Hello all, I am pretty new to the forums and I do not have too much knowledge with cars so I come here for any advice I can get.

About 8-10 weeks ago my 96' Camaro Z28 was not starting. Long story short had it towed to the mechanic shop. Five weeks in the shop and they called to tell me that they gave up on the car and suggest that I bring it else where. Brought it over to my mechanic friend house and we are kinda stuck as to what the problem could be.

The car is getting fuel, vacuum is working, and there is spark also. Tested compression also, all looked good
55 lbs or so on fuel lines
165 lbs compression

Took apart the front of the engine to check the timing chain ? Sorry if I called it the wrong thing, and was not loose at all.

Took the opti apart and looked at it, noticed that it had oil in it (not the shutter wheel side) and there were a few cracks in the other side.

We are thinking of replacing the Opti as soon as we can, I just wanted to see if anyone had more ideas or solutions, car has not ran in almost 3 months now

p.s let me know if i left any vital information out and I'll try and find it out for you. thank you all

 

Are you kidding?Have your car towed to a dealer,and get it fixed.Don't just throw things at it.My o2.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but the guy that I brought it to was the head mechanic at the dealership in town. Also there was only 1 code and it was lo voltage to the Mass airflow sensor, but it no longer gives that code for some reason.

 

From what you describe about the opti, that is as good a place to start as any. After you crank it and it won't start, check a few plugs to see if they are fuel fouled.

 

Thanks will do, should be hearing back from him tonight. He thinks that it could be delivering spark at the wrong time or something along that line.

 

If you have "55 lbs or so on fuel lines", its way too high. Preferred pressure, with the vacuum compensation line disconnected from the fuel pressure regulator is 43.5psi. Acceptable range of values is 41-47psi. Reconnecting the vacuum compensation line will only reduce the pressure.

"Vacuum is working" is not a meaningful statement.

What does "there were a few cracks on the other side" mean with reference to the Opti?

SCAN IT FOR CODES YOURSELF. You can get a cheap OBD-II code scanner for less than $50. You've probably wasted several times that amount in towing fees. Hard to believe that an engine that will not start is only setting one code. If that's the case, the most likely cause would be a loose rotor on the Opti. Were the screws that hold the rotor on still in place?

 

I'll double check with him on that figure as I could have heard it wrong.

Sorry was not aware of this.

Tried to find a picture on Shoebox's website of what I was trying to explain.
This had cracks inside of it around each termial and one on the around the outside.

Picked up a scanner the other day and scanned it myself and we both only got that code.

 

Have you tried starting fluid to see if it 'hits' at all? If so, could be a gas tank full of water or bad gas.

 

Tried that and nothing happened.

 

Is it possible the first mechanic removed the Opti as part of his attempt to fix the car? If he did, its possible he got the Opti incorrectly indexed on the cam dowel.

 

We checked that and reinstalled the Opti on the cam dowel correctly. We hooked up a noid light to check the injectors also and they were opening and checked the spark plugs. They were gapped a little too far so we fixed that but noticed that none of them were wet.

 

Turns out the coil was bad, replaced it and it fired right up , thanks for the input everyone!

 

Earlier you said you had spark, no fuel was getting on the plugs, but a new coil fixed it. That's a diagnostic tree wrecker.

 

Yea we took the fuel injectors out and made sure they were spraying. Then put tested some plugs on the engine block to actually see the spark. Apparently the coil wasn't providing a strong enough spark to let it spark under compression.