|
Two Ideas -
1. Does your car have a mass air flow meter? It sounds like it could be symptomatic of a faulty one. If so, my experience with my personal vehicles is the engine will crank, fire, and rev for a brief moment, then die. Some models will eventually figure out the sensors are out of spec, and will default into "limp-home" mode. 1987 sounds too early for this last feature.
How to test one? I don't know. Try to obtain a used one from a salvage yard to check if the engine will run. If so, order a new one for more money, unless you have faith in the one from the salvage yard (and the car is not used for wife & children).
My particular method consisted of cutting the damn thing open with a Dremel Tool and poking around in it; which was met with marginal success, at best.
2. From your statement the car sat idle for years, and your problem became progressively worse, I'm lead to believe you may have bad fuel. Although, this would not be consistent with the engine firing up, then dieing.
Drain the fuel and run it through a small engine such as a lawn mower (or my favorite - a 2 stroke margarita blender). If the lawn mower runs, then go back to your mass air flow meter, or whatever form of sensing air temperature, air flow, and throttle position your car employs. Chances are, connections in a sensor circuit just aren’t connecting. This happens when they sit for extended time. Although, this too, is inconsistent with the problem worsening the more the car ran.
|