Background on the car: stock with bolt ons and a 2yr old delteq setup.

Whenever I drove in a puddle or splashed the underside of the engine, the car would sputter and temporarily run crappy. Also, the car had a high rpm miss that would come and go. Finally, during normal driving, the car would stutter for a second then act normal, almost as if someone blipped the clutch.

Fast forward to yesterday, I'm at a red light and the car just dies out of nowhere. I try to turn it over and it idles really rough. I try to give it some gas and it doesn't rev, instead it has the a very intense backfire and smoke starts coming out from under the hood. So I pull over and tow the car home.

Tonight I decided to go down and take a look at the car. I get in to try and start it, and it turns over and starts and runs perfectly fine. So whatever was broken seems to have temporarily fixed itself, so I have no idea how to diagnose the problem, short of just driving it around until it dies on me again (would rather not to that).

Ideas? Suggestions?

 

The going through a puddle and car running crappy could be your MAF ingesting some water vapor. Do you have a CAI running into the fender?
It could also be the opti somehow getting water inside. Is the opti vented? If so are the vacuum hoses plugged into it?
A signature w/ year of car and mods would be ideal.

 

Car is a 96 WS6, so there's no CAI, just the ram air.

 

What about the opti? Are the vacuum lines attached or in tact?

 

Is it throwing any codes?

 

Everything seems to be intact on the opti.

As far as codes go, is there a way to pull codes without using a scanner on an OBD II car?

 

No... you need an OBD-II code scanner, at a minimum. But you can get one the works for $50 at Harbor Freight.

Check the harness connectors on both ends of the Opti harness. Look for a gummi blue corrosion on the one at the Opti, or other corrosion or bent pins.

 

how old is your cap and rotor on the opti.

 

My car did that one time after going through a teeny tiny puddle slowly. It died and I came back to it in a couple hours and it ran fine. So I called Chevy and there was a re-call that relocated a vacuum hose or fitting or something like that. I just gave it to them and they fixed it.

 

The cap and rotor are as old as the opti which is original (88k miles). I'm starting to wonder if the optical sensor is going out on the opti, since its not the cap and rotor because I am running a delteq setup. I am going to buy an OBD-II scanner from harbor freight this weekend and will pull the codes and see if there is any information there.

Otherwise, my only option is to install a new opti and see what happens.

 

Hey guys so I read the codes on my computer and I got

P0140
P0141
P0160
P0400
P1361


The interesting one is P1361: P1361 Ignition Control (IC) circuit high voltage (shorted or grounded circuit)

Any ideas if this would have been the cause of the car suddenly dying, then backfiring and dying again, and now working fine?

I'm a bit confused as to what to do next since I have the delteq setup and I'm not sure how to interpret the IC circuit.

 

Can we assume you have not hooked up the after-cat O2 sensors?

P1361 is one of the hardest codes to track down. The IC circuit includes the IC Module on the bracket front of the driver's side head. Sounds like a wiring problem. Could be the white wire from the PCM, a faulty ground connector on the IC Module, or a faulty Opti harness.

The PCM sends a pulse on the white wire from the PCM to "B" terminal on the IC Module. This pulse causes the coil to fire. When the pulse is missing for 8 counts, it sets the code. When the code is active, it appears to shut down the fuel system to prevent flooding.... so the code will cause the engine to shut down. The code will also set if the high and low resolution signals from the Opti are shorted to each other. Check the Opti harness connectors for corrosion or pin damage. Can also be a faulty connection from the IC Module to the coil.

 

Injuneer, it you gave me a few suggestions for the code P1361, none which included the delteq setup. Is it safe to assume the culprit is unrelated to the IC setup on the delteq? I just don't want to take the car apart tracing a problem in the opti/ignition wiring, while completely overlooking the delteq setup if its possible to be a problem too.

Is there any direct/discrete procedure to test what could cause the fault which throws the P1361 or is it basically running around in circles until I stumble on the problem?

Thanks for your help!!

 

You need to ask JC Hyde at Delteq how the unit prevents the code from being set, or whether the code will be set by some problem in the Delteq.

 

Just to give you guys an update:

I've been turning the car on every few days just so it doesn't sit for a long time without running.

It will never start the first time I crank it over. It will turn over for as long as I crank it. Then if I stop cranking and do it again, it will start up, naturally with a strong smell of gas that probably accumulated in the combustion chamber

What could be causing the engine to not turn over the first time it cranks but only the second or third time?