I'm back yet again.  We're chipping away mainly at the starting problem
again.  You've seen it before, but I've got more details...

1988 Pontiac 6000 2.5L (124,333 miles)

My car did not want to start yesterday after school.  It took two tries to
get it to start.  The first time it turned over fine but died.  The second
time, it made a grindy noise (as if you were trying to start it when it was
already running) for about a second and then it turned over normally and
started.

Today, it did the same thing after school.  It turned over fine the first
time but did not start.  The second time, it made the grindy noise again but
then turned over funny after that.  The cranking sound had no pattern.  I
had to push the gas pedal down while starting the second time to get it to
start.

This always seems to occur when the gas gauge shows 3 / 4 or below - which
actually means half.  (As I've had similar starting problems before.)  I
always try to keep the gas tank full or close to full.  Where the gas gauge
is showing now is generally when I go back to the gas station for more of
that expensive $2.30 a gallon gas.  (They're gouging us by the way.)  Maybe
the fuel pump, but that was already done once on this car when my brother
had it nine years ago.  That would also be expensive and probably not worth
it - heck nothing's probably worth it on this thing with all it's other
problems.  Maybe the fuel pressure regulator - which also is probably
causing the stalling.  Then again, it may be timing related because it's
turning over funny and misses, especially when it's cold.

The car also always idles very high when you're warming it up.  I don't know
if that's normal on this car.  It's always done it.  I have no tach, but I'd
guess in the ballpark of 2600RPM at the highest point.  (It sounds kind of
loud for 2000RPM although the engine's loud to begin with.)  The engine
sounds like a lawn mower or sewing machine.  Once the car is warmed up,
however, it idles fine.  (RPM-wise anyway.)  It does miss badly at idling
sometimes especially when you first start driving it when it's cold.  It's
also funny how if I let the car warm up for 10 minutes it stalls almost
everytime when I back out of the driveway but when I let it warm up for 5
minutes, it generally doesn't.  (The main reason why it sometimes gets
warmed up for 10 minutes is because my friend that I take to school is
sometimes late.  Otherwise, I try to warm it up for 5 minutes.)  If I only
let the car warm up for 30 seconds for instance, that's when it starts
missing big time when you idle when you're stopped at a light or stop sign.
It NORMALLY (although not always) restarts when it stalls.

A very finicky car...