So I have a 1980 FI fiat spider 2000. It was my uncles back in the day and one day he pulled it into my grandmas garage and just left it. Here I come 25 years later and it's an eyesore at best. I took out all the gas, put in a new fuel pump, filter, oil, coolant, and spark plugs and battery. I routed a separate fuel line to a clean gas can because the tank was rusted with bad gas. When I turn in over it will sputter and fire up for a quick second only to die back down again. The car will run when gas is put directly into the throttle. I don't know if there is voltage drop with the pump when it gets going or what but i'm kind of stumped. Any advice would help.

Did you leave the cap off the gas can to let air in?

Yes

Chances are your injectors are clogged. I went through the same thing. Do a YouTube search of “1980 Fiat 124 Resurrection” and you’ll see a bunch of vids I put up. You need about 30 psi of fuel pressure, signal to the injectors from the ECU and a functioning injector.

Thank you! I watched some of your videos and they are very helpful. Most videos are of older models with carburetors and its nice to see one that is fuel injected. Did you replace your injectors or is there a way to clean them out without replacing?

I cleaned them by pressurizing the fuel rail just a little with brake cleaner. I had to kind of rig up a “system” of hoses so the straw on the brake cleaner can adapted (sort of) to the fuel rail. Just enough to pressurize it a little. Then I used alligator clip leads (wires) to connect each injector (one at a time) to a 6VDC source. I have a battery charger that has a 6v setting, and I used that. Then I squirted cleaner into the rail while quickly activating that injector with the 6v source. I kept doing that until the stream coming out of each injector was the same. Of course you have to take the injectors out for that. The other option is to replace the injectors, which is about $200 a set.