First off id like to say thank you, if you are viewing this thread, and i appreciate any well rounded replies that may come my way.

Ill tell you a little bit about myself and my car first.

my car is a 1996 Z28 V-8 (6 Speed) Green Camaro 2dr coupe (T-Tops) that i just purchased for 4,800$ from a personal seller.

I am a single Marine, currently Stationed in 29 palms, CA.

I am very confused as to how or why, this happened to my car recently
I've had the car for about a week, and before i purchased the vehicle i wanted to make sure that the Clutch/Flywheel were replaced, which the seller had done, right after i purchased the car, at no additional charge to myself.

The engine was overheated before i bought it, and the original owner did the following to the vehicle at a GM Dealership, which he works at. The camaro only has 85,500 miles.

Complete engine rebuild.
new toyo procero tires, w/ZO6 corvette rims. 17.5 in the back 17.25 in the front (and now i cant rotate them -.-)
new distributor, spark plugs, and spark plug wires
new stock heads
new water pump
new thermostat
new clutch
new flywheel
Magna Flow 2.5' half exhaust (after the cadilitic converter) w/cleanable filter
new aftermarket stereo
new main bearings, new crankshaft
K&N cold air intake
U joints were checked for any "play" in them, they are fine.
oil change (non synthetic)
new gas cap

MY story (ill apologize for the long post ahead of time)
about 7 days after i purchased the car, and the clutch and flywheel were replaced, i got a check engine light (to my horror), so i got the code pulled and was told i had only 1, which was P1441.

which is the following:
Evaporative Emissions (EVAP) System Flow During Non-Purge

possible causes

(aa1) Canister Purge Solenoid
(aa2) Fuel Tank Pressure (FTP) sensor

so i took the car to a local and trustworthy mechanic, where he hooked it up to his 8,000$ computer.

He then told me that the canister purge was firing normally, and after a visual and thorough inspect of the engine, he cleared the code.

NOTE* i have had no problems starting the car before 02-22-2010 i have had the vehicle for 10 days at this point.

After the code was cleared he told me to start my car, which i Attempted to do, and all the camaro did was turn over, it would not fire.

NOTE* i noticed that the car was idling around 1k RPM's and sounded a little hoarse.

he then proceeded to tell me that "this makes no sense, i didn't even do anything yet" which i agreed, he had not actually done anything to the car, mechanically.

after about 3 tries, i got the car to start it went to 1 thousand RPM's and then idled momentarily and died, i repeated this process 3 times, with the same results. and then the engine just proceeded to turn over indefinately, and not fire.

I have had no problems starting the car up to this point, he then calls me over and disconnects the fuel line from the block, and has his assistant get into my car, and turn the engine over. He tells me that "if your fuel pump is working correctly, fuel will spray all over the place" i notice that the fuel line is steadily, but with little to no pressure, dripping fuel from the line. I have a half a tank of gas at this point, and my gas guage is fairly accurate, because i have had to fill it up twice, and have gotten roughly 225 miles to a full tank of gas.

The mechanic then runs a few more tests and has me cycle my ignition on and off 3-5 times while he has his ear on the gas tank, im assuming hes listening for the fuel pump (my knowledge of this vehicle is about a 5/10 with 10 being the best of course) he then tells me that "He'd bet his life on it, the fuel pump is not functioning correctly, and needs replaced)

now my question is this.

How does my car, after a simple computer reset,(which did actually clear the P1441 my check engine light does not come on anymore) cause it to not to fire at all, when no more than 45 minutes prior i had drove it to the mechanic shop, and now magically my fuel pump is bad.

this fix is going to cost me 735 dollars including the price of the fuel pump which i bought myself., 500$ for labor alone, since to my knowledge the fuel pump is inside the tank itself.

He explained to me that with the car in a "Starving for gas" condition it can cause lots of "False Positives" as far as check engines light go, he himself owns a 67 camaro SS which was there at his shop, that he showed me himself, and it was registered in his name, which i wanted to check because i like to have undoubtable proof of everything people tell me as far as mechanical work on my vehicles go.

