'90 Oldsmobile Eighty-eight wont start...Old gas?

[paisleygirl]

My boyfriend's grandparents bought a '90 Olds 88 from their friend, while he saved up the money to buy it from them. It sat in their garage for a year or two, and he recently made the exchange with them and has been driving it for a week or so now. It's been starting kind of rough, so he would have to depress the gas pedal a bit to get it catch. I told him I was worried about what the bad gas could do to the engine, but he didn't really want to go through the hassle of siphoning it, and he doesn't know a lot about cars, so I told him he should keep topping it off with new gas and hopefully it would
eventually get rid of the problem. The other day we were driving it just fine and turned it off for a bit, but when he went to start it, it just wouldn't go. The engine turns over and when you depress the gas pedal it starts for a few seconds but then dies immediately, so I know it's not the battery or alternator. I took a look under the hood, and when the car ran for a short period of time, the engine block would shake and sound pretty rough. I'm not sure if the old gas clogged up the injectors or something like that, but I don't know if adding HEET is a good idea since the car isn't really even starting...if we end up having to siphon out gas I really don't want to mess around with having more chemicals than necessary in it. We are still in college and basically broke, so avoiding a mechanic is ideal. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Scarpozzi]

That was only a few years after they started fuel injection. Those GM engines in that time period had a lot of issues with clogged injectors. I'd probably start with the fuel pump and have someone make sure it's working...then swap the fuel filter....then maybe swap the injectors rather than cleaning them. If nothing else, for an engine that old, swapping things out is sometimes your best bet to help rule things out if they don't cost all that much.

 

[paisleygirl]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that. Should I be siphoning out gas before I remove the fuel filter or just let the gas drain when I take it out?

 

[Torn Mind]

Siphoning doesn't involve much. Some cheap pump that uses the atmosphere's air pressure is enough. Just have a some big buckets on hand for however many gallons of gas needs to be removed. A crappy Pennzoil 36688 should last one job(before its cheap plastic dies).
Drop the HEET in there. Could be water accumulated in the lines.

Check the battery first with a voltmeter; you'll just need a cheap multimeter to see if the charge is 12.6 volts. Sparks plugs might need to be checked if it is not water in the gas and the battery is good.

GM's aren't the most DIY-friendly of vehicles. Any involved wrenching might tear your mind apart.

 

[cabri]

Change the plugs and fuel filter as well as draining the fuel.

While the battery may be an issue , if the vehicle has been running fora week; then there is a good chance that both the alternator and battery should be OK. Neither should cause the engine to choke and/or run rough.

Cleaning the fuel injectors would be the following step.

 

[Knavish]

Siphoning doesn't involve much. Some cheap pump that uses the atmosphere's air pressure is enough. Just have a some big buckets on hand for however many gallons of gas needs to be removed. A crappy Pennzoil 36688 should last one job(before its cheap plastic dies).
Drop the HEET in there. Could be water accumulated in the lines.

Check the battery first with a voltmeter; you'll just need a cheap multimeter to see if the charge is 12.6 volts. Sparks plugs might need to be checked if it is not water in the gas and the battery is good.

GM's aren't the most DIY-friendly of vehicles. Any involved wrenching might tear your mind apart.

Remember a bad battery can read 12V until you put a load on it. Doesn't sound like the battery is the problem, anyway.

 

[boomerang]

Try something very simple first.

Remove the air cleaner and check for mice nests. When a car sits for a long time the mice make a home and the air cleaner housing looks great to them.

My Dad had a car he rarely drove that he kept in the garage. He also kept a bag of dog food out there. He went to drive the car and it would start and die, start and die. He removed the air cleaner cover to find that the mice had chewed through the dog food bag and stored a ton of it up in the air cleaner housing. They had it packed full to the brim.