1997 Vortec 5.7 abruptly died

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rchadhaney

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Driving home today in the rain and my Tahoe just shut off immediately. Like someone hit the kill switch. Cranks over fine, won't fire. I am getting fuel to the intake but haven't checked the pressure yet. the way it died I feel like it is electric. I've already tried replacing the rotor and cap. Looking for ideas of what to check.
 

HotWheelsBurban

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Driving home today in the rain and my Tahoe just shut off immediately. Like someone hit the kill switch. Cranks over fine, won't fire. I am getting fuel to the intake but haven't checked the pressure yet. the way it died I feel like it is electric. I've already tried replacing the rotor and cap. Looking for ideas of what to check.
Crankshaft position sensor or ignition module could have failed. There's other things too, but that's what I'd look at first. Distributors can also fail suddenly. Most parts that go bad, it's a gradual process until they just don't work anymore....
 

rchadhaney

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Okay guys. I went back and worked on it today. I had spark, it would start and not continue to run, then all of a sudden it started running and ran fine for about 5 min. then it just died abruptly again and would not start. Fuel pump is now no longer kicking on. I went ahead and replaced the crankshaft position sensor but nothing else.

What can it be that isn't the fuel pump? I've switched the relay between the a/c and fuel pump and so I don't think it is that. If I put my ear to the filler and have someone turn the key I don't hear a click at all and if I press the release valve on the fuel line that goes into the intake while cranking nothing comes out. I feel like this is electric. Yes it could be the fuel pump but I don't want to pay to tow it home and find out it isn't that.
 

someotherguy

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Driving home today in the rain and my Tahoe just shut off immediately. Like someone hit the kill switch. Cranks over fine, won't fire. I am getting fuel to the intake but haven't checked the pressure yet. the way it died I feel like it is electric. I've already tried replacing the rotor and cap. Looking for ideas of what to check.
Red flag underlined, bolded, and italicized for emphasis.

Small block Vortecs are super picky about fuel pressure. When it gets marginally low they can fail to start, run poorly if they do start, and if they stall it is immediate because the poppet valve injectors will not open to spray fuel - so it's like you turned the switch off.

You can't guess your way through this one unless you want to waste money. It's easy to check the fuel pressure on a Vortec. The factory provided you a gauge attachment to hook up to right there on the engine.

Richard
 

HotWheelsBurban

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Sounds like what my Burb was doing this time last year. I did not want to believe it was the fuel pump either (since you have to drop the tank and I was NOT looking forward to that!). Checked everything else, moved the fuel pump relay around, etc. and guess what it ended up being?!
That's right, the fuel pump! My neighbor and I spent our Labor Day off replacing it; fortunately he had done one on his brother in law's GM SUV and so he had some idea of what we were getting into.
I checked the test port on the fuel line that @someotherguy is referring to. Very little sprayed when I pushed the pin on the Schrader valve (like what a tire valve stem has inside).
How you check this without a gauge, is to unscrew the cap, (hold onto the cap or put it somewhere it won't get lost) and push that pin down with a small screwdriver. Have a clean rag or shop towel around it to catch any spray; you DO NOT WANT any of that gasoline or vapor to get into the ignition and this is not very far from the distributor!! If you get a strong stream, you'll need to get a fuel pressure gauge and test the fuel pressure by attaching it to this test port. If none or very little comes out, the fuel pump is probably bad. At least that's my experience!
The new pump will probably come with a new pigtail for the connector plug; GM made a running change on these to a different design and shape.
 

rchadhaney

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Yep!!! It was the fuel pump.. I didn't want it to be but after I checked everything else I got the tahoe to startup and run for 5 min and then it died again and that time the fuel pump wouldn't kick on anymore.

I go the tahoe towed home Monday and my new AC Delco Fuel pump from Rock auto will be delivered tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your help on this.
 

HotWheelsBurban

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Yep!!! It was the fuel pump.. I didn't want it to be but after I checked everything else I got the tahoe to startup and run for 5 min and then it died again and that time the fuel pump wouldn't kick on anymore.

I go the tahoe towed home Monday and my new AC Delco Fuel pump from Rock auto will be delivered tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your help on this.
You're welcome,glad you got it figured out and thanks for updating!
 
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