That's just surface corrosion on a flat braided grounding strap. You can clean that off.

If both ends are making good electrical contact, it should be fine.

 

Well either way, I did in fact soak the ground strap in vinegar and salt overnight, then cleaned the wire and soaked it in water and baking soda the result is a perfect 000.00 ohms all the way through the strap.

And, before, it wasn't 1 ohm, it was actually 'no reading.' It was acting like I wasn't getting any current at all. My multimeter shows '1 . ' when both leads are exposed to just air or two non-conductive surfaces. It's got three digits left of the decimal pace, and two digits to the right of the decimal place in total. So now I know that I don't have a ground problem on this strap and I can move on with the diagnosis.


All clean and ready to go back on the car.

And with it back in the car, using my multimeter I measure 0.00 ohms from the CKP sensor wire to the ground strap. Before I was getting the '1 . ' no reading measurement.

So I think this is a good step forward.

I would test out the repair hut since I have the opti already off I want to check my timing chain to make sure it's okay. It does have 160,000 original miles on it, so maybe it does need replacing.

I've never taken the timing cover off, so I want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I start. I've had a leaking oil pan gasket for a long time now. Do I need to drop the oil pan to remove and reinstall the timing cover?

Even worse, do I need to remove the heads to install a new timing chain (or is there another way to know how the engine is lined up?)?

Thanks for all the help so far from everyone who has commented.

To recap:

1. My wiring now checks out. I fixed one bad ground, I'm getting continuity everywhere else.
2. My optispark was lined up to the cam pin correctly from the start. And after checking the opti with a scope, both sensors are showing good signals except the high res looked slightly funky (see video) but I think that has to do with my scope's 100mhz refresh rate because it gets better when I switch from 1x to 10x modes on the scope.
3. New CKP sensor didn't solve the problem initially. Haven't retested after fixing the engine-chassis ground strap.
4. This leaves the timing chain unchecked.
5. After fixing the bad ground I'm still pulling 10 volts at the CKP harness wires, and they have continuity with the battery so I think the wiring harness to the CKP sensor is fine.
6. My spark plug wires are obviously old.
7. My spark plugs are the OE Platinum AC Delco plugs, not sure when last replaced. They've been on the car for a long time now, at least for 20,000 miles and could be replaced. And there's a good chance I'm going to also need to replace my catalytic converters, so if my mid pipe and headers are coming off, that's a good time to do spark plugs.

Other issues:

I think my interior BCM is bad because the radio and power windows cut out over bumps.

My low coolant level sensor is bad and the light on the dash is always on regardless of the coolant level. With my radiator drained, now is a good time to replace that.

My transmission mount bushing is worn out and needs to be replaced. I won't be doing that right now (probably) because of money. But, I will be doing it immediately as soon as I can afford to do so. I've got strano suspension on the car, so I'll be going with the UMI transmission brace and torque arm; the one that moves the mount for the torque arm off the transmission and onto the chassis instead.

Finally, I have a patch of corrosion the size of a quarter behind the driver seat where the power seats corroded the chassis floor because my BCM had been bad for a while now and it had to sot through rain last year with the widows stuck down. So I need to chemically reverse that corrosion before it gets bad and unsalvageable. I'll probably be putting a vinegar and salt solution on that tonight to get that going.

 

Pulling everything needed to check out the timing chain is not very easy. You'll have to remove and re-install the crank hub when you're done, this is typically one of the harder parts and will either require some money or ingenuity on your part. The hub can be pulled off fairly easily but threading it on isn't the same story. You'll need to either buy or make a special tool to do so, you'll need some 7/16in high grade threaded rod. This rod isn't very easy to find anywhere, I had to order some online from a special rod store for about $20. Then you'll need some other stuff that can found in the thread here (https://ls1tech.com/forums/lt1-lt4-m...tall-tool.html), DO NOT pull the hub back on with the crank bolt. You run the risk of damaging the crank threads. It honestly sounds like the car needs a lot more than just a quick fix to get it back to good shape, from experience these cars are not cheap to maintain. If you just need a car to get back and forth from school or work, you may want to think of a different car as a possible option. You'd be surprised how quickly costs and labor rack up to the cost of a cheap commuter car. If you've got attachment to the car, I don't blame you. I have more attachment to mine than I would like to admit. The oil pan DOES have to be dropped to remove the timing cover, the heads DO NOT have to be removed.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I became aware of the reality of maintenance costs years ago, and yes I could never afford them. I can barely afford parts with DIY labour. The opti went out on me once during finals week two years ago. Big problem when I was living in an appartment near the college I was in. It really caused me to fail some finals I shouldn't have failed because of the time crunch/bad timing.

