1992 stanza hard start when warm.....

[McAdam]

I have a 1992 stanza with the manual transmission and it is an absolute ***** to strat when warm! It has NO problems starting when it is cold out or when the car has been sitting for longer than 45 minutes. When it pulls its little hisssy fits, it will start up and idle at about 600rpm for 1 sec and die. turn it off, and try again, and it does the same thing. I get a very faint odor of something funky. Its not coolant and its not gasoline. or at least its not gasoline to the point of fouling sparkplugs. it smells like gasoline, but not entirely. hard to explain.

ANYWAY... when it finally does start, it usually because I have to hold the accelerator all thw way to the floor and hold on the starter for about 10 seconds, then it finally sputters to life. at this rate Ill probably be through a starter in a few more weeks. coolant sensor? clogged fuel filter? what? Any advice?

[steve s14]

definatley sounds like there is a problem with fuel mixture being too rich when the engine is at operating temp.check the coolant temp sensor, take the clip off and pull the plug off and see if there is any corrosion in there. then using a volt/ohm meter, check the resistance of the sensor and see if it is within specs. it should be 2.1- 2.9k ohms at 68 deg f or .3- .33k ohms at 176 deg f.if that checks out ok, get a fuel pressure gauge and check the fuel pressure. it should be about 32 psi at idle and around 44 psi with the vacuum hose removed from the fuel pressure regulator.start with those things and let us know what you find.