? Could this be caused by a clogged fuel tank vent? How about the distributor? Ignition coil problem? Vacuum leak?
I'm not sure which of these problem could cause a serious enough issue so that the car stalled and can't be started at all now. (although recently could be recranked with massive amount of gas pedal pushing to get it going)
Any help or advice would be appreciated! I plan to make a laundry list of things to check, but am kind of overwhelmed as to where to start!
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