Hello, I have a 1988 Oldsmobile cutlass ciera station wagon with the 2.8l 6 cyl. auto trans. 64,000 miles. Anyway one day i decided to drive it to work. It was a hot june day but the car has NEVER had a mechanical problem thats left me stranded before hot or cold. So Im sitting in the car letting it idle before leaving when it cuts out completely. Go to restart her and its nothing but cranking, sometime a half second of firing just enough to kick the starter off. Let the car sit and cool for a hour. Then she started and i took off. Drove about 20 miles and she cut out again, not sputtering and dying, it cut off like youre turning the key off. Try to start it sum then get the starting fluid and still nothing wont run at ALL with starting fluid so no spark. Get it towed home and it starts the next day after sitting all night. Let it idle for about 30-40 minutes with no problem until cut out again. I should mention this time i started it it instantly lit up the "coolant hot light". Again not start after shes warmed up. Did a little research and replaced the crankshaft position sensor and coolant temp sensor, light when off after this but still has exact same issue. Its now been 4 months since and im scared to even test drive after repairs. The story is always the same shell start and run idle anything when the engine is dead cold, as soon as the car is warmed up it will not start it cranks for as long as you want but no fire. It tries to fire for the first half second then falls into just cranking. So obviously for some reason the ignition is not firing when car is warm. Ive looked over everything in sight as far as oil soaked sensors and broken wires but can find anything out of the normal. I didnt do any modifications prior for years so nothings changed. Fuel tank, filter and pump are 2 years old. It also has a Viper alarm installed but never has malfunctioned before.

 

Usually, car alarms kill the start circuit, so probably not that if it is cranking.
I had an 89 Bonneville with a similar condition, and I did all the things you did chasing it. It ended up being the weird, sandwiched positive battery cable connection. Pull that all apart, clean the corrosion with Coca-Cola and a brush, rinse with water, blast dry with compressed air, waterproof with diabolical grease, then retighten.

 

Ignition coil breaking down?

 

Your symptoms sound like an ignition issue. I believe this could be typical to any HEI. I would inspect the cap and rotor for any melting under the coil.
coil
module
any wires that connect the module to the pick up windings- they're known to make intermittent contact from fatigue of movement by the breaker plate.

On cars that sit outside, critters can mess up stuff. Mud dobbers, mice and tree rats. Continue looking at things closely and good luck.

 

Copy that I will investigate the ignition coil. As for the positive battery issue I put a brand new battery in yesterday no correction. If everything looks normal I’m not really sure how to test a faulty ignition coil with out replacing it completely.

 

Just a guess, but back in the day of those cars a heat related ignition cut out was usually a ignition module, not too hard to change and not too expensive, I would try that, but free advice-especially over the interwebs- is usually worth what you pay for it.....

 

So the only thing im seeing that is odd is in the bottom connecter on the ignition plate on the left hand side (pictured above) has a short piece of a paper clip jammed in between the two wires or into the blue one. its so close its hard to tell but either way it doesn't look like its supposed to be here. Does anyone know or have a wiring diagram for what this connector is for? Thanks everyone ! *UPDATE* Ive i plugged everything into the ignition plate but didnt bolt the plate to the car to see if i could get it to run longer or maybe have better lyck restarting when it wasnt bolted directly to the hot engine block. I did get it to run longer for about 1 house of idle before it died. And when it did die i was able to start it again after a couple tries and playing with the gas petal while cranking. So now im believing that this ignition plate is heat damaged somehow. Before with the plate bolted to the block i couldnt get it to restart at all. Going to replace the ignition control module tomorrow and see what happens....

 

Sounds like a ground problem to me.

 

So I’ve replaced oil pressure switch and coolant temperature sensor knock sensor and ICM with no luck. Car has correct fuel pressure and strong spark when problem is present. Now leaning toward something involving injectors them being the only thing not proven in fuel delivery system. I doubt all 6 injectors can go faulty at same time so going to pull intake manifold and inspect wiring and read injector ohms. Any ideas well appreciated

 

I recall something about the TCC solenoid going faulty. It locks the converter and will kill the engine in gear at idle.....?

 

Have you checked the trouble codes on the computer? This car has an OBD1 system, so you should be able to see any trouble codes. Maybe a trouble code will help diagnose the issue. Check the crank sensor, that may be the issue, it is the other thing that can go wrong besides the ICM on those cars.

 

Does the engine crank over normally when it won’t start? Is this a speed density system or a MAF sensor system. Either the MAP sensor going out of range, Or a bad MAF sensor can cause a lean condition so severe that the engine wont start. If it is slow cranking when it won’t start then a dragging trans or convertor could be the cause. I’m not familiar withe the injection systems on these engines is it a throttle body injection system or a port injection system? If port injection sometimes there are clips that hold the injectors to the fuel rail, this allows you to pull the rail out enough to watch the injector spray pattern without the fuel pressure pushing the injectors out of the rail. If these clips are in place you can unbolt and lift the injector rail out of the intake when the dies no restart occurs and check to see if the injectors are working. Just throwing some ideas out there. Do some more digging before you load another volley into the parts cannon.

 

ive jumped the obd1 and has no codes. Crank sensor is new

 

ive tried running it with the solenoid unplugged I’ve heard that’s a good test for those

 

port injection, forgot to mention has new MAP sensor no code either. Cranks normal speed. Yes next test is pull fuel rail and confirm pulse when problem occurs. I’ll post update when test completed. Thanks you everyone for the help seriously. Haven’t been able to drive the car farther than a block since June. I’m ready to get her back on the road. Thanks everyone again

 

That works if the solenoid works. If it's stuck on, unplugging it won't change anything..

 

copy copy will replace for safe measure and report back