[JoetheGuy]

Ever since I bought my 1988 auto corvette, it has been hard to start up. At first, it would take about 5 seconds of turning the key for my engine to fire up. Eventually I grew tired of this and took it to a local corvette shop/dealership so they could diagnose the problem for me. They told me that my old starter wasn't helping and that they needed to replace it if i wanted them to do further testing on the fuel system. I had them replace it and they told me that the delayed starting was because of my old injectors.

Since then, I have replaced the injectors with cheap $150 injectors and of course had horrible luck. I sent them back, got my money back, found a guy selling a whole bunch of chrome and extra parts for an l98 that just so happened to come with injectors. I installed all the pretty parts and the injectors and the car runs and idles much better ,now, than with the stock injectors, but the extreme cold/hard starting is still there, but now it takes around 10 seconds for the car to start up.

Along the way, I have replaced the battery, cap, rotor, fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel pressure regulator, iac, and spark plugs

It also may be worth noting that the car starts up faster the hotter the engine is.

Ive been told that getting my car tuned to enrich with more fuel on startup may be an option since I deleted my 9th injector

 

[Shukla182]

It also may be worth noting that the car starts up faster the hotter the engine is.
Dale Hollow News

 

[Norm 1]

That kind of reminds me.........of me. The older I get and the more worn out I get, the slower I move around. I've had a couple parts replaced, but still don't run as new. 😁

 

[grumpyvette]

"since I deleted my 9th injector"

• thats a bit like saying I pounded a 6" spike through my big toe with a sledge hammer and now it hurts when I walk

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/replacing-a-c-4-fuel-pump.33/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/handy-fuel-system-trouble-shooting-flow-chart-info.596/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/c4-c5-corvette-trouble-codes.2697/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/the-answers-too-those-all-too-common-questions-can-be-found-here.12892/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/1989-corvette-cranks-but-won-t-start-intermittently.14212/

if your early l98 corvette engine is set up to use that 9th injector to enrich the start up procedure,
and you removed it without upgrading to the more recent EFI controller designed to run without that 9th injector...gas as a liquid fuel ,does not burn well, GAS vapor does ignite easily, the hotter the engine is the more rapidly the liquid gas vaporizes thus making starting the engine more easily, the 9th injector is used to richen the F/A mix, to make starting far easier, later engine versions use a software change that lengthens the injector pulse duration to significantly richen the F/A mix its this longer duration in a cold engine that makes starting easier, so you either require the 9th injector or the more updated software that uses the engine temp software to make starting the cold engine easier.
both the MAF and plenum temp sensors could be partly responsible and Id certainly check the 02 sensors
ID certainly verify your fuel pressure at start-up,(when you turn on the key but before you start the car is running in the 38-42 psi range and your fuel pressure regulator, and fuel pump are in good condition)

86 pacer....have you verified for closed loop operation? If you don't have a multi-meter, you can use the car's built in field test mode using a paper clip.

The same as pulling codes but you start the car this time when jumping the A&B terminals of the ALDL plug. Two flashes per second on the engine light means the car is in open loop. If the flashes drop to 1 time per second, the car is entering closed loop.

Vacuum leaks can introduce unmetered air entering the motor bypassing the MAF sensor, which throws off the mixture as the ECM tries to compensate.

My L98 became increasingly hard to start in the morning. It acted like it was starting in a lean condition. Once I got it going it would run fine for the rest of the day. Putting a fuel pressure gauge on it revealed that it only pumped up to 30 pounds when the key was turned to ignition. It started, but with great difficulty. After getting it running and switching it off, the pressure would bleed down relatively quickly and I thought it may be a check valve in fuel pump or fuel pressure regulator, but this was not the problem. I elected to install a new fuel sending unit, which includes the pump, pulsator, fuel tubing, and fuel level sending parts. Cost me 280 from Amazon for a Delphi unit. This has solved the cold start problem. I did a 8 minute video of the removal and install. On youtube if you want to take a look. Not the best quality, but it may be helpful to someone. The task was really not too difficult. Keeping trash from falling into the tank was the hardest part.

steve