I apologize for this extensive post, i just wanted to make sure that my story was told in full with as much detail as possible, 2 close friends of mine suggested the fuel pump when they heard me say P1441 was my error code,after i explained it to them and they are both Motor T in the marine corps, and work extensively on all Military engines, and hobby cars of their own (my roomate owns a 1997 Fire WS6 which also has the LT1 according to him) i am personally not a firebird fan.

Id like to thank any posters in this thread ahead of time for their insight to my dillema, before i spend 700$+ on this fix.

Thank you,

LCpl Legnosky-USMC

EDIT* accidentally posted this in the 3rd gen forums.

 

the computer will turn either the fuel pump or the injectors off if it wont start for like 10 or so seconds. cant remember for sure which. so why dont u change it? do the trap door mod, then u dont have to take the tank out, theres a sticky on here some where. thats if u have time. i will suggest u pick up a factory shop manual for your yr and model.
i just did a search for another guy a hour ago for a 96, heres what they look like.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...#ht_1376wt_715

 

The problem is, after the reset we tried for a few minutes, i was not aware that it would turn the fuel pump off for about 10 seconds, that is good information to know!

But in your personal, opinion, would it be worthwhile to just suck it up and replace the fuel pump since i've already bought it? Or is it just a fault from the computer? 750$ is alot on a Military Paycheck

Also i was reading your thread about your rebuild, and it looks great, I hope to have that kind of money one day to build something from the ground up. It would be an amazing learning experience.

Ive only pulled an LT1 on my cousins 94, and replaced a few things, mostly bolt ons for +Horsepower, they had an article about it in Camaro Magazine.

also now i have a Factory Shop manual in the mail, ty for that.

 

oh and yah it does have the sound of a bad fuel pump. and the computer does reset after a certain time. its so the car doesnt get flooded, securty is the only other thing i can think of that might turn the fuel pump off. are u getting a security light?

 

im not even sure where that is to be honest, as far as i know, no i am not getting a security light, after the reset the car initially wouldnt start, i was about ready to start smashing headlights =P (JK) it did fire though, which means it had to be getting some fuel.

But if the computere reset was done, could it have erased something on the ECM, and disabled the fuel pump entirely, or even the port injectors?

and does the "Computer" on the car go to factory settings by itself?. Any information you could give me before i pay the money for this would be amazing.

its just so confusing that i had no issues starting the camaro before the reset was done. now it just wont start at all and is sitting at a mechanic shop.

 

yah has some real shady sound to it all right. but it is posible and yah when u reset the computer it goes back to factory setting and starts learning all over again, the fuel pump will work and then not so good then work and do this for a while then go out and some just go. so it could be the day came. could try running a hot wire to the pump to see if it come on. oh and u dont have to turn the motor over to get the fuel pump to go on. its electric and comes on when u turn on the key. its that humming noise u hear when u first turn on the key. comes on for a few seconds until its primed and up to prssure then goes off.

 

im just worried this is not the actual problem, should i ask the mechanic to try and start the car again before he replaces the pump entirely? i really appareciate the feedback.

 

i would just to be sure, maybe have him put a fuel pressure gage on it to. only takes a couple minutes. should think about how many tools that money could buy. lol thats how i been getting my tools. figure i save so much so half of what i save goes to tools. it isnt working with my current build though. lol spening the same than if i had someone else do it but getting more power and a stronger tranny, headers are a bonus. lol. stay safe.

 

i'd also check that the pump does hum as craby says when your there and turn the ignition on but dont try to fire the car, if it hums the pump is ok

also if you give it a bit of throttle after when you try to start it does it start ok then but idle high or do you have to hold the throttle to kep it alive?

 

i also was wondering why a mechanic wouldnt just listen for the fuel pump and also why he didnt immediately put a fuel pressure gauge on it rather than "disconnecting the fuel line from the block".i have a fuel pressure gauge and i'm not a mechanic.a simple and quick fuel pressure guage check would possibly save a $700 military paycheck if that turns out to not be the problem.did he check the fuel filter to make certain that wasnt plugged?or adequate pressure before the filter?