Hi everyone; this is my first post. Thank you in advance.

I'll go ahead and give you a picture of the problem, then hopefully if someone could tell me what this is and how to fix it:



After a long time sitting in very, very cold weather (down to -11F on some days, sitting for a good month and a half), my girlfriend'* 92 LeSabre would crank, but not start.

After several tries, I jumped the battery from my own running car, and it still wouldn't start. I waited longer while the two were connected, and it almost lit. And then, after about 5 minutes of charging, it started for the first time in months.

No spark issues, no fuel issues, just a worn-out battery. Success.

I leave the car for three minutes to tell the girlfriend that her car wasn't a goner after all, and we come back find black smoke wafting from the engine bay. Not as if the car was on fire, but enough for me to shout "oh, ****!" and turn it off. It smelled like oil, and was coming from the back side of the engine near the firewall. I'm assuming it was a leak from the valve cover that accumulated oil over that month and a half, and not something more serious. I'm hoping it will burn off in time.

But that'* not what'* really concerning me. When I shut the engine off, my girlfriend pointed an issue with what looks like a severed vacuum hose between the fuel pressure regulator and... whatever. I have no idea what it connects to.

Here'* a wider shot of the problem with the engine:



Some questions I have about this:

1) Were those two hoses actually connected at some point in time?

2) What kind of hose can I get to replace it?

3) Is that actually the fuel pressure regulator, and is that a hose to the vacuum system?

4) Would this have made it difficult to get the car to start?

Again, thanks!

You can pick up a generic vacuum line from any place like autozone or advance auto. Ya, with a vacuum leak and a disconnected FPR it could have flooded the engine. Replace the hose and see if that corrects the problem.

Hey, thanks there.

I didn't know if it was a generic hose or a specialty hose, and I wanted to know what I was getting into before taking it off and trying to replace it. It looks simple enough, but I just wanted to be sure of it.

I've had other opinions who said it was probably a flooded engine that made it hard to start, too. So that'* going to make my life a whole lot easier.

I would suggest buying a lot of vacuum line and start replacing it all. It will likely fall apart in your hand.

that hose looked like sometthing ate through it