Pontiac Repair: 87 pontiac grand am., liter engine, pontiac grand am

Question
QUESTION: I have a 87 pontiac grand am 2.1 liter that won't start now; before the car stopped working I was having issues starting it when it was cold. Had to give it lots of gas at times to start it. Once it was warmed up it ran fine. I was told to try seafoam which I did and also changed the plugs and wires in hopes that would help but still started rough and now won't start all together. I am certain it a fuel issue but I can't pin point it. Again the car will not start now. Any ideas?

ANSWER: Hi cody:
what engine is in this? tyhere is no 2.1 liter engine either a tech 4 which is a 2.5 liter or a quad for which is a 2.3 liter. Before you ran into this issue did you have any service engine soon lamp come on? also before this happened when it was running did it run okay? did you noice a drop off in fule milage before it would not start? It makes a difference as to how you look to see what your missing on this as to why it dill not run. on of the engines is multip ort injected the other is throttle body injected and the iginion system on the 2 engine is completly different as well. so let me know which one you have and we can go from there.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sorry yes it is a 2.3, my mistake. The service light comes on once I get it started but then when I start to drive it turns off. Still not sure what the issue is.

Answer
ok the 2.3 is a multi port injected engine. you need to check for fuel pressure between 35-40 PSI is good. you need a computer friendly "led" test light and check for injector pulse while cranking the engine over. just unplug what ever injetor is easiest to unplug and use the test light in place of the injetor in the connector it should flash as you crank the car over. if not the next thing to check is sprak. that is har on this engine you need a set of special wires to hook up in series with the coils to the plugs and then a spark tester. you can also take the coil assembly out and lay it across the top of the engine so that the terminals at the bottom of the coils are about 1/4" away from the engine evenly and have someone crank the car for you do not have you hands any where near the coil ends. you should see the spark jumping from the coils to the engine on all 4 coil terminal ends. if you don't have spark and you don't have injetor pulse you have a bad ignition module or crank sensor.