Because of this, I bought an 01' Toyota Corolla for $1,500. Then 1 year later the automatic transmission blew. I always blow transmissions on japanese cars. Anything I could afford to buy would be a complete liability to me at this point, except for something like an electric scooter or a bicycle.

But you are right. On the other hand, given my poor grades I ended up withdrawing from school anyway. So my earning potential is very low atm (most likely minimum wage max), and that means the Camaro is probably the closest I'll ever come to my dream of a 10 second exotic car. The bare bones are already here, especially with the koni-strano setup I've already got. The lt1 is the cheapest high performance engine around anywhere, except for maybe the Honda b18 found in Integra's.

An Integra is probably the only other car I'd consider tbh. And that could be a good car. But my brother let me drive an 89' Integra a few years ago, and wouldn't you know it the transmission blew. I don'g trust Japanese transmissions to hold up. Plus the Honda uses timing belts; really scary. The belts could snap and there goes the engine. But you do have a point.

I hear the Toyota Mr2 has a non-interference engine (and toyota's in general). That car might be worth looking into. But I'll be damned if the transmissions commonly go out. Plus let's be honest, a car like that is like $6,000. I can't buy one of those anyway as my Camaro wouldn't go for that much in its current condition anyway. I can get a tool/bolt for $20 though, so I think I should try that first honestly. If I'm making $2,500/month, yeah sure. I can save $5,000 and get a different car. But right now that's not an option.

 

I'm glad you understand it, I'd just hate to see someone dump a whole bunch of money into one of these cars especially when it's not financially feasible to them. I'm going to vote on the bicycle and using what's left of cash to go back to school lol, best of luck finding the issue.

 

Yeah that might be something to do. However, I still have my warranties on the sensors and on the opti. And now that I am comfortable doing the opti swap myself, I'll never need to spend money on another opti related problem again. Tonight I'm going to warranty my Opti and try throwing that on to see if it solves the code on the off chance. If it doesn't, I still wind up with a brand new opti. Nothing lost.

There are only a limited number of possible causes for the p0336. Ruling out the wiring is one possible cause that is now ruled out. If the warranted opti doesn't solve the issue, the next thing I'll look into is the timing chain. I could also warranty my duralast CKP sensor once just to see what happens, if I try a warranted new CKP sensor and opti and they both still cause the p0336 code knowing that the wiring is good then I'll know that either the PCM or the timing chain are bad.

For now I have time to get to the bottom of the issue, so that's what I'll do.

 

So I was installing my new warrantied opti this afternoon and the shop that installed the previous one tapped and repaired the bolt I broke the last time I tried this job 5 years ago.

Guess what, I broke it again. xD

I didn't realize I didn't line up the opti 100%, so I started torquing down the bolts to get it flush and one pops. Same one as before. SMH.

Good news is that it ran fine on 2 out of the 3 bolts the last time I did this, and it held up good for 5 years like that.

Bad news is, I just got it repaired finally because I don't have the tools to do that job and now it's broke again. Super annoying. Do the opti bolts screw into the aluminum timing cover? Or do they screw into the iron block past the timing cover?

I feel like I broke the bolt this way the last time as well. Though, this time the bolt didn't break, it just forcibly popped out of the hole after being partially threaded and took some threads off the bolt as it went. I can't get it to screw in by hand anymore, and I can't seem to get the thread started anymore. If I'm lucky, only the bolt was damaged and I can go to a hardware store and get a new version of the same bolt and it'll screw in like normal. If I'm unlucky, I damaged the repair tap the shop installed for me. :/

 

I'm probably extremely late replying to this thread I just joined thus forum recently. I just wanted to reply and state that whomever put the first optispark on and you kept getting this code. I was going to say make sure whomever did it they put the harmonic balancer on the correct way that will throw the code. If it's switched around its going to idle rough among other things but that will 100% keep giving you that code and leave you clueless.

 

It's not possible to bolt the harmonic damper (not balancer) to the hub incorrectly. The three arms on the hub are not equally spaced. It only goes on one way.

