Few people have already heard of a misfortunate incident regarding my car...

well, long story short, i was sitting at the lights, clutch out, handbrake on, 5 seconds later, it died

granted, it did fire right up again, but had me worried, since then the car's been running bad on the very first start... i used the old 'prime the fuel pump' method and try to get some pressure before firing it up, but nope, didn't work, i tried starting the engine today, and it would catch before it dies, this happen twice today before finally it coughed into life... after a few revs... and its fine

i emptied the last tank (the tank that died with the car) and put some redline complete fuel system cleaner in there, and used a volt meter to test the battery

so far, the battery seems normal (12.5V when the engine's off, 14.5 when the engine's on), so the old theory about a dying alternator goes out the window pretty much

the fuel system cleaner meanwhile i am still waiting for good news and hope it gets better but today wasn't good news at all

any experts want to chime in to help me find out what happened?

the following is a few key points that may or may not help:
1) we installed a cam the previous sunday... when we fired her up afterwards she was fine, if the timing chain was off then it probably would've idled VERY badly

2) when we did install the cam, we found 3 of the 16 red thermal plastic caps had cracked, my friend who did the install believes its valve float, but we have no way to test that

3) i removed the aftermarket coil-pack and spark plug wires and replace with stock, the stockers has about 20,000km on them because the terminal ends on the aftermarket wires were broken

4) the car was idling really roughly last time i stopped before the engine itself stopped, but the 5-10 seconds when the engine was sitting at the lights before it died it was sitting nicely at idle, no rough idle

5) when the car turned back on, there was no warning light at all anywhere, car drove fine

6) car's been having hard starts for a few months now, i assume it was the summer gas that causes it and never did think much of it

7) a co-worker smell my car when i started it, he told me he smell gas, very very heavy gas and was suggesting my car was running really rich, again, common mini thing

8) every subsequent start in the morning has been rough, but after that first start, even if i turn the engine off and start it again, it starts fine

9) car has 93,000km on it, car's been running pefectly fine up till that point, car battery, oil pressure, everything reads normal, even when warm the car drives like it did before she died

sorry for the long post, but i got jan's tune coming this satuday... i want to try to solve this before jan touches my car

i have a feeling its something along the fuel system, just the question is what, it might be interested to note the spark plugs havent been changed in 2 years.... probably time to order a new set and see what happens

 

Sometimes, fuel injectors that are not closing completely (worn out or crudded up) will drip fuel into the cylinders when the engine is off (residual pressure in the fuel system forcing gas past the injector pintles) which results in raw gas in the cylinder(s) during cold start. It's not enough to cause problems when you shut it off and then restart, just after it's sat for a period of time -like over night or while you're at work. Injectors can be pulled and tested at a shop.