EMK

This is my first post on here.
Heres what I have- 1999 suburban 5.7 vortec. Here is the problem- It was getting a little hard when it was warm out but now it getting bad. I have a remote start and it takes any where from 3 to ten cycles to start. It cranks fine, I here the fuel pump, pump up under the hood. When you sit there and let it crank you do smell fuel, and when it does start it has a little flooded stutter to it for a few seconds. My first thought was to change to collant temp. sensor, no luck. Last week I pulled the plentum off and changed the pressure regulator, put it together and it started right up, later that day it went back to the same thing.

I threw a pressure guage on it and hit the key it shot up to 61 pounds, when it started it drops down to about 55 and idles and runs fine, shut the motor off and the pump cycles and shoots up to over 60 pounds and instantly falls off to about 20 to 25 pounds.

One thing I noticed was the top of the spider, you can see it rise when the motor starts and it goes back down when it shuts off this is only about a 1/16 of an inch. when it was running I shot some starting fluid around it to see if I had a leak but nothing changed. I dont think it could be a leak any where because it runs like new when it starts, no misses or stumbles.

i see only two things, spend 270. on a pump because of the check valve. Or 350. for a spider because of the poppets leeking down?????? Either way would be a costly misdiagnostic. I don't have deep pockets.

Could it be another sensor I'm missing. Everything leads to everything on these vehicles anymore.

Thanks ahead of time........Mike

EMK

Well thanks for all that great usefull info, I ended up putting a fuel in it and that cured the problem.

Once again thanks for all the great replys.

Scoper50

Maybe somebody would have replied if you learned how to spell.