Please forgive my ignorance as I'm new to this forum and Chevy's in general. I recently bought a 2001 Express 1500 5.7L V8. I do not know the maintenance history of it.
In the last 2 weeks, on 5 occasions, it has started up, immediately idled roughly down to very low RPMs and then died. Usually, if I give it gas and keep the RPMs up for a minute or more, it will be able to sustain an idle. On the second of those five occasions, I could not get it to idle. Trying again an hour later, it fired right up.
Aside from this occasional starting problem, the engine seems to run smoothly.
The check engine light behaves as if there is no problem and no code is reported from the PCM.
1-Any suggestions, thoughts that can help?
2-What is the best repair manual for this vehicle and where can I find it?
3-All I can think to do is do a vacuum check. Is the line between the brake booster to the manifold the best/only spot to do so?
Things being tight under the hood, I don't envy you having to start checking things out.
Your fuel pressure will be the first thing to check. I believe there's a Schrader valve near the distributor. If you don't have a gauge, stop by one of the parts stores and grab one via their loan-a-tool program.
Thanks for the suggestion. I bled the fuel pressure, hooked up my new gauge, and turned the key to "on" and the pump made 60 psi. When cranking the engine it quickly spiked, but then settled at 55 psi while idling. The Haynes repair manual says it should be between 60 and 66 psi.
The manual recommends checking the fuel filter and fuel lines next so I'm going to see what I can find.
I'll see what I can find and post the results.
Please chime in if you have any more suggestions.
Thanks.
Here's a video of the test: http://youtu.be/Dela6n29ggw
Just what I expected you'd find. No easy way to say this, but you probably need a new pump. Slide over to the 88-99 forum and check the FAQ section on how to do some more testing to make sure it's the pump and not the pressure regulator.
The Vortec is tempermental about not having at least 60psi.
I replaced the fuel pump and the pressure went up to about 58psi during idle. It's not the recommended 60-66psi but the problem still went away. I've since put 2k miles on it with no hint of recurrence of the issue. Thank you!
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