An opti is the distributor.

 

no offense, but if your son cant drive the car without putting gas in it, he shouldnt be driving it. im only 20 but like my dad says, if you cant put gas in it, dont drive the sob. my camaro belongs to me, and my dad occasionally drives it, but i always get it back with equal gas or a little more, and vise versa.

but enough of that, i agree, either the opti or your wires

 

OK, so how do you go about finding a bad plug wire if it only happens when you're under load? Changing out the plug wires isn't exactly a 30 minute job (first time under jack stands it took around 5 hours)

As far as my son running the car out of gas goes, yeah, I agree with you, in principle. OTOH, I don't think that has anything to do with my problem (really think it's ignition), and brain-dead 18 year old kids have to learn lessons somehow.

Thanks for the responses, and have a good one,
Mike

 

You can test them with resitance with ohms but thats near impossible unless you know the manufatures exact readings as I have been told in the past. The best way, do like the rest of us and change the wires lol. On the bright side, maybe this time will only take 4 hours.

Oh and I wouldn't call my own son brain dead lol. All in good humor of course.
Hope this helps,
Oxy

 

Oh, I wasn't singling my son out; I'm convinced ALL 18 year old guys are brain dead, especially in the area of judgement.

Son on phone: "Dad, I ran out of gas, but I got a friend to help me out and I'm home now."
Dad: "Son, are you out of money?"
Son: "No"
Dad (puzzled): "Then why didn't you put gas into the car????"
Son:"I didn't want to spend my money on gas."
Dad:"So instead you ran the car out of gas. So, are you going to fill the car up now?"
Son: "Well, no, that costs too much."

We were on this merry-go-round a few more times, but he finally got the idea that gas is gas; if you've got the money, FILL UP THE CAR.

Anyway, the Opti should be in today; with a little luck we'll get it done this coming weekend.

Have a good one,
Mike

 

Not saying it is the opti but I have had a slight misfire since I bought the car and tried plugs & wires with no success. Just put on a new optispark this weekend and that cleared it all up!

 

an ohms test can sometimes point you to a bad wire if the internal resistance has changed. but like stated earlyer it is difficult to tell. if you assume that not all of the wires are bad you can judge it faily well by assuming the longest wire will have the most resistance, and the shotest wire will have the least. any wire not following that pattern could be assumed to be bad. the problem is you can ohms test a bad wire and not detect it. if the problem is a tiny break in the insulation or a carbon trac the ohms test will turn up good. there is really no good way to tell if the wires are bad for shure. but they are fairly cheap and might be good inshurance if you are already going through the trouble of changing the opti.

 

My last wire change took about an hour - that's what 35 years of
shade-tree mechanic-ing offers you Of course, it helps to have
headers and the car 18" off the ground.

Tonight, after the sun goes down, start the car up in the garage, and
have your son rev the engine up (think load), and use a sprayer to
mist some water on the wires/plugs/opti and look for "sparks".
(Do this with the garage lights off).

You have checked the ohms on the wires, right? I would also check
for a loose spark plug(s). I'm not saying it's not the opti/cap/rotor,
but it could be something a lot simpler.

Also, have you checked the seal along the intake plumbing? Check to
make sure the seal is good where the elbow wraps around the
throttle body and back to the filter. Also, check all electrical connections
and vacuum lines.

 

Man, those headers must make a huge difference. The '94 y-pipe has to come off to get the shield off the #7 wire, and the pulley has to be pulled off the power steering pump for all the passenger side wires.

Not a bad idea. I've got the Opti home right now, but it would be an interesting experiment.

No. I've never understood how a simple DC resistance check would find anything other than the grossest failures of a plug wire. I have measured the resistance of really ratty wires that were arcing (you could hear it with the hood closed) when I was replacing them, and the DC resistance was virtually identical to the new wires I was installing. The high impedance, high voltage environment that a plug wire operates in doesn't translate well into a simple ohm check.

Yes to all the above, and everything checked out good.

With any luck I'll get to it this weekend and let y'all know.

Thanks again, and have a good one,
Mike

 

Good luck with the wires and opti! Hope things work out for ya, let us know!

 

Exactly. I wouldn't check them to ensure the resistance is correct,
but that there is continuity.