Reaper816

Hello everyone! Im new here, i dont have a camaro, but i have her sister the firebird. I bought a "new" rebuilt 95 camaro LT1 with a cam to put in my 94 firebird. The shop that installed the motor says that now that the motor is installed in the car it will not run, it just POPS and dies? I went all out with this motor 30lbs injectors, headders, 52mm throttle bdy. the guy at the shop says it sounds like it is out of time. Is that possible with a computer controlled car? I did not ask him if it was throwing any codes. he said he was going to order another opti and try that? what could be wrong with the new already installed? I dont have another $400 bucks for that. its an gm with msd cap and rotor.

Injuneer

Welcome to CamaroZ28.com. I like to think of the Firebird as the BIG brother......

Who "rebuilt" the engine? Its very possible to incorrectly installl the Optispark distributor, and throw the ignition and injection completely out of time. From my experience, it may happen in 10% of the installs. First, scan it for codes. That will show if the Opti optical cam position sensor is working correctly. If there is a problem, it will set DCT 16 and 36 for the missing cam position info. If you don't have those codes, the optical sensor is working.

But it will not tell you if the Opti is indexed correctly to the cam. If you have a 95 engine, it will have the "vented" Opti, that drives the Opti with the cam dowel pin. There are 3 holes in the back of the Opti, and only one of them is meant to accept the pin, but with a bit of extra pressure, it will assemble with the dowel pin in the wrong hole.

I'm going to "copy" your post to the "LT1 Based Engine Tech" forum, where this sort of problem is usually discussed.

95Blackhawk

I assume the old engine was running? If so, this engine should run. No new parts until they have confirmed the basics...starting with Injuneer's suggestion.

meissen

Yup, I'd imagine it's the opti indexed wrong. I did it to mine on the 2nd rebuild and I hardly slipped it into place - it just went right in but it was the wrong slot.