Exhaust leak causes running too rich to start when warm?

[85 time machine]

Hello everyone,
I am having recent trouble with my engine and I am hoping someone can give me their take on this issue. It began with the car nearly stalling on me at a red light. I had to play with the accelerator pedal to keep it running. I thought it might somehow be some bad gas with a bit of water in it. It went away- for a while, but came back once more about a month later. I noticed that my two stock exhaust pipes were tilted at a diagonal angle under the bumper. I found the weld where the exhaust pipes enter the muffler had rusted through completely, and the pipes were only connected to the muffler by a protruding piece of metal that had caught on the bulkhead of the
muffler. With no effort I can separate them completely. The original owner would periodically start the car but not drive it over his last 10 years of ownership. I have ordered an OEM stock exhaust with my local dealership and it (along with 9 others) is on back order with no date of arrival. I do want to try to keep this car stock.

Since I should run the car periodically while I wait for the cat-back exhaust system to arrive, I started it up (after a quick jump). I decided to drive it to the corner gas station to fill the tank up and give it a chance to be driven just a little. I had to leave the engine running whilst I filled up the tank to continueto charge the battery, when it eventually sputtered and stalled. It is here where I need some diagnosis.

I had my wife meet me there and give me a jump. The starter had plenty of juice now and cranked quickly but
the engine wouldn't start, it would nearly so, but would never fully light off (I was getting good spark). It is my guess it is flooding somehow. Can a completely separated exhaust system cause the fuel system to send too much fuel and flood the warm engine? I did eventually get it started after about 30 minutes of trying on and off to get it to run, and it did run albeit with a small shedder, until by accident I allowed the RPM to reach idle, where it stalled again. I eventually had it towed home. I should note, when the engine is cold it continues to start right up.

The other issue I had was during cranking. It would crank as normal and then suddenly seize, an ether suddenly resume cranking again. I read where an engine getting too much fuel might cause a seizure. So I removed the fuel pump relay and tried to crank the engine again. The engine no longer seized. Does this sound plausible or is this an omen of a future starter issue?

For some back ground info, I have a new O2 sensor, fuel pump, and my fuel injectors have been recently cleaned and tested. I have 47,000 miles currently on the car.
Thanks for your time.
Jamie
PS if anyone has a stock cat-back exhaust system for sale let me know. I’m in So Cal.

[demetk]

Put a pressure gauge on and see what the fuel pressure is. If it's pegged high I would look at the FPR.

[85 time machine]

Thanks for the reply,
The FPR has checked good.

[Justin and Dad]

We had a giant hole near the oxygen sensor that caused similar problem. We fixed our situation with a new exhaust,and were also replacing suspected faulty parts ie fuel check valve that was leaking and a for. When we completed everything the car runs normal now. In all honesty we weren’t sure what was causing it. But it’s better than Its ever been

[85 time machine]

Sounds good! I’m glad to hear this is not stemming from a totally separate issue in addition to my exhaust problem. Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m looking forward to getting it back on the road.
Jamie