89 Taurus intermitent starting problem

I have an 89 Ford Taurus that has a troubling intermitent problem...

I have been through all of the Taurus NO START threads and cant find my particular problem.

HEAT is DEFINETLY a FACTOR.

If the outdoor temperature is above 80 degrees and the car is in the sun... It will NOT start... but if go out at night when it is cooler... It will start... (this has almost been full proof) If it is cooler outside and it starts, I will let it run for about a half hour to and hour... it dies and wont restart...

Here is what I have done thus far... At first, I thought it was the Ignition Module located at the bottom of the distributor. It failed in the past and acted the same way... I put it in on a 90 degree day... (at this point I didn't realize HEAT was the factor) and it didn't start... There is only about 5000 miles on the tune up, but I figured I would take that out of the equasion but taking off the cap and rotor and putting the old ones in... Still nothing... I never checked for spark at that point, but I thought I smelled gas... So then I started thinking the pickup coil ( I believe ford calls it a stator ).... so off I went to the parts store to pick their brains and they agreed that was probably the problem... so i bought one... went home... and couldnt get the stupid gear off the bottom of the distibutor... Wasted a half a can of PB Blaster trying to get it off and went through 5 different gear pullers... it was the original and the car has 187,000 miles on it... I got frustrated and went back to the parts store, returned it and bought a new distributor... this was a couple weeks later... dropped in the new distributor (on a HOT day ) and tried to start it... Nothing... next morning at sunrise... fired right up... Still had the problem... I realized at that point that HEAT was the PROBLEM...
After spending countless hours reading and re-reading the Haynes Manual and another forum (this one is SO much better than ABOUT.com) I saw that If the coil is bad and it gets hot, it doesn't produce spark... The parts store confirmed that and I bought a new one... Once again, it was over 90 degrees when I put it in, no start... :banghead:

I was clueless at this point on what the problem was... I checked for spark a couple of times at this point and it was fine... Then I remembered I had a friend that was a gearhead that lives out of state...
I called him and ran everything by him, he said it was probably a Bad Sensor that was Closing a Loop when it got hot.... and not allowing fuel to flow... It was 90 Degrees, I went outside, turned the ignition on and listened for the pump... I could hear it running... got in, tried to start it, and it didn't fire... Then I tought, why not spray some gumout into the manifold and try it... It fired... I repeated this 3 more times... It fired every time...

I know this was long winded, but I have spent a lot of time (3 months now) trying to get this thing running... I have never had to take a car to the shop, and I certainly don't want to start now... It is my work car and with the price of gas, I am tired of my 12 mpg truck killing me at the pump once a week ($70) last time... :disappoin

Any suggestions would be GREATLY APPRICIATED!!!

Thank You in advance

did you check your coil and how much fuel pressure you are getting??

The coil is new... It has good spark... No on the fuel pressure... Haynes says that ford uses a special guage to test that...

I second the suggestion of checking fuel pressure. It wouldn't surprise me at all if you have a faulty fuel pump from your symptoms.

I'm not positive on the "special" fitting for the '89 fuel rail. On my '98 Taurus, yes, I need to use an adapter to measure the fuel pressure, but the adapter came with the Actron fuel pressure kit that I bought at the local chain parts store. They probably have a loaner fuel pressure tester too.

-Rod

I second the suggestion of checking fuel pressure. It wouldn't surprise me at all if you have a faulty fuel pump from your symptoms.

I'm not positive on the "special" fitting for the '89 fuel rail. On my '98 Taurus, yes, I need to use an adapter to measure the fuel pressure, but the adapter came with the Actron fuel pressure kit that I bought at the local chain parts store. They probably have a loaner fuel pressure tester too.

-Rod

around here at auto zone and advanced auto they do not loan a guage so you can check fuel pressure they rent other tool's out but not the fuel gauge..i think they would sell allot more pumps but you can buy 1 at advanced auto for about 40-50 bucks...it's worth it in long run...like i said i think it is fuel pump my 93 ford probe had same problem when it was hot it would die but after coolling off it would start..
good luck....

RICK........

Thanks guys... I guess I prematurely wrote off the fuel pump because it was underneath the car... I will pick up a guage or drop the tank and do a continuity test... Or both...