[sroosr]

I left a post about 6 weeksago explaing i have a 4cyl 1990 grand am that I had been using as a secondary car. I now want to give it to my niece. Here's the problem, I parked the car at the end of last summer and like a dummy I didn't bother to start it at all over the winter. I live in NW PA. and the winters are very cold. Six weeks ago I tried to start it with no luck. It would not jump start either. So I just bought a new battery. The battery was definetly (part) of the problem, but not all. It still won't start. When trying to start, it sounds like a car that's out of gas. It has about a third of a tank left over from last summer. So I put in 5 gal. of high grade gas and two bottles of dry-gas. Still no start. finally I tried the old trick of pouring about 1/4 cup of gas into the carburetor. When I do this, it actually starts, but it cuts off after 4-5 seconds. I've done this about 10 times and the longest was about 9-10 seconds. Also, once it starts that first time, that's it. Any attempt after that it goes back to sounding like a car out of gas. What you have to do then is add more gas to the carburetor and it will again start up for a few seconds. The process then just repeats itself. I'm no mechanic and I'm sure I could be wrong, but it seems as if that little gas I put in carburetor is just enough to fire and start the engine, but then for some reason it is not getting any more gas to keep it running. I feel sure it's a fuel problem, but not positive. My question is what suggestions or tricks of the trade i might try to get to the source of the fuel problem? Is there a process of elimination I should follow and what do I look for. Like i said I'm no mechanic, but I know my way around an engine so-so and no fear of getting in there and doing the work! Any help or suggestions would be very, very much appreciated. THANKS