Patio218

So....this is kind of embarrassing but I have a 1990 GT that I have neglected since 2005. I always had plans to restore her but for various reasons it never happened. My father was the original owner and gave it to me in 1998. I drove the car every day until 2002 after which it became a part time car until it stopped running in 2005.

The car is very important to me and I want to get her running again. Unfortunately the tank has an unknown amount of fuel in it. I'm looking for input on what to replace first just to get her running on the cheap before I sink a ton of money into her.

I've done some research and I know I need to replace all of the fluids. As of today I have drained the radiator and removed the old battery. I plan to replace the oil and filter this week. Getting as much work done as I can in between the wife *****ing at me to just junk it

I'm a little unsure of how to drain the fuel.....what about the fuel lines and injectors? Will they require any special attention.

BlueFox

I would clean the fuel pump while you're at it to make sure its sucking up good. My dad and i finally discovered that was the problem in his 2007, after months of hardship and stress (we discovered it was absolutely caked in dirty, grimy, crap) and to think its only 6/7 years old (scared to look at my 89's pump). If and while you take out the fuel pump, either drop the whole tank (make sure you use a jack), or you could probably easily siphon the gas out from the pump hole, whether you have a cheap $2 siphon pump -could use an old fuel pump and a car battery- or just suck it out with a tube. I'm not sure of the fuel lines and injectors; however you should definitely grab a new fuel filter as well.

hope it goes smoothly,

-Nate

GottaHaveIt

Dad here , Nate & I first notice the car bogging on the highway when engine was warm , my reader said fuel rail low pressure, someone I'd asked said that some stations don't use additives so I should buy some Techron fuel injector cleaner, i did that & then changed fuel filter, was ok for about six months and it came back I could'nt speed up & would just die.
I then took out each injector used a battery & syringe to test each one they were clean & functioned ???
My wows still happened so I googled some more & on the bottom of my fuel pump has a sock or pick up the gas passes though first , I bought a new pump but didn't need to because when Nate & I took mine out like he said was plugged right up so the car was starving for gas . Put the new pump in & happy times follow , I even get 80-100 kilometer per tank more.

Patio218

Thanks for the tips guys I drained the fuel earlier this week with a cheap siphon (luckily only about 2 gallons). I also released the pressure from the fuel rails with the release valve. Yesterday I changed the oil and came down with the flu, stupid Chicago weather. I do have plans to drop the fuel tank and change the filter. The fuel pump was replaced in 2001 so hopefully it has enough life left to get her going for now but maybe I should just replace it while I got everything disassembled. Anyone have tips on how to clean out a fuel tank itself, anything I should know?

I'm also pretty sure my distributor is bad which is what I believe led to the car breaking down 9 years ago. If I remember correctly the car made a loud squeaking noise before it died then refused to start. The cap and terminals are extremely corroded and there is black powder inside. I plan on picking up a remanufactured distributor from Napa this weekend along with a battery then hopefully it'll fire up sometime in the next week.

BlueFox

Optima batteries are really good

Glenn

Where in Chicago are you Patrick

Patio218

I'm actually in the suburbs of Chicago. Homewood to be exact.

Patio218

Well for anyone who may be interested, I got her to start! It ran for about a minute before it died. Unfortunately I have not been able to recreate my small success. I used the remaining old fuel I couldn't siphon from the tank. Is it possible that old fuel is not combusting properly and preventing the car from starting and running reliably?