A week ago I started my car drove about a mile and my car started popping like crazy, I was able to get my car back home. I have a Moroso CAI, MSD 6A, and Blaster Coil, electric water pump, other wise, the car is stock. I thought it was the MSD 6A, so I disconnected it and plugged in my the stock ICM. The car starts now after about 4 tries(no more popping), runs and drives fine except the SES light stays on, both my fans turn on as soon as the car starts, and every time I turn off car it always takes about 4 tries to get car started. Car has about 117,000 miles and I have had numerous leaks around the opti. Plugs and wires were replaced at 90,000 miles. My guess is the opti or the fuel pump, but I am leaning towards the opti because of SES light and fans. Any opinions would be appreciated?

 

Why not pull the codes? Interestingly, one of the more "fatal" codes (DTC 16) for loss of low resolution pulse signal from the cam position sensor in the Opti will shut down the engine, but does not turn on the SES light. In any case, if the SES light is on, there's stored codes and you need to retrieve them.

Then check the fuel pressure.

What exactly do you mean by "popping"? Do you mean it's misfiring? Do you mean there are "pops" in the exhaust under certain conditions? Do you mean its backfiring into the intake manifold?

 

If you would like to eliminate the fuel pump, connect a fuel pressure gauge to the schrader valve and tape the gauge to the windshield

What your looking for is when turn the key to the on position the guage reaches somewhere between 37 - 40 PSI. When driving the car around your fuel pressure should not fall below 37 PSI and at wide open throttle should be somewhere in the 40 - 47 PSI mark.

 

OK, I think I have found the culprit. The water pump gasket or bolt hole was leaking water on opti spark. The popping or backing firing caused earlier may be from water leaking onto opti. I will re-seal pump in morning and see if this fixes my problem. Do any of the auto part stores do a code scan for free? I went to Advance and they said they only do OBD II code scans?

 

Auto Zone does free scanning, But the one in my area only had OBD2.

 

OK, found the pump leak around the pump gasket. I am going to replace my original 117,000 mile opti-spark, cap and rotor with a Chandler Motor Sports life time setup. Even if the opti is not my problem, I just don't want to remove water pump for awhile and I am sure these optis don't live much longer(My car is 16 years old), plus if it is a fuel pump problem, I have a 255 lph Walbro sitting on my shelf ready to drop in.

 

Received my Chandler Motorsports opti over the weekend(fast delivery by the way). Switched out opti, remounted water pump, and put Dex Cool in. Turn key on and car started with no problems, SES light did not come and fans stayed off. Took it for a test ride and everything is back to normal.Thanks for everyones input, this site is great!