got a 1994 lt1 camaro a few weeks back and it had no spark.. the guy i got it from put a new coil on cus he thought it would solve the no spark issue.. IT DIDNT!...

so i got the car and tested the module above the opti.. it passed so i changed the opticoil and now my car has spark but wont fire up..

ive put new plug wires on.. and took my time to make shure they were right by looking at the diagram in a haynes manual...still no luck.. ive tried starting fluid.. and checked fuses and unpluged my maf and tried.. still no luck

i have not yet reinstaled the water pump hoses or radiator.. snice i just want it to fire up and dont think the fan plugs will make a differnce..

oh ya i even added a 1.1/2 gallons of gas just to make shure snice i have the car on ramps,,, its at a half a tank now.. and i hear the fuel pump turn on..

 

im having a similar problem...are you sure you have fuel pressure..and are you sure that your rockers arent to tight causing the valves to always be open?

 

I believe the OP problem is that the coil is not grounded.

 

will the computer keep an lt1 from starting or will it just shoot out trouble codes

 

Just a thought, but have you cleaned out the cylinders??? If you've been doing a lot of cranking with no spark, it could be flooded. Try pulling the two 7.5a injector fuses in the underhood fuse box and cranking the car over for a few seconds 3-4 times. Then see what happens. If you're getting spark, and you can hear the fuel pump coming on, that's what I'd try.

 

THANK U ALL FOR ALL YOUR HELP.. I FLOODED IT.. MY BUDDY PULLED THE INJECTOR FUSES AND WE CRANKED STILL WOULDENT START BUT SOUNED LIKE IT WANTED TO... THEN I PUT A OPTIMA YELLOW TOP IN AND THE MOTOR STARTED SPINIING REAL FAST.. ABOUT 10 TRY WITH THE YELLOW TOP AND THE CAR FIRED .... THEN STARTED UP AND I KNEW THERE WAS RAW FUEL IN THE CYLINDERS DUE TO ALL THE SMOKE

BUT MAN... A YELLOW TOP BATTERY WORKS REAL GOOD.
JUST BOUGHT A TOP OF THE LINE NAPA OEM BATTERY AND IT DONT CRANK NEAR AS GOOD AS A YELLOW TOP

THANKS

 

Glad you got it fixed man.

 

You should have a "RED" top battery. NOT the yellow top. RED's are starting batteries and YELLOW's are deep cycle batteries. Unless that is, you intend on constantly cycling the battery near dead and then bringing it back. But then the alternator couldn't do that anyway.

Oh BTW, OPTIMA's can NOT be charged with a conventional battery charger.

Also, anytime an engine is flooded, it's a good idea to at least check the oil if not outright changing it. "Souping" a cylinder is never good. That's why a good mechanic disables the injectors while turning over the engine to do a compression check. Not to mention it would mess up the compression readings. But that's not the point.

 

I think this is going to be about the first time I've ever disagreed with something you said. I have two optima Red Tops, and a few years ago went through a stint with a car that had a power draw that was draining the batteries. Yes, I killed a couple of Red Tops using the 12 amp quick charge on my charger. But......

I never completely got that power draw taken care of. So every few weeks I end up needing to charge a red top. I've been running like this for about 3 years now using the 2 amp trickle charge feature on my charger. Works like a champ, just takes longer. Still using the same two optima's I've had since 2003 now.

The charger in question is a $40 unit from Advance Auto Parts.

 

That's funny on several different levels.

The folks that sell good chargers like Snappy know the case. The fact that you have a charger that APPEARS to work at the moment does NOT mean someone else will have the same luck. Isn't it easier to just tell someone it shouldn't be done. So why chance it on an expensive battery. Just er on the side of caution and buy one that is safe for glass mat batterys.

It's also funny that was the only point that you disagreed with.

Not to mention "every few weeks I end up needing to charge". That too can be sign of a battery that got fried. But if not, shouldn't the problem be fixed?

One last note unrelated to your post. This guy has another thread going in which he did not have the frame ground strap connected near the ICM. Just wonder if it had anything to do with this "cranking" or charging issue? Would have been nice to know in this thread.

Could have been that there was no ground connected and thus the old battery could not be properly charged. Getting a new battery, just side stepped the problem until he found out where the ground was supposed to go. Now miraculously, the new battery fixed the problem. This is just conjecture mind you not hard fact.

 

Well, in my defense, I've spent COUNTLESS hours trying to find the drain on my car, and have never been able to track it down. The previous owner who was the second owner of the car had the same issue, if the car sat for more than about 2 weeks it would be drained enough to not start. I've just come to accept it and if I know the car hasn't been started in over about 2 week, I'll just trickle charge it for a few hours to full charge. I really have spent a lot of time trying to track it down and I left the car at a shop for a week a couple of years ago and even they weren't able to find anything. This has been the car on multiple batteries too (done as an experiment).

As for the charger thing, can you elaborate on the reason why you shouldn't use a regular charger on the Optima's??? I have learned that if you try a 10-12 amp or greater quick charge setup, they don't like them because I DID fry one. But I've found the 2 amp trickle charge to work like a champ many times. Just searching for more info, that's all.

And yes, I don't think I've disagreed with something you've said until now. Your advice on here is spot on in my eyes (99.9% of the time).