My 88' 2.8 V6 seems to take awhile to turn over.

If I try and start my car within 5 minutes of shutting it off, no problem. It fires right up. If it sits for no longer than 30 minutes, it will take a good 5 to 8 seconds. If it sits for an extended period of time (half a day, or all night) it will start up slowly, AND idle between 1500 and 2000 RPMs for a few minutes.

The car runs great when it eventually starts, though I see the rpms sitting at 750 and bobbing up and down slightly during idle. It never sounds like its idling perfect at any time the engine is running, but it still sounds consistently strong.

I have tried turning the key over a good three times to prime the fuel pump, but it still takes just as long to start. This makes me think that even if pressure is dropping, priming the fuel pump should have helped. But it dosent. I hear it running as I turn the key over. I did buy the car with almost no gas in it. Funny thing is, I test drove it on two occasions, and all of the times I started the car, it fired right up, and I was the first to start it for the day. I went to a gas station right away and filled up after buying it. This was a week ago. The car had been sitting awhile when I bought it. I havent checked the pressure in the lines, but I will tomorrow.

I had the starter, alternator, and battery checked. All are fine. The battery is a month old. I've ran two bottles of fuel injector cleaner through, and even had a fuel induction cleaning service done, and an oil change..The spark plugs are grey, I assume they're okay. Replaced the engine coolant temp sensor, still no luck.

Any suggestions?

 

Pump isn't turning on with the key, so not until you crank the engine over and you build 7psi of oil pressure, does the oil switch turn it on and then it starts.

Mine was like that for many years and I never fixed it, didn't really intend to when I did. Not a bad idea to build oil PSI before the engine starts.

But folks want them to start instantly and just go.

my problem was ECM related but again I didn't fix it on purpose, I needed a new ECM for a different reason.

 

so I could replace the ecm and the problem would go away? I guess its not really a problem, but rather annoying, and I'm planning to completely restore the car to pristine shape. Thanks

 

bad CSI could maybe cause that...

 

Probably, have ya tried everything else?

It would be last on the list if all else fails to make it work right.

 

Do you think it may be the fuel pump? I hear it priming when I turn the key to "on" multiple times. But it never seems to hasten the starting.

 

What is a CSI? Thanks

 

I went and had my fuel filter replaced, and they checked the fuel pressue. It was at 42, then slowly leaked to 35 within about 2 minutes. SO is the fuel pump the culprit for the slow starting?

 

Not until you do a proper fuel pressure test on the system and find out which part of the system is bleeding off the fuel pressure... I can't even begin to describe how many times I myself and others have posted this in the last six months or so. Generally, the problem will either be the fuel injectors leaking, the pressure regulator leaking, or a leak in one of the lines (it's kind of rare for the fuel pump check valve to be leaking, but there is a plastic tube between the pump and the sending unit line that commonly cracks and leaks). And the CSI is the seventh injector down by the base of the distributor.

 

Actually, the car started up and ran amazing today. I lend it to the new fuel filter, I have no idea what was up with the fuel pressure, but it appears not to be an issue.

 

I noticed my car starts up faster with a full tank of gas...why is that? Thanks

 

There's more residual fuel in the system due to gravity and the level of gas in the tank (if you wondered why gas flows out of the line when the filter is removed and everything is off, this is why). Which means that the pump doesn't have to push as much fuel into the fuel rail to pressurize the system. Besides the pressure test, I would also do a fuel flow rate test, where you point the end of, say, the fuel feed hose in the engine compartment, into a container of sorts and measure the fuel after a certain amount of time that the pump has run.