 

Sad thing is I could never figure out the problem and the car is still sitting. It's a miracle I've been able to prevent it from being junked for so long as I am not a property owner and have no where permanent to store the car. I legitimately don't know what's wrong with it and I honestly don't have the money to find out.

I could have bolted the balancer on wrong, but I thought there was only one way for it to go on in the first place.

 

Well, this is an interesting thread. I haven't been here in nearly a decade but I'm looking at getting going on my LT1 car again after I finish my grandfather's Ford pickup restoration so I stopped by to see what's new. Looks like the same problems are still floating around.

So the car is still dead... I think it might be that way because you haven't followed some of the advice that you've been given by people who really know what they're talking about. Have you replaced that crank sensor connector yet? You really need to do that. You can get a connector with a pigtail here. It's 11 bucks.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/123417361116?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc% 3A1MfL9PzHqSdW8pbhyR2hCsQ99&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkri d=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=123417361116&targetid= 1644837434523&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=905269 2&poi=&campaignid=20125739985&mkgroupid=1491288556 76&rlsatarget=aud-1314496317547la-1644837434523&abcId=9312975&merchantid=8214804&gcl id=Cj0KCQjw2qKmBhCfARIsAFy8buJLQY7VOkssLsjKCB0VsyP 4QLD4qMHPaht0jHCE2KB4BqksU-SAOpwaAm3AEALw_wcB

Get a cheap soldering iron, look on youtube to learn how to solder, cut out the old connecter, and solder the new one in. It's cheap, easy insurance and it might fix your problem. One of the pins might have pulled loose when your opti was being replaced and it's making an intermittent connection.

Doing an R&R on the timing chain is really not that difficult, it's just time consuming. A new single roller timing set is very affordable (less than $100 bucks). Get it from Rock Auto or your local parts store. Try another known good opti. I'm sure someone on this forum has an AC Delco unit you can buy for cheap. Replace the plug wires while you're down there. Again, they're cheap and can be easily obtained.

I understand being young and broke. In fact, one of the many regrets I have in life was spending just about every spare dollar I had on my LT1 car right after I graduated and got my first job. I probably should have been dumping that money into savings or something more worthwhile, but I was young and dumb and wanted to finally have a car that I could be proud of. Luckily, you're not going after a full restoration here and I think you're dealing with something relatively simple. Get out there and do something. Talking about it is not going to solve the problem. I see this a lot on forums lately. Maybe it's because of the social media culture we're mired in right now. I don't know, but you need to be methodical about diagnosing the problem, finding the root cause, and fixing it. Again, this involves action and not talk. Everyone here wants you to solve the issue but you need to help us to help you.

 

In my previous reply about the harmonic balancer. I meant put on wrong as in flipped around the wrong way. But as it turns out that actually wasn't the case on mine either. I did the exact same thing which is replace the optispark with a durlast gold from autozone. Same codes and runs a little rough not at cold start. I'm getting p0035 and p0036. It can't be the optispark I even tried putting the old still good Mitsubishi optispark from my old one in the autozone and still throwing the codes. I'm guessing it's a wire but if you have any ideas let me know thanks.

 

If you somehow managed to flip the damper (not balancer) front-to-back and somehow bolt it on, the pulley would stick out too far and the serpentine belt would not line up. 25 years here and I've never seen anyone manage to do that.

I think your codes are actually P0335 and P0336.

 

Your right about the codes. My phone automatically did that my apologies. So what would be causing these codes then? I've checked everything I possibly can I don't get it either.

 

You need to start a new thread of your own. Provide the vehicle info - year, trans, any significant engine mods, any recent parts replacement, miles on the car, what Opti? Describe the problem in detail. How does the engine run? When does the code appear, if you clear it how fast does it come back, etc.? Does your state prevent putting the car on the road because of this code? What specifically did you check - did you scan the PCM for “CKP:LoResolutionAngle”?

If all you want to know is the definition of P0335 and P0336, download the factory service manual (free), and read all the details, including possible causes. I tried to do that for specifically P0336 in post #4 above, third paragraph.

https://www.mediafire.com/?40mfgeoe4ctti

This thread is going nowhere….it's almost 3 years old. I've given up, I believe Shoebox has given up, because our specific suggestions were basically ignored. We were wasting our time. I only come to this thread now in my role as Administrator - I read every post.

Start a new thread.