Ignition Control Module ?? Theories?

So I'm getting ready to finally do some of the self tests on the ICM/Coil/Opti to nail down my "dies after 20 minutes of driving" issue.

I had done the "cooling mod" on the ICM thinking that it might help. Didn't seem to do much but maybe because the Module is already dying or dead. I've called the Chevy parts dept of the local dealership and the part is about $130 new.

How do the non-gm modules hold up?? I mean, do the other retail shops sell em and are they crap?? I'm my past I've shy'd away from electrical stuff "not bought from GM".

I also gotta look into the possibility of my aftermarket alarm interfering with the ignition. For those of you that know electronics better than the average bear(i.e..me), can you assume or think that I would be able to be driving my car for any amount of time and then have the alarm "disable" the ignition? I would think not, but again, I don't know for sure.

My issue mainly lies within the fact that I can drive the car, run it for a while and then it just dies out. I can sit on the side of the road for 10-15 minute and it will usually start right up. This for the most part has been really consistant up until Friday when I killed the battery trying to start the car after about 30 minutes of it sitting. Once I got a jump, it started right up and I drove it straight home.

It starts up great now and I've even thought of seeing how long it will idle in the garage before it dies to touch the ICM and see if it's just overheating.

Again, I'm getting ready to go out and do Shoebox's tests on all the ignition, but I'm guessing it's gonna be the ICM since it will restart.

The OPTI was supposedly replaced by the previous owner prior to me buying the car a while back. I've gone as far as taking the OPTI out and cleaning it up to see if there was anything going on inside of it. For the most part, it didn't look like it had the same mileage that the car has on it. (164k) But ..? I don't know everything.

Any opinions or ideas would be appreciated and if there's something that I should really be putting under the microscope, holler it out.

Thanks as always Team,
Ivan

Have you tested to see if you are losing spark when it won't start? If not, you may be wasting your time with ignition items. No point in doing testing when it is running. You won't find anything wrong.

It could very well be the fuel pump, but you have to test things when it is not starting. There's no real way around it.

Dying after 20 minutes of driving sounds like a bad fuel pump to me, I once had that same problem. My car died in the parking lot today and it was a faulty icm. I dug up this old link to quickly troubleshoot it:
http://www.mainstreamtopics.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=78
not much fun working on a stalled car in a busy parking lot!

Replaced the FP thinking the same when I initially purchased it.

The pump has literally less than 4 hours on it. Its a Walbro 255.

I'll check that link out.

Thanks,
Ivan

You still have to test when it's broke. New parts or no.

So I'm better off running it till the condition exists then test for failures....

-Ivan