The broken ground strap could definitely cause a problem. When you say broken, do you mean broken in half? A clearer explanation perhaps. If it was broken in half and you just fixed it with electrical tape there is a very, very good possibility that's your problem.

If that doesn't fix it, keep this in mind. A motor needs 4 things to fire:

1. Fuel
2. Air
3. Spark
4. Compression

Assuming it has those four things and the timing isn't significantly off it should at least start. Your car isn't even starting.

If your PCM isn't grounded, it would definetly cause problems like this, this sounds like a good possibility.

 

Yes, the strap was ripped in 2 pieces. I kind of pinched it back together with pliers and taped it... not a very good fix at all, but I was hoping it would hold until I got a new one somehow. I'm not going to attempt to start it again until battery is fully charged and I have a new ground strap to the ICM. But I do need some guidance as to what I should do about it since I know nothing about buying wires or anything like this.

AFA timing is concerned, I lined the cam and crank dot to dot, cam at 6 o clock, crank at 12. So I'm fairly postitive timing is not off, or at least not enough to keep it from running. I don't think my valve adjustments are off by THAT much either... probably nowhere NEAR perfect, but I would think it would run at least... All new plugs and wires, so I don't know how it wouldn't be getting spark. Fuel pressure is there too.

But what I really need now is the info on how I should go about fixing or replacing this ground strap...

Thanks

 

Was it so "tight" that you had to pull it on with the bolts? It is entirely possible to fully assemble the Opti to the front of the engine with the pin in the wrong hole.

Just a thought.

 

Sorry, I should been more clear when I said "tight". I meant that the opti was tight up against the block. I didn't have to use the bolts to pull it on at all.

But can anyone please help me out with ground wire? It's at the top of my list of things to do right now, but I have no idea what to do with it.

Thanks

 

You need to replace the ground strap. Taping it is useless. Take it to an auto parts store and ask them for the closest replacement they've got.

 

another option to going to the parts store is just making a new ground out of a pice of heavy gauge wire and a couple of wire terminals.

 

Alright, I'm headed to Pep Boys, I'll post an update later.

Thanks a lot

 

Well, the guy at Pep Boys said that they don't have anything close enough to something as important as this wire. He said it would be best to call a dealer and get a direct replacement. Which sucks because now I'll have to wait days just to get one simple wire to hopefully start my car

 

you get this thing going yet? i need to know what it was.

 

Nope. All I'm trying to do is just get this wire thing over with. I went to Pep Boys - they recommended I call a dealership - I called a dealership
- they don't have an exact part for this, so they recommend me to a shop that might be able to make a new one - the guy at the shop doubts it, but says to call a junk yard - junk yard doesn't have any V8 camaros - I post up in the parts wanted section and a couple people tell me that this strap is not that big of a deal and I could use almost any wire to replace it...

And that's where I'm at now. I guess I will try to get the closest thing I can to this strap from a parts store, but from what the dealer and all the people I've talked to say, it seems like this is a very important strap that needs to be replaced with an exact match. But now I hear that I can bascially use any good wire to replace it So basically I'm a little lost at this point but I think I might try to just get a terminal similar to the one I have now and just put it on the end of the broken strap because the break occured at a point that is still easily close enough to ground the ICM.

I'm HOPING that by the end of this weekend I can at least TRY to start it again. With the way things are going, the tuned PCM I bought from Ion a couple days will come in before I start it, so maybe that will help out as well, seeing as I went from stock injectors right to 38# injectors with no tune.

Thanks for the concern though, I'll keep updating as things come up.

 

How did you adjust them rockers,pull the valve covers check the valve stems you might
have some bent valves on your cyclinder heads.

 

The braided copper straps are used because they are flexible, and will not fatique when the motor moves. "Electrically", as long as you have an adequate area of copper wire connecting the two points, it doesn't matter if its a braided strap, a solid wire, a stranded wire, a bare wire, an insulated wire, etc. Get the heaviest piece of wire you can find, that will fit under the bolts, and use it temporarily to verify that the broken ground strap is or is not the cause of your hard starting.

 

I'm REALLY hoping nothing is wrong with the valvetrain, cam or anything mechanical like that. I've been waiting for SO long to do this swap and I really want to reap the benefits soon with no mre problems. It would be nice if, worst case scenerio, I just had to go back and readjust the valvetrain. But I'm hoping its just this wire.

Thanks for the clarification. I had so many mixed thoughts on this issue. Someone on the boards told me that this ground to the ICM would not cause a no-start issue, but it seems like, from previous posts on this thread, that most of you think it could very well be the cause. I mean, I would think if the ICM was not grounded, or at least grounded better than I had it with the electrical tape, that the car wouldn't start since the ICM and coil basically kinda control the ability to start the car... hence the name, ignition CONTROL module. I could be wrong, but it makes sense to me that this wire could be the culprit... And I'm praying it is

 

Make sure your battery is fully charged. The computer needs it to work right. Do like injuneer said with the ground wire. Then you can rule out the ground wire. You are going to get alot of opinions on here. It is hard for a new guy to know who to trust. Injuneer is one of those who knows his stuff. You might also make sure the opti harness is pluged in good. Good luck

 

UPDATE: Went to Pep Boys and looked around the store myself. I found almost an EXACT same strap as the one I need... the guy I talked to last time acted like they had nothing good enough for it. So I took the wire home, slapped it on and tried to start it.

Well I can say that it definately felt MUCH better, but still no start. The "popping" I mentioned earlier was way more frequent. I could tell it REALLY wanted to start, but just kept popping. I'm thinking my best bet at this point is that I screwed up on adjusting the valvetrain. But first, what do you guys think about going from stock injectors to 38# injectors with no tune? I mean, is there any special thing I maybe should of done when installing new injectors that I didn't know about? All I did was lubricate the o-rings like the intructions said.