Hey guys, so I'm a little bit of a situation. I have a 1997 GMC Sierra C1500 with a vortec 350, and the truck won't start. It all started right after I got gas. I started the truck, drive to the gas station exit, and as soon as I give it gas, it inches forward a couple inches and shuts off. It didn't sputter out, just died as soon as I gave it gas, and it wouldn't start. The truck, when it did run, ran pretty smooth. The only issue it had was a hesitation when you went to give it gas. When I go to crank the motor, it will turn over like it usually does, and it sputters just a bit, like it wants to start. A couple of days ago, I check the fuel pressure, and when it was priming it was 65PSI. After the fuel pump shut off, it jumped down to 60PSI, and then from there, it would slowly drop to 40PSI, and that's where it would just stop. I've plugged off the return line, and of course the fuel pressure shot WAY up, but it still leaked down, so I don't think it's a bad check valve on the fuel pump. The truck has spark on every spark plug and I’ve unplugged the fuel pump relay, cycled out the lines, and then tried to run it off of starting fluid.
So far what I've done is, I've replaced the fuel injector assembly with the MFI spider assembly with a new fuel pressure regulator, I have replaced the timing chain, the crankshaft sprocket, and the camshaft sprocket, the ignition coil module, and the coil, and to no avail. I don't think it's a compression issue, because like I said before, the truck ran good, besides the hesitation on acceleration. I haven't had a chance to test the new fuel pressure after I replaced the fuel injectors, but I'm assuming it's fine now, because the truck is still acting the same as before.
The only thing I can think of is to replace the entire distributor, because I know these old vortec engines had issues with the distributors jumped teeth on the cam gear, and the reason why I think that is, whenever I spray starting fluid down the intake, it backfires right back at me pretty quickly if I give it a good spray. Another thing that's worth mentioning, is while cranking it, you can smell a hint of gas. I'm not sure if's coming from the exhaust or the front, but my guess is from the exhaust, and that's because if you shine a light up the tailpipe, you can see some very small amount of smoke. And that's what's throwing me off. The smoke smells just like gas, not oil or water, and again, it's a very small amount of very light, fumey smoke.
Sorry if this post is all over the place, I just got done replacing the fuel injector assembly and I'm pretty upset that it is still not working. I would just like to get this fixed so I can focus solely on college. Any pointers or help would much appreciated!
