Hello Everyone, I come to this forum bearing quite possibly the most frustrating god awful troubleshoot i've ever come across. I will explain to the best of my ability in hopes somones out there is suffering from rain man syndrome and finds something i might of missed.

I have a 1996 camaro z28 with 104kmiles that never gave me any problems. Sitting at a light one hot day I thought i smelt someone cookin. I realised i was smelling burning plastic, and thought someone poor unfortunate baztard around heres stuff just caught on fire. Upon further investigation i realized everyone was looking at me. Next black smoke poured through my A/c covering my face in it leaving me lookin like a racoon. Somone saw what was going on and put the fire outwith extinguisher within 2 minutes.

Getting the car home the damage noted was burnt fuel lines, and a few injector pigtails. Both of these were replaced and the car ran fine again for a month. Trying to make it back home 1 night I was running low on fuel, I knew I wasnt gonna make it home or the gas station, and sure enough the car sputtered and died on me. Put 5 gallons of gas in it and it cranked over but did not start.

So far, I lifted up the fuel rail and my injectors were not spraying. From here a wild goose chase started. A computer diagnosed threw a code for the opti, that was replaced with a new one along with water pump. Still no spray, the fuel pressure at the rail is solid at 45 on prime AND crank. I figured my injectors clogged so I replaced them. The new injectors are now spraying, but still no start. Pulling a plug I can see a solid blue spark jump, a noid light shows all injectors pigtails are getting a good pulse from my ecu. So spark is there, fuel is there but this thing will not start for the life of me or my wallet. All fuses are good, and spraying ether in the intake will not start the car either. VATS is also not the issue as that was adressed early on.

This leads me to believe there is something going on with the cars ignition, or theres some kind of sensor in these cars that keeps the car from starting despite having fuel and spark. I just dont know where to look, the wiring harness is getting signal to all areas, my injectors are working, my plugs are getting spark. Would someone point me in the right direction? 3 local shops failed at helping, 1 gave me a opti diagnosis (wrong) 1 shop wants $2000 , the other wont even touch it.

My names Brian, sorry for a non formal introduction, hope I find some help here.

 

try your coil and ignition controll module, sometimes you can have spark just not good enough to start it, the lt1 MUST have very high voltage to the plugs to start,

could also be that it jumped time, a chain might have been loose and jumped, or a gear slipped

 

Is there a way I can test the coil/ ICM before going out and dumping more money not being sure? The spark I saw off the plug was not weak. I did consider the timing slip but I dont see how that could of happened from running out of gas. Worst yet I dont know **** about timing or how to check it.

 

Go through this first:

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1...d-opti-601565/

then:
http://shbox.com/1/coil_testing.jpg

Then I'd suspect ICM, and also start checking all grounds and by checking I mean - remove, wire brush, reinstall.

It's cheap and so I'd replace the fuel filter also.

Also, you ran it out of gas, so you might've burnt up some spark plugs. Although you're feeding them spark they might've ran too lean and cooked. Pull a few and check them.

Good luck!

 

he has a point, i had the same thing happen to me, i ran out of gas and baked 4 of my plugs, it would stumble like it wanted to start but just wouldnt,

and as for the icm and coil getting tested, he supplied the coil test link, but the ICM you can have tested at any auto parts store just about, like autozone, advanced auto, (altough advanced was the only one that could test mine)

so i would check there,

 

When you installed the new Opti, did you Loc-Tite the rotor screws before you installed it? Is it aftermarket or OEM? Are you sure you have the cam dowel pin correctly indexed to the hole in the back of the Opti?

 

My first guess would also be the indexing of the opti, however, I would think you'd hear something like it's trying to start. at least a kick every now & then.

My second guess would be to check your compression, don't know how it might have gone bad, but if you don't have a good seal on your cylinders, it would appear as not to be firing.

 

Thanks for the ideas guys, I had the coil checked today with ohmmeter. Normal is .15 - .6 , mine came back at .4 so I'm assuming coil is good. The ICM could not be tested at autozone, so I will try advanced next. The spark plugs fouling did occur to me and I imagine its the only suspect left.

I am pretty sure the opti went on correctly with the pin in proper place, and it does kick a few times when turning over, just doesnt start. There is also spark at the plug wires. A local mechanic here keeps saying the fuel pump is the culprit, but if im getting good pressure at the shader on crank, and injectors are opening how could that be?

 

i had a similar probem with mine there was some ground wires next to coil that wasnt getting a good ground just a thought

 

I will double check those tomorrow morning. On a sadder note, I decided to sell my car for $2900 tomorrow evening and take a hit on it. I loved driving it but its become a huge headache