Thread: Fiero with Series II 3800. Help Needed!

Hey guys its been a while, long story short i just picked up a 86 Fiero Fastback with a 2003 Impala 3.8L under the hood/deck. Owner says last season it got hard to start at the beginning if each day. It will fire right up with starting fluid or similar spray. Sometimes it starts right up and others it seems to flood out?
I've yet to drive it but the prior owner says that's the only symptom it had.
So I cleaned the MAF and the IAC. It fired right up and idled great once I put them in i tried it about 6 hours later and nothing.
Fuel pressure regulator is new as of today, other was leaking. I tested the pressure. Had over 50psi at prime. But when you flick the key off the pressure drops quickly>>> Only sometimes tho other times it would hold close to 50.
I have tried unplugging the MAF and starting and it sounds the same.

I did finally get it started with the MAF removed and a quick spray of carb cleaner than hopped in and cranked her over.
Please Any ideas, suggestions next steps?
Also once it fires up it starts easy as pie afterwards. Idle is weird sometimes also

clean the TB, and give it a tune up.

I've found it idles rough and hunts really bad... again only sometimes, with AND without the MAF plugged in I will post a video in a min. It got cut short by my Iphone dieing...
I'm guessing its best to remove the hole throttle body and clean it out? I removed the IAC and MAF and cleaned them this morning, didn't touch the TPS because of the tamper resistant torx bit...
After abit more reading it sounds like the MAF
ideas?

could be a broken vac line too. can make the car idle like its got a nice big cam installed. spray some carb cleaner around the vac lines, if the idle jumps up you found a leak.

and yes its best to take the TB off and clean it, and remove at least the maf, clean that with maf cleaner.

I pulled and cleaned the MAF this morning, didn't solve it BUT it did idle fine right after. Then later in the day it was back to normal. Question the buick in my pic I sold to my friend, can I use his MAF to try or is the SC'ed MAF different?
I did a quick look and couldn't find any broken or missing vacume lines. I will pull the TB tomorrow and clean everything.
Fiero start, idle problem - YouTube
Video was cut short when my phone died. But gives you an idea
Thanks for your time scotty

maf swap depends on the year of your cars engine. 97 and 98 same maf, 99 and up they change every few years.

you can note your part # on the top of the maf, then check the regals out, n/a and s/c engines use the same maf, if the years match.

maybe I will get lucky. Does it sound like it could be any other parts failing, the IAC or TPS

im have no info as how you guys get these engines to run in these cars, stand alone pcm or something or how you would pull codes for the engine. but all of those sensors would make the check engine light come on.

It has an Impala computer tuned to run on OBD1 aka my scanner wont plug in to its port. No CEL unless I unplug the MAF and then start it. This car has had the motor for a while but this issue is new.

Today's progress: Started by calling all over for a used MAF ended up with a whole throttle body for $50 with only 103000km on the car. Original GM MAF IAC TPS but it was very carboned up so i cleaned it all up before installing. It now starts well atleast i think it does. I haven't given it over 6 hours of sitting so we will see. I also went out and changed the plugs and wires, old ones were pretty bad looking. But the idle is still intermittently very poor. Jumps from 500-1000-stall sometimes and other times it resumes an idle of 1000. I double checked fuel pressure today as well 57.5 at prime with engine off or no vaccume. Drops down to 47.5psi under vaccume at its idle. Does this sound normal? and what should i try next? What else would cause a bad idle O2? EGR? A bad injector?

Fiero 3800 idle issue - YouTube
A proper video to show whats going on!

It was running the same without it so I suppose that the problem wasn't the MAF. Maybe it just needs a good **** kicking to "re-learn"

Interesting....I am curious as to what the issue is too...my GF's brother's 2000 Monte SS does the exact same thing.. Very hard to start sometimes, other times fires right up...idle is up and down.. Exact same symptoms.


Jay

I'm going to test the cranks sensor tomorrow. Also look into cleaning the EGR hopefully I can get this sorted out.

how does it idle in gear? a bit better?

my car idled just like that due to a vac leak, in gear it seemed not as bad.

Its Standard transmission, other then a TD on Friday night its not been on the road yet. Not till Monday. So today I will be looking into bad crank sensor and or wiring, attempt to clean the EGR.

Turns out that the IAC that came with the used throttle body was all carboned up. It was really bad but since I didn't have the tamper resistant torx bit I only cleaned what i could see. SO after buying the torx set and cleaning that its much better again. Also cleaning the EGR didnt hurt any either. Now it only idles funny on start up for the first minute or so and sometimes when you bring the car near stall then disengage the clutch. Thanks for all your help.
With all this being said I believe my original no start was a bad MAF. Thanks again for your help