Can someone tell me what happens when the plenum gasket fails on the intake? How does the motor react? Does it start or not?

The reasion I ask is because my motor wont start after driving into town just fine before. It is getting fuel and spark but it only cranks and wont fire. I dont know how to check if the gasket has failed other than by tearing it down and I would rather do that at home, not in a parking lot.

 

Shouldn't cause a no-start. Typical symptoms are misfires, pinging or knocking and high oil consumption. It might start after the engine cools down which would be a sensor issue.

 

The motor should continue to start (unless its in a very bad state of tune), however, the motor will burn oil. You can open the butterflies of the throttle body and look down into the bottom of the intake with a flashlight and look to see if you see oil in the intake. If so, you have a blown plenum gasket. If the plenum gasket has been leaking for a while, oil will end up harming the O2 sensor, fouling spark plugs, etc.

 

Nica, do you see any engine rpm when the engine is cranking? I that bet your crank sensor failed

 

Yes the rpm go's up slightly when I try to start it. It then drops when I stop cranking.
I think I figured it out. There is no fuel pressure in the fuel rail so I think the pump went out...

 

Before going through the painful exercise to change the fuel pump check for power on contact 30 at the fuel pump relay socket in the PDC. If OK jump contacts 30 & 87 and listen for the pump running. Just in case the relay or the control side from the PCM are bad.

 

I already tested the relay and it was fine. And just for good measure I took the horn relay and put it in the place of the fuel pump relay and visa versa. The horn worked with both relays. Also I can no longer hear the pump whine or prime the system when the key is turned to run, as I could before.
either way I won't be changing the pump because 1. I don't have the floor Jack to support the tank and 2. My back won't let me do repairs like this anymore...