** 1981 eldorado 6.0 fuel problems! Any information will help!

[Jonathan Johnson]

Hey everybody I have a 6.0 4-6-8 1981 eldorado...I just bought it, it's in great shape. Been in storage since 2003, but after I bought it I noticed a few things,  I bought it knowing it has a running issue  it cranks but won't stay running. I'm not getting and electricity to the pump. I noticed after I bought it that there were 2 ecms in the trunk and the current ecm is just hanging down... not sure if that's contributing to my issues. But thought that was weird. I'm getting no fuel pressure as well. Any info would help thanks everybody! Oh BTW it looks like someone had replaced a bunch of relays and fuses as well..smh

[TJ Hopland]

What pump are you talking about? The fuel pump?  If so that explains the lack of fuel pressure. Where and how were you checking for power?

What do you mean by replaced relays and fuses?  They are cleaner and different than others?  Or did they modify things and use completely different model relays and or fuses?

Do you have a factory service manual?  Even without this problem its a good thing to have but this issue I don't think can be solved without one.  There are several on ebay right now ranging from $5-$40. They have a pretty plain silver cover and say Cadillac 1981 Service Information.

What other systems have you checked?   Do you know how much gas was/is in the tank?  How does it smell?  Can you safely get a sample to see condition its in?  If its really nasty it may be a good thing the pump hasn't run yet.  There were places that had ethanol 20 years ago so if the car happened to be from one of those places things could be pretty nasty. 

Later I will try and look at my 81 manual and see what the fuel pump circuit looks like so we can help you keep troubleshooting while you are waiting for your own copy of the manual to show up.  You do want to make sure the fuel isn't too nasty before we get the pump going.

Even if we get it going you may have to drop the tank anyway because at this age even if the pump is good the rubber line inside the tank that connect it to the sender will fail sooner than later if its not already failed. If there are any signs that the fuel is bad it may be worth just dropping the tank to clean it out and replace the line and test the pump while you are in there.