My car died on me a few weeks ago on the interstae and had to get towed. I was 600 miles from home and as a result had to leave it behind. Now it is at a relatives place and I want to do some easy troubleshooting on it to see if it is worth getting back home. Like I said it was running great. Its a 84 380SE with a 3.8 V8. If they pull the air cleaner lid and dump some gas in there and it fires up I know it is a fuel problem, but can I do that? I know it has spark and I know the timing chain didnt bite the dust. It cranks over great, just no fire. I also have to keep the troubleshooting basic as I am not the one doing it.

Thanx

Sure...

You could also hydraulic a piston, or burn yourself up.

I'd try starting fluid in a spray can and stand back!

Greg

It sounds like no fuel is getting into the intake.

I am not familiar with your vehicle, but I will assume it has an electrical fuel pump. I would start by searching for the humming sound to make sure the pump is running. If it is not, then look for the relay or fuse that controls it.

After making sure the above is OK, I would check for a spark from the ignition.

The fuel-down-the-intake-to-see-if-it-fires-up method would be my third test after the 2 above.

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I'd use carb clean or brake clean, just a few seconds worth, THEN crank it, don't shoot this down the throat while someone cranks it, that's how you can get hurt. You could do it with a few ounces of fuel also, but same thing, dump it in, THEN crank, don't just sit there under the hood while the cranking is taking place, and it wouldn't hurt to have an extinguisher handy, just in case.
You can first do what has been suggested, kisten/feel for the fuel pump buzz, or just loosen the supply line and see if anything is there. You're CERTAIN it's not run out of gas? The gauge could be broken. Where I used to be, we had a car towed from Milwaukee to Madison for a second-opinion diagnosis, the other dealer wanted to replace the fuel distributor of all things, ended up it was out of gas with a broken fuel gauge. They happily had the gauge repaired.

Gilly

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I wish it was as simple as running out of fuel. I just filled up about 30 miles earlier so I know its full.
I will get them to try a shot of starting fluid.....if it is a fuel pump relay....are they expensive? What would a fuel pump cost?

Thanx

Maybe it's a clogged fuel filter?

Freestyler

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Or maybe you got some real bad gas! 30 miles back..Hmmmm

It's happened!

I thought "bad gas" too after reading that. You hear people say things like "oh, that station waters down their gas", but of course this doesn't happen, as the water seperates out from the gas. But water can accumulate in the tanks from natural means, condensation, or rain water comes through the filler pipe, things like that. So what you pay attention to is if there is a fuel delivery truck at the station, because when they fill up the tank in the ground, it can stir up the water in the bottom of the tank and some of it can make it to the pumps. Eventually (it doesn't take long) the water settles to the bottom and the fuel delivered to the pumps is fine.
The relay I believe is under a $100, the pump (or sometimes pumpS) are more expensive then that, couple hundred (each).
The input and output from the relay can be jumped with a jumper wire to test.

Gilly

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